Small Edit 17-Aug-2014
The Preparation
This year, unlike last year, I got in through in the ballot. I have to say that whilst I was pleased I was still in two minds - the logistics were a lot more complex than the normal type of Sportive or event I have done. I was however lucky that my parents live in Dartford, Kent, which is about 15 miles from the centre of London, so this did reduce some of the potential issues.
I was in 2 minds because although it was on closed roads (I have never ridden on these) and passed some relatively iconic landmarks in London, it was quite expensive and apart from a few locations on the route - pretty boring - it is a drag through London to get to Leith Hill (not ridden) and Box Hill (I have ridden) and then back to London. However the relatively flat route would possibly mean it was possible to ride (for me) a sub-6 hour 100 miles - a first for me.
Having got over the "not quite sure I want to do it" phase as the months passed I actually got quite enthusiastic. This was dampened again when I got the final instructions that told me I needed to go to the Excel Centre in Docklands to get the final rider pack. This was to say the least somewhat irritating and another pain of logistics. It was fortunate that I had decided to make a bit of week of it and had some days holiday planned both before and after the ride weekend. We drove down to Dartford on the Wednesday before and I rode into London on the Thursday.
I had plotted out a set of routes for the morning. The first part was from Dartford to Excel. I left at about 10am and rode to Excel. I followed part of a route I have done before - through Crayford, Bexleyheath and Welling and up Shooters Hill, which according to wikipedia is one of the highest points on London, or at least South London! After the top of Shooters Hill I descended down the other side which was all new to me. A right about 1/2 way down turned me onto Woolwich Common and on towards Woolwich Barracks (still active) and down to the Woolwich Ferry. I remembered both of these as for many years (in 2 phases) my father worked in Woolwich, firstly at Stones when they were based there making ships propellers and then later at the Woolwich Arsenal. I had decided to cross the river using the Woolwich Foot Tunnel. This was about the most easterly point I could cross the river. I followed the instructions and did walk across rather than ride though. And just before I lost satellite reception my Garmin showed an altitude of -18ft! Coming out of the foot tunnel on the northern side of the river I got a little confused as one of the planned roads was closed due to the Crossrail works that had closed a number of roads for the tunnel under the Thames. This minor issue over it was then pretty straightforward following the Garmin to get to Excel for the Cycle Show and to get the rider pack.
Here's where I was a bit disappointed - Excel is a pain to get to unless you use the DLR (Docklands Light Railway) and possibly the car, but cycling is difficult with some very busy roads (they were OK at 11am of a weekday morning), so why hold a major cycling event in such a location??? Once I was there however the organisation was very slick. I handed my bike over to be securely stored very quickly and then walked over to the section of desks for my number (3352). After handing over my letter and lending them my passport for photo ID my pack was handed over - 2 minutes max. I then browsed through what I'd been given and wondered why I had needed to come over in person and it could not have been posted to me - I would willingly have paid another £2 or so on the fee to cover those costs and save the ride over.
As I was there I then ambled around the show - quick summary - very poor. A big Wiggle stand with lots of stuff for sale (nothing I wanted or needed), a Garmin stand (didn't look), a Continental stand, a few other smaller retailers and lots of charity stalls. There was a big stage with a bloke doing his best to motivate people and give them rides tips - the few bored looking kids all seemed to be ignoring him but he did plug on bravely. I felt there should be more so went around again - but no - that was it. So I went off and had a Costa Coffee and muffin (other coffee shops are available) then went back and collected my bike and set course (with the Garmin again) for the Olympic park to see where the start of the event was.
This was an example of how planning a route from the internet can be problematic. The Garmin was telling me to turn left and there was no road so I had to use the map view and cycle around the issue. I think in this instance it was because the route I had plotted was along a canal!. The Olympic Park was only about 3-4 miles from the Excel centre so did not take long. Some works were also going on in the area and again I had to make an educated guess - but found my way onto the sort of ring road and saw some signs showing colours for the start. I rode along the road past Westfield Shopping Centre but saw no more signs. I rode up and down a couple of times but saw no more signs. Consulting the map in the rider pack showed that the start was probably on that road. So I was reasonably satisfied I now knew pretty well where I needed to be on the Sunday morning, so I then set off for Surrey Quays, which is where I would be leaving the car on the Sunday morning.
Unlike the ride from Excel to Qlympic Park, this was a longer ride - I'd be cycling into central London to Tower Bridge and then back eastwards to the shopping centre. The first problem was about a mile from starting, a road I was planning to use was in fact a street market, so again I had to use the map view to detour back to the planned route. As well as some poor planning, unexpected street closures and other minor issues another problem was that clearly the tall buildings did affect the GPS signal and you really needed to be moving to have any reliability. When stopped for traffic the map direction would meander every which way. Anyway - after a reasonably low issues trip I arrived at Surrey Quays shopping centre. Unfortunately there was no signage for the Sunday parking but I was pretty happy that I knew where I would need to be. So the final trip was from Surrey Quays back to Dartford. This was a relatively simple route - Greenwich,up Maze Hill at the side of Greewich Park, back to Shooters Hill to climb the full hill from West to East (which was pretty hard) and then to Dartford. 42 miles in total, but only about 14mph average - which was down to traffic and getting a bit lost here and there.
All in all - not a bad ride and riding in London was interesting. Certainly there was less traffic than I expected but this may have been due to it being between the main rush hour periods.
The Event
After the glorious weather of the ride to London on Thursday the weather forecasters started to get very excited about the remnants of Hurricane Bertha that was likely to hit England on the Sunday. By Saturday evening there were indications that the weather might be less than great on Sunday and possibly that the route might be changed. This was clearly going to be a disappointment if it were to be the case.
Having gone to all the expense and time to ride the last thing I was going to do was pull out so I assumed all was OK and went to bed with 2 mobile phones set to 4am alarms. I didn't sleep particularly well and woke up about 3.45am so decided to get up. I had back calculated that getting up at 4 am would give me enough time to get dressed, have some breakfast, load the car, drive to Surrey Quays, unload and cycle to the start with plenty of time. I had a 7.02am start and the wave load time was 6.02 to 6.32 - with strict instructions that if you were late you couldn't ride. I had a slightly too leisurely breakfast so by the time I was done I was back to the original timing. I loaded the car, and drove down the A2 - not realising that from Bexley to London it was a 50mph limit despite being a dual carriageway so I lost a little more time. However I arrived at Surrey Quays still with plenty of time. I put my arm warmers on and my overshoes, I also was optimistic and put my gilet on rather than my waterproof jacket, although did put that in my pocket. I also had a good selection of bars and gels this time - on the last 100 mile (Dynamic Rides 100) I almost run out of energy and ate everything I had and I didn't want that again this time. I also bought a couple of Caffeine gels this time as I get a bit of a headache if I don't have a coffee all morning!
The~6 mile route to the start was well signed from the car park and the closer we got to the start the more cyclists were appearing from other routes so there were hundreds of cyclists on the roads just next to the Olympic Park. Given the very early start it was really eerie seeing so many cyclists all moving and congregating in long lines. I left the car park about 5.40am and each mile I travelled it got lighter and by the time we got to the Olympic Park it was pretty well full light. People were milling around the start area sing the toilets (of which there were loads), getting drinks etc. Then I got in my queue - Orange H and other people started to gather as well. I had about 60 minutes to wait so I put my waterproof jacket on to keep warm.
After about 15 minutes people started to discuss the fact that the route had been cut and Leith Hill and Box Hill were to be cut from the route making it now 86 miles rather than 100. There was a bit of grumbling and moaning as the weather at the start was pretty good. Lots of people got their phones out and started texting, tweeting etc. I got mine and sent a text to my wife and mum to say that the route was shorter and I'd be back in London at least an hour earlier as they were going to watch the finish. I also looked at the weather for Dorking which was showing significantly worse weather than London and earlier in the day as well. I was a bit annoyed about the hills being cut but took the view that with even less climbing I ought to be able to push harder over the remaining route and make some good time.
As our waves start time approached we started to move towards the actual start line, and once we were in that area the move from the wait area to the actual start line did not take very long at at, and, then, that was it - we were off. I was near the front of my wave and had a relatively clear ride onto the main A12 road.
Although there was a slight gap between all the waves almost immediately you could get a feel of the scale of the numbers of cyclist taking part. Across all 3 lanes were cyclists moving at a range of speeds. There were also a lot of people waiting at the side - clearly for friends or family who were starting in a later wave. There were also already a few unfortunate people with punctures within the first mile or so as well. There was a hint of rain and a few people stopped to put waterproofs on, but on the whole most people were doing about 18-22mph, and even with that range there were no gaps between the cyclists - all I could see ahead was a long stream of cyclists spread across the road. It was also really weird going the wrong way round roundabouts and jumping red lights completely legally!
The pace remained high as we swept south west through London. I'd like to have been able to give a list or where we went but I don't know London that well so it was just a series of roads, buildings, shops and bikes although I did recognise some of the embankment. I also recognised arriving near Richmond park and crossing the river as I'd been close there about a year ago when I took my son to the London Duathlon in September 2013, so I knew we'd turn into Richmond before too long, and sure enough we did. We did one long leg of the park before reaching one of the gates and swinging left to do another leg of the park - here the road was a bit narrower and the pace dropped a little due to the closer proximity of riders. The weather had also deteriorated a bit by this time and it was raining reasonably steadily. We swept out of the Park and soon were at Kingston - there were quite a few spectators here and it was quite inspiring to be cheered along.
I really had no idea where we were from Kingston onwards for some time. There were a number of this I remember. The first was that as we rode into Byfleet (I think) the heavens absolutely opened - one moment there was drizzle, the next it was a torrent that physically hurt it was raining so hard - I literally went from damp to soaked in a matter of seconds.
Somewhere after this I was passed by 3-4 riders in Wiggle-Honda team kit and a World Championship jersey. My immediate thought was "what a bunch of poseurs" but within a few seconds realised that a) they were good riders in that they were in perfect line astern and b) there were loads of people trying to get on the back of them. I realised from b) that they probably were Wiggle-Honda team riders and I saw later that some of them did ride along with Marianne Vos. I didn't see Laura Trott though as she seemed to be wearing her National Championship Jersey:
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| Laura Trott (L), Sarah Story (C), Emma Trott (R) |
A few miles after this we were on quite a narrow "country" lane. Again the pace dropped a bit as it was narrow, but worse than that for many people was that virtually every 50m or so were people fixing punctures - and this went of for many km - I felt very sorry for them as it was still absolutely throwing it down.
The next point I was aware that we were probably at was Newlands Corner which was marked on the route as the first "challenging" section. I think to be honest it was a gentle hill but amazingly people had got off and walked right from the bottom even by then. The hill needed some effort but was not steep, and people were all over the road so it was quite hard to pick a line to keep to the pace I felt comfortable with - but it was possible. I think that it was probably harder later when more people would have been on the route. Once at the top it was past one of the "hubs" and then down what in the dry would have been a fast descent but in the wet was more a case of trying to get the brakes to slow you down to a safer speed.
We were then on the A25 and it was a fast run for several miles - possible to get in groups and get the pace up. We passed Leith Hill (a slight regret that we weren't going up it) and shortly after than we we in Dorking and on the A24 heading north. We passed the turn to Box Hill (and again a slight regret we were missing it out). This A24 stretch was really fast - I was in a group strung out in line and getting a good tow - consistently over 20+mph for several miles.
Once past Box Hill I know there was about 35 miles left with minimal climbing. I knew it was fast although had not looked at the time either from my watch or Garmin but knew the time was good. In fact it was so good that I didn't know if my wife and mum would get to the end in time. I had downloaded the iPhone App from the ride that people could use to track riders and I'd given my (work) iPhone to my wife so they had an idea where I might be. (it worked very well apparently)
What was also a bit confusing by now was that mile markers were still set for the 100mile distance but we'd obviously cut 2 loops out so it looked like we'd gone further than we had. I don't really know much of where we went through past Box Hill but we passed Brooklands, Sandown Park Race Course and some other Surrey towns. We crossed under the M25 for the last time and were flagged to slow by the marshals as the road was flooded - this for me was the first stretch, although I think behind me the roads were much much worse. I did not really slow - I could not have been any wetter and kept towards the middle of the road at the same speed.
Next was Kingston - here we passed riders coming the other way on the other side of the road, and the crowd was bigger than before. From Kingston it was really one big urban sprawl all the way to the finish. Wimbledon Hill was the last (but very minor) climb that again seemed to cause trouble for a lot of people - walking, weaving over the road etc. We crossed Putney Bridge that was specially opened for the event.
As we got closer we could see the tall London land marks (the Gherkin for example). Then we were back on the Embankment heading north. This was for me the most tiring part - there was a reasonable headwind by this point that was tiring, and more interestingly the number of cyclists had thinned noticeably - to the extent that they were either a lot faster than me or slower so I had no one to share the work with. Thus the last 5 miles or so were a bit of a solo effort. We turned off the embankment and rode along to Parliament, and then along Whitehall to Trafalgar Square, then a loop back on ourselves almost to pass under Admiralty Arch and the last 500m or so along the Mall to the finish line. I'd like to have said that I sprinted to the line but from 500m or so before Trafalgar Square up to the finish line I was looking for my wife & mother - but I didn't see them (although they did see me).
I passed under the line at 11.32 so I saw about a 4.5hr ride which I was pretty ecstatic with. Another 500m or so from the line was the "medal" handing out place - it looked pretty reasonable as it was handed over.
Here's the medal -although probably needs to be remade given it missed out 14 miles and the 2 hills!:
Then there was a lot of milling about around the Victoria monument and then a general drift up the road between Buckingham Palace and Green Park. Here the goody bag was handed out and you could pick up your own bag if you had left it at the start. I moved to some space at the end of the road and stopped to get my phone out to call my wife to see where they were. Despite my phone being in a sealed plastic bag in my saddle bag I was pretty dismayed to see it wet - as its about a month old I was less than happy - and as everything I was wearing was wet I had nothing to dry it out on. fortunately it still worked so I called my wife to find where she was and walked into Green Park to meet her. It had stopped raining at this point but was not sunny. The "party" area would have been great in good weather but clearly most people were wet and weren't hanging about. We had a hot drink and then headed back to the car - me on my bike and my wife and mum on the tube.
And it was over!
Here's a link to my ride on Strava: RideLondon2014
And a list as long as your arm of all the segments ridden - and that's without Leith Hill & Box Hill!
Summary Thoughts
- I was a bit cynical about the hype for the event - but it was much better than I expected
- It was disappointing that the 2 Surrey Hills were cut but given the weather it was probably the best decision
- Riding on closed roads is absolutely awesome, especially the really wide ones in London
- The route was OK but apart from the City centre and the 2 hills there are far better routes
- Given its pretty flat it makes it very fast. My time of 4:30:16 was much quicker than I expected and made it 19.1mph average - an absolute personal best
- I now feel that I could have gone perhaps 10 minutes faster over that distance
- I feel that for the 100miles a sub 5:30 could be possible for me - again that would be a fantastic personal achievement
- I was very consistent for speed over the whole route from the official timing mats (see table below)
- The spectators cheering the riders on even at 7am and the terrible weather was great
- The weather was incredible - I have never ridden in such bad and wet weather
- The number of punctured riders I saw was huge
- The roads were slippery and I had a couple of moments on wet ironwork which I got away with
- Clearly for some people the weather got the better of them - either though accidents or they were just too wet and cold
- I'd do it again like a shot.
| Split | Time Of Day | Time | Diff | min/km | km/h |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| EST MILE 17 | 07:50:32 | 00:48:23 | 48:23 | 01:52 | 32.37 |
| EST MILE 26 | 08:21:17 | 01:19:08 | 30:45 | 02:01 | 29.76 |
| EST MILE 47 | 09:32:58 | 02:30:48 | 01:11:40 | 02:08 | 28.25 |
| EST MILE 75 | 10:14:21 | 03:12:12 | 41:24 | 01:54 | 31.60 |
| EST MILE 85 | 10:45:55 | 03:43:46 | 31:34 | 01:53 | 32.12 |
| FINISH | 11:32:26 | 04:30:16 | 46:30 | 01:54 | 31.81 |
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