Ride London 100

What's the going day rate for an event like this?

Marianne Vos's strava for anyone interested:
http://www.strava.com/activities/178137763#4162596644

Sadly I didn't see Vos on the way round but I overtook Laura Trott!*

*she was at the side of the road with a mechanical/puncture.

repped

Agreed on the prices front. I was looking at a pal's from last year a few weeks ago and the download price was £24.99. So either it came down a lot with time... or it's gone up a lot.

The problem this year seems to be that there aren't a lot of pics (one of mine appears to be a tall bearded bloke and I'm none of those) and it's pricey. I'm guessing they'd get more take up (and therefore a similar amount of turnover for what are now fixed costs) if they had made the bundle £20 or £25

Was so epic!

Enjoyed it so much, went round in 3.59, 21.5mph which I'm pretty happy with!

And raised over £1K for Mind!

Wow, it's so terrible you got rained on and had to slow down to deal with the weather conditions - the rest of us sauntered into London under a gleaming sun and saw not a hint of bad weather.

Erm, the graph I posted kinda shows everyone rode at their level of ability, on average. Yeah, some people may had gotten held up at points but the lack of lumpiness suggests it all came out in the wash. Pun unintended.

Maybe it's because I do more touring/audax than sportives, but my basic understanding is that you dress for the weather and then it's mainly just a case of doing what you normally do slightly slower so as not to crash. Yeah, the weather as insane - but riding through all that shit put a smile on my face. Fuck you, god, with your pansy thunder and floods! I'm on a bike, motherfucker, try stop me.

PS - if it had been dry the graph would likely have skewed faster, but the shape of it doesn't suggest that a significant bunch of people got held up at some point, as that's translate into more stepping I think. I'll try to do some better analysis on splits when I next have a hangover and nothing better to do.

Blockquote

So you attacked when she had a mechanical? Real classy.

''Marianne Vos's strava for anyone interested''

Elapsed time 3:31:37

Max heart rate - 166bpm

I didn't say it was terrible that it actually happened; just that it was a shame because I didn't get to fulfill my training's potential on the day. Is that alright with you? Can I lament that things didn't work out as I hoped? Or am I obliged to take perverse pleasure in my (relative) suffering?
I'm no hard guy, okay, and conditions like that have me under the cosh. I dressed for it, but unless I wanted to sweat like a bastard under waterproofs, I had limited protection against a level of precipitation that I last saw in the tropics.

I just remembered the man who was quite literally foaming at the gash with bits flying off behind him haha! Fairy liquid as chamois cream?!

You did fulfill your potential on the day. Just in the weather conditions that there were. It can't be sunny all the time.

No, I didn't fulfill my potential on the day at all: I felt too good by the end of it; I under performed because I was too concerned about crashing or developing hypothermia . In hindsight, I just have just gone for it. I would have been better off doing that, in fact.

I'm well used to the vagaries of the weather, but this was something else, the sort of day you don't expect at the time of year. Rather than testing my endurance, it simply tested my ability to put up with the cold and the wet, like an autumnal hike across Dartmoor might do. I didn't sign up expecting that, but that's just my bad luck.

Bit late now but next year why not organise a few friends into key positions on the route to wait for you and take pictures as you pass. You may need to pay them for travel and time and they might miss you in one or two spots as you pass in a bunch but it would certainly save having to pay a professional 33 to do the job for you.

REPPED @cliveo

Missing the point...

I really didn't think it was cold? wet, yes, but not cold. well, except for standing around in richmond park for 20 minutes, I was stamping my feet then.

For anyone who's interested I wrote a full report, which is an extension of my post above:
http://www.the5thfloor.co.uk/2014/08/13/ride-london-surrey-100-2014-by-daniel-slotte/

Dress to be warm, waterproofs were a no no for me. Saying that, got really cold at the end as the heavens turned it upto 11.

How many BC points do I get for being 117th?

Great write up. Somewhat jealous, was in the 6:15 wave but not sure I'd have hung in there as well in the 6:00.

It sure as hell hammered it down at 9:30! Was chattering too, a broken spoke on The Mall (lucky I guess) made for a v.slow ride home. Felt for the people heading out on the return to Kingston!

Thanks! To make 117th from a 6.15 start is extremely impressive. I think the main reason I got a highish placing last year despite being in the B wave was because the lead group had been incorrectly lead down the Blackwall tunnel, and I ended up joining up with some as they got back on the actual route.
If you have a mostly flat sportive route (e.g. Prudential, Etape Caledonia) being in wave A is pretty much essential to have any hope of making the top 100. Less so with a hilly sportive.

I'll have to put down a better predicted time next year.
I'm not clued up on Watts but looking at Strava there was a guy in our paceline who pushed out a 266w avg, he was an absolute machine & gets the credit for a 3:31!

It all depends on the riders weight, for how long, and whether you are referring to average power or normalised power (known on Strava as Weighted Avg Power). This post would be too long if I start explaining the difference!
My average for the entire ride was 225W, and my normalised power was 263W. The normalised power is a better approximation of the effort over an entire ride.

208 average/239NP for me: http://tpks.ws/yKO3

I went much, much slower than you did (rather obviously).

I see your point - I suspect I could physically have ridden faster than I did, but was being cautious because I didn't want to end up in a crash. I have a friend who did crash and broke her bike, so I'm okay with the compromise I made. And everyone else out there had to make their own risk judgements in the abnormal conditions. Mental attitude to unpleasant weather is just as much a part of a cyclist's form as their physical condition - look at Wiggins picking his way down wet descents when he's spooked and what that does to his times. In my opinion of course. Anyway, sorry my first reply was a bit snarky, but your post did sound a bit like the rain only happened to you. No hard feelings.

I was a little upset by being held up en route, but tbh I had such a fun day, I don't really care.
I am quite upset that I'm only in 8 photos, whereas D seems to have hundreds... Admittedly my label fell off, but the majority are in the 'finish straight' which doesn't appeal to my vanity at all...