RideLondon-Surrey 100 (2015) Anyone?

[PeteB]

The sad death of the rider on Leith Hill has been confirmed in national press - http://www.independent.co.uk/news/u...hest-hill-in-surrey-during-race-10434061.html

On the issue of ride discipline, maybe I was fortunate but what I saw around me seemed pretty good - hand signals, call outs and line holding. I started 6.54 finished 11.35 - maybe other times were worse. If we organised the drafting better we'd all go a bit quicker though!

 

[Nomadski]

I was maybe 10/20 bikes after him, and he was already in recovery position with serious shouts of "we need a medic" from those helping him.

Big, well built yes, but not overly so.

My wife was on of the last to follow the Leith hill route ad was stood waiting for 90 minutes while the air ambulance did its thing.

Rumour was at the end that he had died.

You were in the same exact group of riders as me then, I had the same experience, with people shouting for any medics, and the prostrate body lying on the ground. I didn't look at him, as it makes me extremely uncomfortable.

Unfortunately the person did pass away - http://www.independent.co.uk/news/u...hest-hill-in-surrey-during-race-10434061.html

A terrible tragedy.

I'm trying to find my official ride time, but on the site, if I put in my number it comes up with someone else. It should be under 'PRL-S 100 Individual' in the drop down menu?

I was looking at 2014... My chip time was 6hrs 12mins. Better than last time by 20 mins, but a lot of wasted time cost me my target sub 6 hour time.

Thoroughly enjoyed it though, stupid headwind all the way around though, until just after the A3 when I got pushed sideways by a sudden gust!

My Strava had me as 5hrs 42 mins moving time, 6hrs 13mins elapsed time. Got stuck longer than expected at Hampton Court which was nowhere near as efficient a stop as it was in 2013 when they used the driveway rather than a field. Didnt stop at other hubs, but got stuck again at a watering stop prior to Leith Hill.

Also the full course came in at 99.6 miles. D'oh.

https://www.strava.com/activities/359939786/overview

 

[jefmcg]

Defending myself ... this looks like a tailwind to me

(I never notice tailwinds myself, sometimes I just have a great ride )

 

[User33236]

Mrs SG and I arrived at the start 2 minutes after one pen loading time closed as the 'was not happy' with how her numbers were sitting and spent 15 minutes sorting them out. We therefore started with Green wave F instead of E.

This slightly later start may have been a blessing in disguise as we were one of the first to be diverted at Leith Hill. Pretty miffed at that point but thoughts quickly turned to the rider in distress as news began to leak out of the heart attack.

Stopped once for more water and a toilet break somewhere after coming down off Box Hill which seemed pretty well organised.

Couple of close calls with other riders with the closest for me being on Wimbledon hill. I was catching the rider in front who slowed so much he fell off to his left immediately in front of me. Thankfully I made it through the gap to his right which nearly wasn't there as someone of the roadside movd out toward the fallen rider then very quickly changed him mind.

With 10km to go we saw a chip time of under 6 hours was doable so went for it. Chip time 5:58:51, moving time 5:40:37.

 

[Chris1983]

We were caught up in the group held on Leith Hill whilst they quite rightly shut the course whilst attending to the fallen rider. I must say everyone was incredibly patient, i was quite obvious that something serious had happened and everyone around us just patiently waited. such a shame to hear that a fellow rider lost his life yesterday. RIP fellow cyclist.

For me personally i had an awesome day, my start time was 8:30am so had a human start and time for breakfast at the hotel, set off through London at a blinding pace, covered the first 20miles in less than a hour and then thought that i best slow it down a bit if i was to make it round, i had a sub 6 hour target in mind. Had a couple of stop/starts but nothing major and then stopped and the Newlands Hub which was a bit of a nightmare really, queued up for ten minutes to be told there was no food left, i could have topped my water bottle up at any of the less busy drinks stations on the way but hey ho such is life. Back on the road again and and then the unfortunate delay at Leith Hill and then once everything was back up and running again all was good. Again there were a couple more times where we had slow right down due to a fallen rider, thankfully on these occasions everyone seemed to be relatively OK with just cuts and bruises.

Official time was 6:53, Strava says my moving time was 6:21 but we walked almost entire length of Leith Hill. Looking at the strava data I spent 1hour 10min to get from mile 55.7 to mile 56.5 due to incidents so in my mind even if that mile had taken me 10mins to cover as it was slightly up hill that would have still be a course time of 5:53. If you also take into account i also had a total of 15minutes spent elsewhere on the course traveling at just 2MPH due to incidents then definitely sub 6hours and i'm delighted with that as for me the sub 6hour target was a tough goal :-)

I was amazed at just how well the whole event was organised and the support of the public, from the start to the finish. we set off bang on time, through out the course the support of the public was great. The stewards and marshals along the way were doing a great job from what i could see in getting the public across the course at the various crossing points in a safe and timely manor. The medical teams that attend the fallen riders appeared to be on the ball as well, they even managed to book the weather this year :-) Great job all round I would say.

 

[creashor]

What a day that was.

A few things that stood out for me:

The start was fantastic. Chatting to others and realising that I wasn't the only one who'd been so anxious that they'd had about 3 hrs sleep

Going out through one of the Surrey towns we saw, coming the other way, the fastest groups on their way back - they made an impressive sight to a mere mortal like me - so fast!

The 'support' factor - amazed at how I found the extra to increase the cadence when passing through the areas with most spectators.

The descent into Putney! My cramping had become a real issue for the last 20 miles and that descent was like nectar.

Riding up The Mall to finish was one of the best moments of my life. It was my first Sportive and I had decided to do it for my wife, who had, on Saturday, the one year anniversary of her diagnosis for breast cancer. Her treatment was tough but she is now well into her recovery. To do the ride one year and one day from that awful day really felt like a tremendous way to end a very tough year. The support I got in the road from The Breast Cancer Care team was so loud!!

A great day and one that will live with me for the rest of my life.

Cheers

 

[vickster]

Well I finished but it was touch and go as I developed a stitch at Richmond Park which stayed with me all day, being pretty horrible at times. I had to have lots of breaks to try to shift it including some whimpering on the sofa at my ride buddy's house in Raynes Park!

Because of the stitch, we took the Leith Hill detour (my pal was never going to do it, I was fairly certain I wasn't) so we pretty much had the A25 to ourselves so we missed the hold up. If we had taken it we wouldn't have finished in time, we would have got swept

We did get held up by another nasty crash between boxhill and Leatherhead. Again patience apart from a few n*bbers whining about their average times

I cycled up all the other hills, Box Hill very slowly due to the sheer number of people but I did get a Strava PR for the whole hill bottom to top, must have been really slow before! Again a few pillocks trying to race up, indeed one guy almost took two others out trying to squeeze through a non existent gap! I have to say I got a bit testy with people walking two abreast up hills, or not keeping well in

Official time 8 hours 21 minutes and 57 seconds, strava moving was 6h46 for the 92 miles. I finished at 5.10pm, I pretty much had the Mall to myself so I couldn't resist playing the crowd and having a sprint finish. I managed a 21mph average it meant I left my pal behind but she'd been flagging from Wimbledon (although she caned it down Putney Hill trying to catch me and got some whoops

About 101 miles ridden for the day, including the ride from the hotel and home from the station

Stitch really bad (really not recommended for 70 miles ) , day overall enjoyable especially the closed roads, but I won't do it again and I don't think sportives are for me generally

 

[philk56]

Now had a chance to reflect further on the ride. I didn't realise quite how much quicker we would be on open roads. Could have had a much better time if hadn't been held up in various places but that is put into perspective by the tragic incident on Leith Hill.

Get well soon to @oldcarltonfan and any one else who was injured. We did get caught up for a while in Dorking and had to walk through the main street. I think this was caused by a separate incident. I heard from a passer-by that a cyclist had crashed into one of the barriers that had toppled over into the road .

Overall it was a tremendous experience. As already commented the organisation was superb although was surprised they ran out of food relatively early at the Newlands hub. I didnt need any but considering the next main hub was Leatherhead could have been a problem. Also to repeat the great support along the way a good nature and enthusiasm of all the spectators.

 

[srw]

It sounds as if it was the club riders who weren't very good at riding discipline - it was pretty good around us almost all the time, with plenty of calling out and holding the line. The support (as last year) was great, and the organisation was impeccable. The marshalls were very strong in holding the line with drivers who hadn't read the dozens of communications about closed roads, and I was impressed by the women on the exit from the finish zone who were firmly but politely refusing admission to someone who couldn't be bothered to phone her partner.

I think we got caught up by two ambulance delays on hills (the same one as @vickster) and another one earlier on - both were handled well by both marshalls and riders. We also saw the aftermath of one other crash, where someone had taken a bend too quickly. Each spill probably takes about 45 minutes to an hour to clear, so we get a false sense of their likelihood.

Here's our overall splits, converted into sensible units that I can understand:

Split Time Of Day Time Diff Distance Speed (mph)
EST MILE 17 09:22:27 00:56:58 00:56:58 17 17.9
EST MILE 26 10:00:54 01:35:25 00:38:27 9 14.0
EST MILE 47 11:44:18 03:18:49 01:43:24 21 12.2
EST MILE 75 14:17:22 05:51:54 02:33:05 24 9.4
EST MILE 85 15:13:46 06:48:17 00:56:23 10 10.6
FINISH 16:19:55 07:54:26 01:06:09 15 13.6

That first bit is quick, isn't it? A lot of it is downhill, and we didn't stop at all until after mile 17. Thereafter we stopped every 10 miles or so for a stretch and a gulp of liquid and food.

 

[srw]

Incidentally, being a geeky sort, I was interested in the stats for heart attacks. For a population of 25,000 cyclists, roughly 40 will have a heart attack in each year - and if you're prone to having a heart attack hard physical exercise is likely to bring it on. So having two heart attacks in consecutive years is slightly extreme but perhaps not too surprising.

For comparison, the London Marathon death rate is apparently about 1 in 70,000 to 80,000 finishers - and I suspect the marathon attracts fewer people who are overall less fit than a 100 mile bike ride. And, of course, the marathon is over more quickly - a 5 hour finish is quite a long way down the tail of the distribution for that event, while it's pretty damn quick for a hilly 100 mile bike ride.

 

[PK99]

It sounds as if it was the club riders who weren't very good at riding discipline - it was pretty good around us almost all the time, with plenty of calling out and holding the line. .

Yep that was my experience - the "novice" riders gave no problems (apart from the guy who tried to get past in the narrow gap between me and a barrier on the sharp right-hander into Kingston, staying on the bike when being shoulder charged halfway through the turn was something of a challenge (I needed new shorts anyway!).

The issues I had were with aggressive club riders intent on getting a good time and charging through with little care for slower riders - the other real brown trouser moment was when I was doing maybe 18mph passing a stream of riders on my left. A "pace line" came through on my right, lead man moved left to weave through the riders ahead, last rider was a couple of inches from taking out my front wheel.

 

[vickster]

I have to say some of the female club riders were the worst with really close passes! I guess at the back of the field we saw a proportionally high number of female to male riders, most of the guys would have been early

 

[PK99]

I have to say some of the female club riders were the worst with really close passes! I guess at the back of the field we saw a proportionally high number of female to male riders, most of the guys would have been early

I was gender neutral in the post you replied to, but the rider who nearly took out my front wheel was a female club rider.

 

[vickster]

I'm surprised its not on tv . Guess i'll have to get off my backside and ride down there .

It was, 10am BBC2. Its on iPlayer

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0654ncy/cycling-amateur-ridelondon

 

[Chris1983]

I always tried to pass on the right and always made myself known by a simple on the right and a passing thanks after you pass. A quick signal if you wish move left or right.

But agree there was one group of club riders that just forced their way through on narrow section in the surry hills when caution and respect for slower riders is all that's required. Myself and rider in front had to take evasive action to avoid hitting them in a busy section with little space.

About ten minutes later once the road widened I caught them up on the next hill and passed them with ease and never saw them again so they weren't even that fast despite trying to force their way through.

The only climb I had trouble with which wasn't really the riders fault was at the top box hill, all the faster riders on the right so I was on the right and then the drinks station was on the right so suddenly everyone was cutting across from left to right.

Also had a rider just stop in front of me on a climb and start walking, they were on the righthand side of the road so nearly took 3 or 4 of us out.

But as long as you have got your wits about and accept the fact at the start that everyone is at different abilities then it wasn't too bad. I'm pretty average so I got held up by a lot but I'm sure I held a lot of people up as well. I've also done quite a few sportives now as well so have come to know what to expect. I ride in a curtouis manor and just try to spot and then avoid the nobbers....