RideLondon-Surrey 100 (2014!!!) Anyone?

[StuAff]

Anyone know of available hotels??? I've just been told I'm in by my charity? Live in Loughborough and thinking of travelling down on Saturday! Any help great fully received...

Assuming they do the same as last year, you'll have to come down on the Saturday anyway- (a) You'll need to collect your event numbers at the ExCel centre event that weekend- not at the start and not on the Sunday morning (b) Your start time will be too early to make travelling down practical or sensible even if (a) doesn't apply, which it almost certainly will.
Applied last year, didn't get a place- didn't bother this year on account of the above conditions etc.

 

[A Badger]

Thanks StuAff, great advice!! Can't thank you enough...

 

[Nomadski]

Premier Inn is the one to go for if they have any rooms left. They are literally 2 mins from the starting area, they have parking (paid £5 for the saturday / sunday) and they put on super early breakfast on for the riders.

 

[Deleted member 35268]

The Saturday Excel ticket pick-up is a major time burglar - just when you need rest, you have to go into London when you don't need to. I had completely forgotten about this. Darn it. There was a lot of negative feedback on this point. I am lucky, I can get into London in 40 mins from where I am. Even so, I may stay the night before in town.

 

[benb]

The Saturday Excel ticket pick-up is a major time burglar - just when you need rest, you have to go into London when you don't need to. I had completely forgotten about this. Darn it. There was a lot of negative feedback on this point. I am lucky, I can get into London in 40 mins from where I am. Even so, I may stay the night before in town.

Pretty sure you can also pick it up on the Thursday or Friday.

 

[Deleted member 35268]

Pretty sure you can also pick it up on the Thursday or Friday.

Brilliant! Much better

 

[rvw]

A colleague at work - who is already doing the ride - is involved with The McPin Foundation which supports medical research (http://mcpin.org/get-involved/) and they still have two places available. There is no information about minimum sponsorship on their page but the contact details are there.

Srw and I are still waiting to hear about the tandem place...

 

[Beebo]

Pretty sure you can also pick it up on the Thursday or Friday.

Brilliant! Much better

Yep the website says you can register at the Excel as follows. I think I will get mine out of the way on Thursday.

Opening hours: Thursday 7 August: 10.00-20.00
Friday 8 August: 10.00-20.00
Saturday 9 August: 09:00-17:00

 

[benb]

I'm staying at the Ibis near ExCeL
Last year I enjoyed a meal and a pint with @Norry1 OTP at the pub, so keen to do the same again with anyone who is staying up there.

 

[srw]

A colleague at work - who is already doing the ride - is involved with The McPin Foundation which supports medical research (http://mcpin.org/get-involved/) and they still have two places available. There is no information about minimum sponsorship on their page but the contact details are there.

Srw and I are still waiting to hear about the tandem place...

But not for much longer - we're in.

 

[Stedman]

My friend Kate has also passed me of these charity place details. If you are interested in 'doing something amazing for autism', the National Autistic Society have a few final places available so if you would like to take part in this landmark cycling event, please contact Kate Donohue on 020 7903 3663 or kate.donohue@nas.org.uk.

Registration fee: £50
Minimum sponsorship: £700

Whether you nero-typical and know someone, (or relative) who is autistic, you are on the spectrum or interested in autism, you are welcomed to come and join us.

From my own experience, Team NAS do look after us well with their own dedicated feed-stations so there is no need to queue and there was a special reception (with food) laid on after the finish.

 

[Beebo]

I've just seen the latest news letter, giving advice on drafting.
Does anyone else think that its a bit silly of the organisers to advise a group of 24,000 mostly novice riders to ride 6 - 12 inches from the wheel in front. This can only end in tears when people are not used to riding in groups.
I get twitchy if someone is 3 foot from my back wheel.

 

[marcusjb]

The newsletters are pretty intense and I am not sure how productive they are. As well as the drafting advice, the bit on training with power was all a little over the top.

At the end of the day, it is just a bike ride. One I am looking forward to, however they give off this message that you need all this extra stuff, do all this extra training, eat all this special food etc. and I am not sure that is the right way to encourage beginners to take part in cycling.

 

[Stedman]

I agree, the article should have started with please find a club who can teach you properly about group riding and group etiquette. On our club chain gang, new members are asked to camp at the back and observe, after that they are guided through the chain by an experienced member before they are left unsupervised within the group.

Last year I saw three crashes which were due to inexperienced group riding. One included a fractured shoulder and another rider took out about 10 riders on Wimbledon Hill due to a last minute swerve to avoid a traffic island.

 

[Readgeoff]

Did a complete Recce of the Surrey part of the Route last Friday afternoon in lovely weather. Newlands was fine, just the tougher bit towards the bottom but that is soon over. The climb out of Abinger Hammer towards Leith Hill is a constant fairly low gradient but does go on for quite a while. Beautiful scenery tends to take your mind off the small increase in work being done though and we chatted easily up that section. The Leith Hill climb is tough and I was glad I had been putting in some reasonable climbing practice and put on the 28t rear gear (front is 36). There are 5 steeper pitches and they seem to get progressively steeper as you get further up the climb and the last one in particular (after the junction with the road to coldharbour) was the steepest. Its a nice ride down from the top although there are a few narrow sections in between sheer rock walls where riders will need to be careful and a few bits of the road surface are choppy (around and just after the sheer rock walls area). The climb to box hill is well documented and a nice gradient of 6 degrees but it seems to go on and on for a long time and I found the length of time it took hard work as was going up as quickly as I could bouncing off my power/HR 'rev limiters'. Just for good measure we added in a further climb up to Ranmore common (from the North) which I am pleased we won't have to do on the actual day. I averaged a respectable 16mph through the surrey section including all 5 hills (3 of us riding). If I can get the hoped for 20-22mph for the non-surrey sections I may just make my 5hrs 30 mins target