RideLondon-Surrey 100 (2015) Anyone?

[Mo1959]

They do Mo but they have some chaos theory formula to spread the times out thru the day apparently, so it eases congestion. Or something like that.

A woman in the next town to me set a cracking pace. Under 5 hours with an average of 20.6mph. I presume she must have got out early to set a pace like that?

 

[Nomadski]

As someone who works for a charity, I hope there continue to be plenty of non-charity ballot places. I think that what happens with the Marathon, where runners sign up for a charity just to get a place, and who have no interest in their "chosen" charity, doesn't do charities any favours. Those people aren't going to be their best fundraisers as it's hard to drum up support for a cause you aren't really committed to. And they are potentially keeping out people who would be great fundraisers.

And after all, there's nothing to stop ballot-place riders fundraising if they want to, for the cause they really want to support.

I did it year 1 for Cancer Research UK, and if I get turned down in the ballot I will do it again for a Cancer charity. I do have (like most people I guess) many personal reasons to do this, but the reason I don't do it every year is because I feel really bad asking people for money, I just feel very guilty as it isn't the challenge many none cyclists think it is. I was fully prepared to pay the full charity amount myself if I didn't get anywhere with fund raising, as it turned out I raised 2.6k, mostly due to family members being awesome fundraisers. It certainly gave the day an extra sheen for me, and I'll gladly do it again if needs be.

 

[Nomadski]

A woman in the next town to me set a cracking pace. Under 5 hours with an average of 20.6mph. I presume she must have got out early to set a pace like that?

Well because of what happened on Leith Hill she would have certainly had to go out before 7.39. Had it not been for what happened there I doubt it would have mattered too much when she started as that pace would have been achievable for someone with that ability level.

 

[sleaver]

even though the detour was considerably narrower than the main Leith Hill road

What was the detour because the one last year was along the A25 and there is no way that is narrower than Leith Hill?

Perhaps part of the answer is to do what they do in the Marathon and have multiple starts - there's a start for the fast boys and girls and start for the rest of us.

That isn't strictly correct. There is a start for the elites, championship and good for age runners so faster than club runners. Then there is a start for charity runners and then one for the rest.

Make it clear that there's one ballot for the speed merchants and one ballot for the humans.

That wouldn't work as the "humans" would work it out and put fast times that they will never achieve. With the marathon, they can have good for age places as you have to prove that you have run the qualifying time over the distance. How many people are capable of entering 100 mile cycling events to prove they can do the time.

I think that what happens with the Marathon, where runners sign up for a charity just to get a place, and who have no interest in their "chosen" charity, doesn't do charities any favours.

People do do that I someone who I used to work with just paid something like £1,800 just because he wanted to be able to say he did it. You are correct, he wouldn't have "advertised" the charity that well, but do the organisers care as long as it counts towards their goal so they can say "we were the biggest fund raising event blah blah blah"?

I do have (like most people I guess) many personal reasons to do this,

Thats what it should be about. I have done three events for three different charities. Two loosely had personal reason, but when I did RideLondon last year for Asthma UK, that meant the most as although I've grown out of it, I grew up as a kid with asthma. But people just sign up to do events through charities because it is the only way they get in, but as above, the organisers don't care because it just gives them bragging rights.

 

[sleaver]

I wished I'd known about you staying at the exorbitantly priced Premier Inn, would have contacted you to join us for our pasta meal in the evening!

I was in the one at ExCel but I think you was at Stratford?

They even did it for Velothon Wales and the bit that gets me is that if they kept their prices as they would normally be, they would probably make more money anyway due to the numbers. At the end of the day though it comes down to supply and demand

 

[srw]

And after all, there's nothing to stop ballot-place riders fundraising if they want to, for the cause they really want to support.

I don't suppose that's a cue to mention the cause you really want to support this year?

 

[srw]

What was the detour because the one last year was along the A25 and there is no way that is narrower than Leith Hill?

When you get to the top of the horrible drag up to Holmbury St Mary, instead of going straight on down the hill, so that you can get your breath back before tackling Leith, turn left. It keeps going up, ramping up to something pretty nasty pretty quickly, and is a mucky single-track road past a school. It then joins the descent from Leith close to the top.

 

[DaveReading]

What was the detour because the one last year was along the A25 and there is no way that is narrower than Leith Hill?

Pasture Wood Road, off to the left a few hundred yards south of Holmbury St Mary. Yes, it was narrow, not helped by the idiots who were walking their bikes up it two abreast.

 

[srw]

I presumed there would have been something like that. Are you asked for an expected finishing time when you enter so that they can put you in the correct start gate, or is it all a bit random?

You're asked for an expected finishing time, but as has been mentioned people cheat. Starting at 8:34 we passed quite a lot of earlier starters who'd obviously put down fast expected times so that they got the best part of 11 hours to do 100 miles.

I suspect that in a couple of years they'll start seeding based on verified times in other events rather than approximate times - so that you only get a start before 7am if you can demonstrate a sub-6 hour time on a similar event. Which will be no bad thing, IMO. Publicly saying that there are effectively two events going on at the same time will help avoid the numpties expecting to be in a pace line with a 9am start.

 

[Nomadski]

I'm going to guess those heading to Abinger once that detour was in effect were detoured as usual along the A25? If not that was a bit silly to let riders head down towards Forest Green once the narrow detour was put in place?

 

[srw]

Pasture Wood Road, off to the left a few hundred yards south of Holmbury St Mary. Yes, it was narrow, not helped by the idiots who were walking their bikes up it two abreast.

While we were going up there was a lot of calling up asking people to walk in single file. But frankly if you can't keep going on a hill you just have to stop!

I'm going to guess those heading to Abinger once that detour was in effect were detoured as usual along the A25? If not that was a bit silly to let riders head down towards Forest Green once the narrow detour was put in place?

If there's a medical/crash emergency it's very difficult to predict how long it will take to clear.

My observations of the organisation is that they're extremely good at learning lessons. One I'd offer to them for free is that big signs warning of uphills ahead (especially after bends) would be helpful - but there might be restrictions on what they're allowed to do with pros coming through the same roads later in the day!

 

[sleaver]

When you get to the top of the horrible drag up to Holmbury St Mary, instead of going straight on down the hill, so that you can get your breath back before tackling Leith, turn left. It keeps going up, ramping up to something pretty nasty pretty quickly, and is a mucky single-track road past a school. It then joins the descent from Leith close to the top.

Pasture Wood Road, off to the left a few hundred yards south of Holmbury St Mary. Yes, it was narrow, not helped by the idiots who were walking their bikes up it two abreast.

Sounds like that was quickly put in place because the published diversion to avoid Leith Hill was instead of turning off the A25, to stay on it and meet up further down where Leith Hill rejoins it.

Actually, didn't @vickster say that she was sent that way? If so, maybe the one mentioned above was to "clear" further people. Who knows.

To be fair though, they probably had to think on their feet so if that was the case, fair play to them.

 

[vickster]

Sounds like that was quickly put in place because the published diversion to avoid Leith Hill was instead of turning off the A25, to stay on it and meet up further down where Leith Hill rejoins it.

Actually, didn't @vickster say that she was sent that way? If so, maybe the one mentioned above was to "clear" further people. Who knows.

To be fair though, they probably had to think on their feet so if that was the case, fair play to them.

My friend and I chose to go that way using the official Leith diversion. There's no way I would have got up leith hill with the pain I was in and finished in time. We didn't know of the medical emergency until we met others at the rejoining point who said they'd also been diverted. So yes, there were two diversions in place, the one along the A25 that was always going to be there (I presume it was the one used last year) and the one being discussed above (I don't know the geography there I'm afraid)

 

[Chutzpah]

Posting in this thread for the first time, but as a non-Londoner I read it all over the last few weeks for various hints and tips for getting to the start in the morning. So thanks for all the advice!

I was meant to be riding it with my wife, and it would have been her first 100 mile ride. We were riding it for The Lullaby Trust, who mean a lot to us as we lost our second child to sudden infant death in 2012.

Unfortunately great plans don't always come to be, and she broke her collarbone whilst out with our cycling club a few months ago. Initially I lost all motivation to do the ride, as my big goal this year was to help her achieve what she thought was unachievable. I wasn't even going to do it. But she and my friends talked me into it. As I've done audaxes and ridden 204 miles in one day, I felt bad asking for donations "just" to ride my bike. So decided to do it in fancy dress, first asking friends for suggestions on what I could wear (keeping within the rules of course) and then putting it to a vote. For some unknown reason, the "fairy princess" outfit won the popular vote so I lined up at 8:42am in my pink top and pink tutu, with a tiara on my helmet and a wand in my back pocket.

As a non-Londoner, getting the registration was a faff, as was the logistics of working out how to get to the start of the ride itself (but luckily a friend lives in Plaistow and I had a super easy ride to the start in the end) but the ride itself was special. Not the closed roads, I got over that pretty quickly, but the spectators on the side of the road, the people who were making a day of it at the end of their driveway, the towns with the music and PA systems. Organisation considering the size of the event was really exceptional in my opinion. I thought the start was going to be a bun fight for space, the fact they chuck you straight out onto a multi-lane carriageway for the first few miles was perfect. Everyone had their own room, including those that wanted to pull over to the side of the road to meet others.

Being... interestingly... dressed I got a lot of attention, and spent a lot of the ride high-fiving people and thanking people for saying I looked pretty. A bit of a change to the commute I must say.

As a daily cyclist around the Mendips, I will admit that the route wasn't at all challenging for me, but I appreciate that there are plenty for whom the day was a massive occasion - including my boss who completed his first ever century at the age of 65. Box Hill was an easy spin, the hill at Wimbledon felt just like a normal commute ;-) I went up it high fiving the charity supporters on the side of the road.

I was in a group who were diverted from Leith Hill, we were sent up Pasture Wood Road although at the time I didn't realise we were being diverted. I only realised we'd missed it when I noticed my GPS didn't match the mile boards. Unfortunately on this climb the whole ride seemed to grind to a halt, as people just stopped dead in the road and filled the whole lane up walking. This was at the foot of the climb. Plenty of shouts of "walk on the left" from others, one lady screamed back "it's not a race" but I've got to admit, I find it easier to cycle up hills than walk up them in cleats so whilst no, it wasn't a race, a little courtesy from all on this section would have gone a long way. Got up by cycling eventually by weaving around people (including those coming to a dead stop). And then on the descent a guy in front of me, four feet from the side of the carriageway, just slammed his brakes on and came to a complete stop for no apparent reason... in the middle of the lane. Cue a cascade of "woah!!" and people going left and right like the Red Arrows.

But other than that, considering the number of riders and range of abilities, I thought most people handled themselves well. I just treated anyone else as an unknown quantity and assumed the unexpected (lucky I did, as the several bike lengths I was leaving on any descent stopped me from clattering into the back of aforementioned chap!) I'm sure I unintentionally moved into someone's path at some point so will forgive anyone that did it to me.

Was really upset when I heard the sad news that someone wasn't going home to their family that night, I figured as soon as I realised we were diverted that it must have been a serious incident and respected any decision to make people skip the hill. The road will be there whenever people want to ride it.

Managed to catch the pros going the other way at Kingston, a total fluke of timing as it's one of the only points that the routes intersect.

Came through The Mall and left with a great memory of being cheered down a finishing straight for the first time in my life. Closest I've had to that was a walking school bus of primary school kids who cheered me up a hill once. Simply The Best by Tina Turner was playing but I'm sure that wasn't just for me in my tutu.

I'd do it again if I wasn't raising money for charity, but purely because I find it hard to ask for donations being an everyday cyclist who does a couple of hundreds and more a year. The roadside support made it so special, I loved seeing people enjoy themselves on the sides of the roads (special shout out to the couple having a picnic on an empty dual carriageway in the other direction to the ride, presumably just because they could). And I'd especially do it if I could complete the ride with my wife. Maybe I'm soft but I will admit to shedding a tear lining up without her. I know she was crushingly disappointed to miss out because of her collarbone, but still drove me to London then stood with our charity at Wimbledon to cheer everyone on. I know deep down that wasn't easy for her to do.

 

[sleaver]

My friend and I chose to go that way using the official Leith diversion.

Ah, OK. I thought you had said earlier that you got sent down that diversion as Leith Hill was closed. My bad