Ride London 100

Presumably they just rolled your fundraising commitment over to the next year as well?

Lol. Alright.. Red gloves, black lycra, red and black merckx.

Yes they did. This was for the Mental Health Foundation.

Great, that's reassuring. Thanks!

6:00am start time. Want to go sub 5hrs.

Shouldn't be too hard. Might need to fight to join a decent group for the first few miles, but usually settles down by Richmond. Sit in the bunch for a 4:30.

Sub 5 is my aim this year too. Not riding a 200k Audax the day before should help, struggled with cramp last year. Planning to carry enough food and water to avoid stopping too, the stops were a timesuck last year.

How much, and how do you, carry water for a 4/5 hour ride? I got a 6:11 start somehow, so am keen to try harder this year. Less stops is obviously an easy gain.

Just Bear Grylls it?

Spend the two days before hydrating, chug a load of lucozade before leaving the house, and survive on two bottles.

Am also aiming for no stops. Did this a couple of years ago and got 4.57 with three fairly leisurely stops... ergo hoping for sub 4.40 without.

What, like just recycle my water? Obviously not the squeezing of liquid out of camel's stools??

Ah, good tips. That will work I reckon. I managed 4:45 last time with 2 stops, so am looking forward to caning it this year.

I think there's three of us in the same wave, and another behind. Could be a little LFGSS TTT. At least until I crack at mile 20.

Sure, I'll also be in black, on a black and red Felt.
My main tactic is wheelsucking. And then overtaking on the very far right edge of the road. Seems many people stick to the left even though it's on closed roads.

0628, Blue wave D start for me. Still unsure whether forum jersey for the fit & quality or HEMS jersey because I'm riding for them. The HEMS one does have bigger pockets.
Also wondering whether I should fix a rear brake to avoid any risk of being scrutineered off. From the sounds of things it seems unlikely they'll spot it but it would royally suck if they did.
I'll be on the omnomnomium being overtaken by all the carbon. Say hi!

8:48 start for me. Gives me chance to sleep in :-)

Aiming for 8 hours, zero stops, one drink and one pack of jaffa cakes on the go. Gonna take it nice and leisurely on my charge plug.

At least there will be no one behind to overtake me!!

I did it in 5:21 last year with a start time of 06:45:00, which included two toilet breaks and without riding in any organised groups at all. My preparation then was hour sessions on the road circuit at Lea Valley velopark at 20mph average on my own for an hour one or two times a week, plus quite lot of hill climbing in preparation for a trip to the Alps last August.

This year I'm faster on the road circuit (21.5mph on my own in wind). Starting at 6am I'm going to really try and ride on some wheels where I can and hope for good weather to bring me in under the 5 I'm hoping for. I don't think I can avoid needing at least one toilet break. Maybe I need to think a bit about when/where to do that in order to minimise the time it takes.

One thing I'm not looking forward to is some of the descents. Last year I saw some very shaky top-tube descending into blind bends. This year I wonder if we'll see anyone 'Froom'ing'?

Last year my gearing was 50/34 on an 11-25. I've had the 11-28 on there since I returned to riding after breaking my finger in September. I think the narrower ratio and flat course went well together but undecided if my lack of any hill climbing this year will see me wanting > 25t on some of the hills.

And then I found a fiver.

Spend the two days before hydrating

Stupid question, but what exactly does this involve? Drinking water all day long? Anything to be avoided? Don't intend to drink any alcohol between now and after the ride.

Completely non-scientific, but basically stop doing things that make you loose water (tea, alcohol, sweat), and try to take on liquids in a way that your body can retain (large quantities of plain water will go straight through; liquid in food, eg soup or porridge, are retained far longer).

Never sure how much of the difference is physical or psychological, but it seems to work.

Carb loading helps water retention, 4-5g of water retained for metabolising each gram of carbohydrate. Which is why after a big pizza day, you can end up weighing more than the weight of the food that you ate.

Have the Number Packs been posted yet?

I've moved house, and although I did update my address via email, had no confirmation.

The final instruction packs with start times and start zones went out 3 weeks ago. You get your ride numbers at Excel

and they went out by email I thought. I haven't had anything by post certainly...

Oh yeah that's right, cheers. I'm being a dick.

Right, have rung them up. If you haven't had a pack in the post, give them a call, and they'll send it out again. thought that it was a little odd I hadn't had one.