Ride London 100

It was also funny seeing how ingrained behaviours are when you get given the whole road to play with on a long sweeping right hand bend and people were still riding in the left gutter

I suggest closing the M25 and using that. Nice, vaguely circular route and you get to go over the river. Just watch out for those sneaky dartford crossing "find us on the web" charges.

people were still riding in the left gutter

Yeah, I thought that was great actually. Spent most of my time just to the right of the centreline - out of the mélee with enough space for the trains to get by and the odd friendly tow. Felt like having the road all to myself at times.

I just couldn't totally bring myself to believe that a car wasn't going to come howling round the corner in the right hand lane, so tended to stay to the left of the centreline.

I just pretended I was doing a Gran Fondo and that everyone else was a dangerous lunatic riding on the wrong side of the road.

then full distance in both 2015 and 2016

Didn't your Strava say 99.9 miles? ;)

Time to go and do something somewhere where they can deal with the numbers and you have a better chance of not having to stop for hours and walk lots and only get to ride 75% of the course!

http://www.aukweb.net

Good effort @rhowe you win the lfgss golden sprocket

The course is the course, innit?

I was chatting with a colleague about the mayhem on ride100 and other sportives, and he made a good point "how would you know that you are wrong if you don't ride with a club or had an accident before?"

Much as it annoys us, novice riders simply don't know what to do so I can't but feel that a lot of this chat should have been on the ride etiquette thread.

Reading these posts I'm quite glad for an early start! Set off i wave B having had a minor panic over arriving (getting to Stratford was slow... bloody cyclists) and absolutely refused to ride with some of the early chaingangs. Speed was stupid fast, 40mph+ through the tunnels, and I figured there'd be a whole line of nackered riders by mile 80.

Eventually found a group I liked and hid in the wheels until out of London. Stopped at a checkpoint as my bladder was close to bursting and picked up a couple of bananas. Oh, and changed water. Hadn't rinsed my bottles well enough after washing, and had a horrendous soapy taste. Almost blowing bubbles.

Enjoyed the day as it warmed up. Riders on the hills were all moving well with space to overtake (and hide) which was nice, and coming down Leith hill was great fun. Felt like I was mountain-biking with the road surface down there.

Completely missed my last planned stop in Leatherhead so ate everything and latched onto a fast group. Spotted Hoke in the middle of a bunch, but too many people so no hellos. Felt pretty good by that point so spent the last 10 miles group hopping (yes, serious business, I'm sorry) and generally enjoying the speed you can hold on closed roads. Came over the line nackered at a little under 4.30. Dozed off in Green Park, waking up an hour or so later to potter, gently, home.

10/10, would ride again.

Did the 46, haven't been able to get into the 100 so far. Enjoyed it, to ride from Stratford to Chiswick in a single turn, bliss. I think the winner was the guy (not a young man) on the orange Brompton doing the 100.

I saw a press release that said,33 people were taken to hospital, this seams like a lot to me. Are there ways it could be made safer ?

It's 100 miles, not everyone can do it.

33 hospitalised could be anything from tummy aches to heart attack

And arse cancer.

If you took 26,000 people and made them sit still in a field for 8 hours does the law of averages say that some will require medical attention before the day is out?

It's annoyed me that every news article has focused on the incidents rather than the event and money raised for charity. You never get this with the marathon, but I'm sure there are lots of relatively minor medical issues and unfortunately deaths every couple of years. These are always reported as a side issue though, and don't detract from the general coverage. For the 100, every news outlet was desperate to tell you about the medical support, or the 'traffic chaos'. Always hints at the general cyclist outgroup mentality of the media/public.

Time to go and do something somewhere where they can deal with the numbers and you have a better chance of not having to stop for hours and walk lots and only get to ride 75% of the course!
aukweb.net

Cool - I will go and check that out. Sounds really good!

I joined auk yesterday - although mainly due to being so inspired by transcontinental exploits.

Looking for my first 200k. Ok, bit different to 4000k but got to start somewhere...

The London marathon has been going for 35 years, so comparisons to an event that's only 3 years old is a bit unfair. For what it's worth my sister lives near the route (Hampton court) and isn't a cyclist. Initially she hated the disruption, but now has kids and loves the event

If you took 26,000 people and made them sit still in a field for 8 hours does the law of averages say that some will require medical attention before the day is out?

This is my reading of it too. There are always a few deaths from natural causes at Glastonbury each year, admittedly there are more people but they are all essentially just sitting in a field.

The crashes I find a little more worrying. There seem to be 2 events running concurrently, there is the "smash it round chasing a pb" ride and the "I never dreamed I'd be able to do something like this" ride, and the two don't mix very well. Currently the organisers rely on entrants telling them which they are by giving an expected time and use that to place them in the appropriate start wave. It seems to me that the start waves around 7 - 7.30 have too great a mix, which puts wobbly riders fighting tired limbs and inexperienced chain-gangs on the same bit of road.

I think you make a great point, my only concern would be that if you had some sort of "6am-7am is Smashfest, 7am+ is nice day in the country" it might encourage more chopperesque bahaviour in the first bunch.

But overall I think it'd be a good idea.

the law of averages say that some will require medical attention

They should ban the law of averages if it's making so many people ill

Given that it's not a race, wouldn't it make more sense to send the inexperienced riders out first, then the more experienced ones after. The latter can then tow the former over the last 50 kms whilst chasing a time.

The 46 could be promoted a bit more and become the less-of-a-smashfest option but still with the attraction of being on closed roads. Might at least reduce the numbers doing the full 100 while maintaining/increasing the total number of participants spread across the two events. If so, at least up it to 50 miles though so it still sounds like a challenge.

Given that it's not a race, wouldn't it make more sense to send the inexperienced riders out first, then the more experienced ones after. The latter can then tow the former over the last 50 kms whilst chasing a time.

Cut off is at (say) 5pm, so if I put a time down of 4:30 my start time is 12:30?

Would give you a lot of motivation to stick to your projected average speed, piss off the bike and pull bidons from the cages of those you pass on the road.