Ride London 100 - 2013

Having registered for the RL100 ballot many months in advance, various administration issues had left me guessing as to whether I had actually been successful in gaining a place.  I'd been sent an email saying I was in but I'd not received the welcome packs or other items I knew other people had been sent.  The online registration site was suitably vague, so it was with much relief that I received final confirmation with a week or so to go! 

Given the lack of pre-event organisation I was sceptical about how well the event would go on the day... 

As a bit of background the event involves a 100 mile closed road circuit beginning in London, venturing out into the Surrey hills before returning you to the sights of London.  With 20,000 participants it involves an early start (first waves leaving at 6am and the final ones around 8am), my start time had been designated as 7:17am, so the prospect of the roads being jammed with 10,000+ slower riders ahead of me also didn't appeal greatly.

As there was no way I could get to London for a 6:15am start (you had to arrive 1hr before your start time) I'd arranged to stay with my mate Eric the night before.  He lives in West London which would have still been hard to get to the start (Olympic Park in Stratford,  East London) but better than starting from Suffolk.  Fortunately he'd managed to wangle the loan of his company's central London flat for us to use the night before!  This put us by Tower Bridge with only a couple of miles to get to the start -  HERO!

Approaching Olympic Park

So, at 5:45am on the Saturday morning I left the flat and headed east, looking for other cyclists.  I found a group and tagged along with them to the Olympic Park.  Once there the setup was very impressive.  Riders had been grouped into Black Groups and Blue Groups and within those groups were around 20 alphabetised waves of 500 cyclists, I was in Black wave 'M'.  An hour before the start were ushered into our designated gateway and as time passed we were gradually funnelled nearer to the start line.
By chance I found myself at the front of my wave, as they counted down to our start I was very ware of the fact that there were 500 people lined up behind me!

At the start line - looking ahead.

At the start line - looking back...

We'd been advised to set of steadily as the timing didn't actually start will 1mile down the road, I decided to do as I was told and expected people to be flying past me but as I rode gently along no one passed.  A look over my shoulder showed me that I was heading up possibly the longest peloton of my life! 
The start took us along a short minor road then the wrong way around a roundabout and up onto the A12 dual carriageway.  It was exceedingly surreal to be riding the wrong way down a completely closed A12 at 7am, especially when leading out a 500 person-strong "wave".  Soon I was passed by various riders and several of us formed a pack as we swooped through various inner-city tunnels at silly speeds, with lots of us whooping and howling to create echoes.

Despite the early start lots of people were out on the streets cheering us on. My start time was about halfway through the phased start and my fears that the roads would already be rammed were unfounded as there was mostly plenty of space. In fact most people naturally gravitated to the left hand lane(s) leaving the oncoming lanes clear much of the time.

Once past the sights of London, the Surrey lanes were nice change of scenery.  I made my first stop at the 50mile mark, the 'hubs' were very well organised with plenty of free cereal bars, snacks and electrolytes - it was here that I first bumped into a fellow TROG, Mark, we had a quick chat and then went our separate ways.

After a few more miles Leith Hill was in the way - this was undoubtedly the toughest challenge of the day.  The road is steep, narrow,  with tight bends and has several false peaks,  you'd come over a crest only to find it went up again!  There were lots of strugglers on the hill, all spread across both lanes, so trying to keep momentum and pass other riders was hard work!  Coming down the other side was exceedingly fast and dodging other riders was again proving challenging, it doesn't bare thinking about what would happen if either of us misjudged things. 

A little further on, Box Hill was less of a challenge than I'd feared, and It was on the climb along here that I met Mark for the 2nd time. Although  Box Hill climbs for quite a distance, it's recently been resurfaced and compared to Leith it was pretty straightforward to find a comfortable gear and wind your way up - the view from the top was breathtaking.

My next stop was at 80 miles where I refilled my bottles and got quickly back under-way.

The final run into London was very nice, after flying along the Embankment you pass Westminster, Big Ben, Trafalgar Square then through Admiralty Arch, along the Mall towards Buck house.  I particularly enjoyed "Dangerzone" from Top Gun blaring out as I crossed the line.

My official time inc both stops was 5hrs 19mins and my GPS shows I averaged 19.8mph, which I'm exceedingly chuffed with. 

Can heartily recommend the event, get your names down for next year's ballot!