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Thanks Ludd
Just the usual riders then who have no regards for others. I had the misfortune to get caught up in a Sportive recently and had similar experiences.
I'll probably ride if I can sort out getting home...I'll be wearing Eagle kit. Give me a wave when you go past
Eagle_Glenn-
I've only done a few DDs, so it may just be luck, but the couple of times I've left London Fields a bit later - after 9 - I've been around more people doing it for the chilled out lol than those smashing it.
Despite the downsides it's still well worth doing if you haven't before. If the weather is nice it's a magical adventure and it's totes doable fixed, very few hills up or down so 65-75 GI works very well.
If you're worried about getting home consider driving up to Dunwich the day before, parking up and riding to the station to get the train down to London. It'll feel like a load of faff at the time, but on Sunday morning when you're cold and tired and you just want to get home it will suddenly become the best decision you've ever made.
Last year I decided to go without a plan to get home. I arrived at the beach in the rain. Stood around for half an hour considering my options. Rode another 35 miles to Stowarket (in the rain). Missed the train to Cambridge by one minute and had to sit around in my sodden clothes for 1 hour 59 minutes waiting for the next one. It wasn't all that much fun.
Hefty
Here's what I said when asked about this the other day. It's just my subjective take on the ride, other people may have a completely different and perfectly valid take on it and I may have given in to the temptation to engage in some unjustified mud-slinging.
Sorry if I sounded a bit negative - I'm sure it'll still be a really fun ride, but I've seen it change from a really laid back and co-operative ride of a few hundred people into something less appealing. Just a few examples:
(a) riders stopping without warning (no signal, no calling out, no looking over the shoulder) to get an energy gel out of their bag before we've even reached the M25;
(b) riders not paying attention and slamming into my back wheel when I've done an emergency stop because of (a) above;
(c) riders littering the verges with gel wrappers,
(d) riders peeing in people's front gardens,
(e) riders stopping at every junction because they can't be bothered to read the route sheet or look out for the arrows,
(f) riders following you when you deliberately take a diversion to Cretingham to avoid the crowds,
(g) riders stopping in huge crowds in the middle of the road outside the pubs in Moreton and Fyfield and blocking the road for other riders and for motorists,
(h) riders generally disrupting the peace of the night, and in particular stopping outside people's houses at 4am and having loud discussions about directions without thinking about the people they're waking up/keeping awake or about the other riders who might otherwise be enjoying the peace of the ride,
(i) groups of club riders hurtling past too close for comfort and then crashing spectacularly when one of them drops their bike light,
(j) riders with lights that replace night with day and take away half the magic of night riding,
(k) the queue for breakfast at Dunwich.
But there are still fantastic bits:
(l) pausing with another rider while he fixes a puncture, and a barn owl swoops past us to have a look at what's going on,
(m) the candles in jars as you approach the food stop,
(n) families who set out their chairs in their front gardens to watch us go by and cheer us on,
(o) yoofs in cars in Epping who ask us where we're going, and are genuinely speechless when we tell them we're going to the seaside,
(p) those magical last few miles over the heathland between Darsham and Dunwich as it's getting light,
(q) the occasional penny farthing, unicycle etc
(r) being able to stop for a pint of Adnams at the pub in Finchingfield and watch the ride swooping round the village green and up the one tiny steep slope of the whole ride,
(s) having the freedom to wander off route for peace and quiet from time to time,
(t) sharing the experience with a constantly changing mixture of friends and strangers,
(u) lying on the beach at Dunwich and listening to the peaceful chatter of tired riders, the waves on the shingle and the calls of seabirds,
(v) being taken out for a pub lunch by your partner and then driven home.