Race Report – Ride London 100

Again, I’m a bit slow on the race report. However with it being such an eventful and brilliant day it won’t be forgotten in a while.

With this being my final A-race of the year, my race plan was…. All or nothing & empty the tank mentality. But being only 7 days after the Owler Half tri, I wasn’t too sure what was left in the tank. So the week leading up to it I tried to get maximum rest in while getting a few 2hr-ish rides in to keep the legs ticking over.

Registration –

Having to travel home to Kent for the event I headed into London on the Saturday to register at the Excel Centre. For the number of people taking part in the event, some 24,000 people, it was incredibly quick and easy and all the helpers were really friendly. Once that was done it was time to explore all the booths they had. You had some of the big names there like Wiggle and Mavic. I did treat myself to some AfterSHOKZ headphones for £40 which are pretty cool, I’ll do a quick post on these amazing headphones later. But in a chestnut they use bone conducting technology developed by the US military to deliver sound though a safe method while still being able to here whats going on around you.

The Route

100 miles reduced to 86 by taking out Leith Hill and Box Hill 😦 the two big challenges of the cycle taken out to the disappoint of most but looking back you can see why the thought of having 20,000+ cyclists descending downhill aquaplaning did not seem the best…

Race day!

All I can say is WET WET WET!!!!

As I was coming from the South East, I got dropped off nice and early at around 6am in south London near Greenwich at one of the drop off zones. All smoothly done  and joining a few cyclists we follow the arrows to the start in Stratford. It was on the way to the start you got a sense of how big this event was as passing every street you’d get a flock of cyclists joining you and within a short while I was riding amongst a hundreds of cyclists.

Living in the South I’ve gone through Blackwall tunnel numerous times, usually in heavy traffic, and this is the first time in my memory and my dads memory whose known London all his life where Blackwall tunnel has been closed for an event, so cycling down that alone was pretty surreal. Could definitely taste the years of pollution built up through there!

I’ll apologises already for the lack of photos, my camera phone was broken at the time, turned out to be good timing otherwise it may of been flooded.

Soon as we got to the start line after dropping off the change of clothes bag, the heavens opened and did not stop until I crossed the finish line. Finally time to prove I’m no longer a fair weather cyclist, especially after cycling up buttertub pass during the tour de france during awful weather which made it for the first more enjoyable to cycle uphill than down, even if it was only with one working leg at the time.

You could tell this was going to be a quick one as the miles were being quickly ticked off passing by the skyscrappers in the financial district, before soon heading pass some of London’s most famous sights like Tower of London, the strand, and not before long we crossed the river to head up the first real hill of the day in Richmond park. Not gonna lie, living in Bristol has left me with a thirst for hills as you always face the risk of finding a hidden hill down unknown roads which have to be tackled. Going through Richmond the rain was starting to get heavier, but fortunately it wasn’t to windy and it was still warm out.

From Richmond Park the route passed over Kingston upon-Thames bridge, where there was a hair moment in which there was conjestion at a sharp, narrowish right hand turn where there was sudden braking, including me, but my rear wheel span out to the side and I’m not to sure how I managed to keep upright but dam I was pleased I did.

 

I felt pretty good considering the half iron man efforts from the week before. Legs surprisingly strong and  I managed to keep a good steady pace up and then a bit of race smartness kicked in to tuck in behind other riders and draft. Maybe not so smart was hoping from the random pelotons forming in front of me as I forgot the basics of drafting….. you save energy and is therefore easier with the wind being broken for me not that this feels to easy, must push harder…. Sense soon kicked in and I soon had my wheel firmly fixed on a pretty strong solo rider going for it. I kept on his wheel taking turns to lead every so often, but the pace was just to strong for me if I wanted to last so I took the wise decision to drop off and slow it down to avoid breaking down into a terrible mess at the end.

It was around the halfway point that the rain really started to come down hard and it became a struggle to see beyond 10 metres it was raining that hard. And pretty dangerous riding conditions as evident by all the people skidding over.. Can only say kudos to the volunteers who stood out in the rain all that time. You were brilliant!

My nutrition plan for the ride consisted of fuel from supplemented water and 2 energy gels which worked pretty well I feel. I did stop at a food stop just to see what it was like to feed so many people. I wish my camera was working here, as it was like one massive conveyor belt. I’ll admit I did take alot of gels and sweets to refill my diminishing stock for next year.

The last 10ish miles were becoming painful I feel the pushing hard was coming back to haunt me. But I wasn’t gonna slow down being so closed. Pushing hard with screaming legs I managed to tuck onto the back of the wheels of some faster riders and jumping from rider to rider to keep up the hard pace I had set myself, as for it being the final A race of the season it was all or nothing and I’d have plenty of time to rest after.

Not the most flattering image above, but the pain was staggering trying to keep it up to the finishing line. But with the hords of people turned out along central london turning into the mall was like entering a stadium with people cheering and banging on the hordings. Just the motivation you need to keep pushing forward. You couldn’t help feeling like a pro with everyone cheering. and crossing the line was with some relief and satisfaction, and you get a pretty decent medel to go with the impressive goody bag!

the ride may of been on the more expensive side of £55, but well worth the money with all the free stuff in the goody bags and for the simple fact of cycling through closed roads in London and Surrey. Superb event.

Time: 4 hrs 20 min 05 s