Ride London 100

The noises coming from my chain on the ride home was horrendous! Quick wash and lube last night and I was good to go to get into work.

Law of averages with the punctures that many people your bound to get a lot. I rode the same line as car tyre would and didn't have a problem.

They closed the big hills later in the day didn't they?

A branch fell infront of a group of us going up the steepest part of leith hill missed the guy in front of me by inches and he just stayed up right.

The amazing thing about the punctures was the number of ‘pairs’ of riders both with wheels out fixing punctures. Assume they rode through a stream on the road that had washed all the crap into the same place.

Yeah looked like a lot actually! Quiet a few muppets standing on the roads with there back to the flow of riders instead of trying to find somewhere less dodgy to stand.

And inner tubes everywhere! i didn't realize they were biodegradable..

still good a day on the bike.

I rode as a Ride Safety Captain. We were given as many tubes as we could carry. Gave them all out. So many riders with no spare tubes, no pump and no idea how to change a tyre. "Oh, I never get punctures."
Saw one poor guy whose seat post had snapped off taking a chunk of the frame with it. Probably should have used a torque wrench.
So many cold riders who hadn't taken arm warmers or even a jacket given the forecast and the Ride London warning emails.
Generally witnessed decent standards of riding and few accidents.

Saw one poor guy whose seat post had snapped off taking a chunk of the frame with it. Probably should have used a torque wrench.

This sounds too familiar, I have a friend with a torque wrench that was using to for undoing, and he put "8nm" in to his seatpost clamp and shattered his Canyon leaf spring seat post.... so I told him about his failings with the torque wrench for the umpteenth time ... and then he did again on another bike, and now only rides alu seatposts because he cant trust himself or his torque wrench to "put in 8" (which seems high anyway).

Back to Ride London - lots of inner tubes littering the roads, only one Cliff bar per rider(?), I didn't take a jacket, but then I needed to stop for the toilet 3 times because I wasn't sweating my usual amount. I was under the impression they set the waves off in order of predicted speed, but there were people in baggies on hybrid bikes in my wave...surely if they ordered it by predicted time there would be less accidents due to less over taking?

I never understood why they ride into the gutter when the road is closed for traffic.

I was under the impression they set the waves off in order of predicted speed

I'm pretty sure they do too, but people over/under estimate...

This the first year I rode it I pretty much had the whole ride side of the road to myself, everyone else was bunched up on the left.

I stuck to the right side of the left lane to make way for the pro pelotons coming up from behind me. Then would just slip into the right lane to overtake if needed.

It feels a bit naughty to be on the right hand side of the road...

How do they do this?

Sign up with a charity get a guaranteed spot and say your going to do it in 5 hours when it will take you twice as long.

Didn't you have to put an estimated time for the ballot entry as well? As well as results from recent sportives? Can't quite remember.
I expect that if you put a 4h time, then you are very likely to be in the first wave to be contesting the 'win'

I did it via charity and was quiet generous with my time 6hrs so anyone that put 5 hours would have been well in front of me weather or not they could do it and I saw a lot of charity shirts around me.

Waking up sunday morning I wished i put a much longer time.

Quiet a few muppets standing on the roads with there back to the flow of riders instead of trying to find somewhere less dodgy to stand.

Keep coming across this generally.

I think we been at the same place.
Cannondale rider if I've seen right.
Did you have some music playing?

I ride a Canyon. The guy with the broken seat post was refusing help and cups of tea so we left him with some locals. May be others stopped to try and help him.

One of my mates had 3 punctures by mile 25 and would have quit if not for some really lovely and helpful locals with a track pump and tube, and they gave him a bacon butty, which kept him going to the finish.

Help others when you can, gratefully accept help when offered!

My Mrs did it in 6 hours, not bad considering the weather and her level. She was wondering who the fastest finisher was, though I see that you can only search by name / number on the site. I did see a 3:13 finish while having a quick scan through, not bad.

That would have been someone doing the 46mile I would guess. I think just sub 4 hrs is the fastest in previous years.

Very possible, number 13038 for reference. Says 100 miles but could be wrong. Averaging over 30 in that weather is pretty next level like.

2016 was 3:57 and that was a guy who has been accused of doping this season!

Well done! I did it in 6.24 but was a wimp in the downhill sections due to the heavy rain and already having one metal collarbone.

Seems one of the Onyx RT lot was '2nd', but I can't see who 'won'

Ballot open for 2019:-

https://www.prudentialridelondon.co.uk/events/100/entries/ballot/