Ride London 100

Personally I enjoyed the London bits - blasting along the A12 was jokes, especially on the way back when it was mostly downhill with a tailwind - but I found Essex pretty boring in the main, both in terms of the topography of the route (at one point a bystander shouted an encouraging “you’re almost at the top of the hill!” to which I thought “I’m on a hill?!”) and the scenery (couple of nice chocolate box villages with thatched roofs but otherwise mostly nondescript fields). Top gear of 46x11 was definitely not enough oomph, but 46x30 was plenty for the few bumps, never had trouble the front derailleur.