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A couple of ride reports and posts on the net mentioned this, but more for the previous ridelondons. They may well have got rid of it.
If my wife is able to start in her second wave, it may work (subject to the timings between waves). If it's poor weather, I'm not sure she would like to start the ride with an additional 40 minute wait in the rain, in addition to the time in the holding pen.
Acliff-
This is obviously "not allowed" but if you want to try, then your partner could probably just get in your start pen too.
The security when I've done it has amounted to two bored teenage stewards manning a 10 meter wide entrance so it's hardly a forensic check of your credentials as you walk past them. They generally seemed to just glance and check that you were wearing some kind of number (i.e. not a total blagger turning up for a free ride).
Anyway, this is obviously not allowed.
Brookly_Bay
That sounds bizarre. It is a sportive, not a time trial or a race, and since the road is very wide at the start and the waves are staggered, the first two miles aren't more crowded than the rest of the route.