[Cannon]

Hi all, interested to hear the thoughts of those who train around Richmond Park and compete in 100mile sportives. Specifically, as to how their lap times correspond to avg pace for longer rides, namely 100milers. I am doing Ride London (circa 1,300m climbing) and are loosely aiming to go under 5.5hrs. My full gas effort around Richmond Park (10.8k, 50m of ascent) is just under 20minutes, without drafting, and I do 3 laps in around 1.03. Although, i rarely get longer out on the bike, so hence my question as to how others have generally paced similar rides (using Richmond as my only point of reference!).

Welcome any insights. Thanks

Topic

[Daveyraveygravey]

Jitensha Oni wrote:

Daveyraveygravey wrote:

See if you can get the crowds to applaud you – I was applauding them at points, and they went bonkers!   

Was that through Esher /Thames Ditton a couple of editions ago? We sure did! We’d been applauding and shouting encouragement at the stream of riders for a couple of hours, so it was great to get a bit back!

Good luck everyone!

 

Could well have been, but I got such a kick out of it I was doing it all round the course!

 

Well done Cannon.  Reading this makes me want to do it again, so I guess I’ll put myself through the misery of entering the ballot AGAIN.

[Scoob_84]

Well done Cannon

Well done Cannon

[davel]

Well done Cannon
Well done Cannon

[Cannon]

It was a very enjoyable day,

It was a very enjoyable day, i did it in 5hrs 10mins in the end, so fairly chuffed.

Got up at 4.45am, which was pretty early but made more so by the house party thrown next door, so got little sleep, but given that last two 100milers i’d done were H4H Dawn Raid (starting at midnight) i felt okay! Took an hour to get to start line from home, barely pedalling trying to conserve energy, and resulting in being right at the back of the green wave, compounded by joining a stubborn toilet queue just as groups were moving up.  ended up leaving QEOP at almost 8am.  Start was pretty steady and just went on feel, trying to get halfway and see how i felt.  Leith hill was a wall of helmets and wouldnt have been able to get up any quicker had i been able to.  Stopped once at top of box hill, then got back to london for quickest part of the whole thing, with decent tailwind.  All in all a great day.  one observation from the day was that the first big left hand turn after the longish straight from top of box hill was horrendous, very tight and with a chunk of paving disectign the turn, they seemed to make a fuss of other corners on the course but not so much this one (at leasts when i went past).  Otherwise very well organised event, incredible support and great atmospehere amongst riders.  

 

[Scoob_84]

Soooooo….How did you get on

Soooooo….How did you get on? Did you hit your target time? Did you ride within yourself and save some for the end? Or did you get caught up with the fast initial speed and gun it until spectacularly blowing up on Leith Hill?

[Jitensha Oni]

Daveyraveygravey wrote:

See if you can get the crowds to applaud you – I was applauding them at points, and they went bonkers!   

Was that through Esher /Thames Ditton a couple of editions ago? We sure did! We’d been applauding and shouting encouragement at the stream of riders for a couple of hours, so it was great to get a bit back!

Good luck everyone!

[cant do wheelies]

I’ll stick it in here as well

I’ll stick it in here as well:
https://nk761.wordpress.com/2017/07/19/analysis-of-annual-prudential-ridelondon-cycling-sportive/

6 hours doable for me according to that. I will keep out of trouble at the start and see how it goes.

[fenix]

You’ve not ridden over 50
You’ve not ridden over 50 miles in a year ? That doesn’t sound like ideal preparation. See if you can get in a group of similar ability and don’t be a hero on the front.
Have fun.

[Cannon]

Haha, but the London crowds
Haha, but the London crowds won’t see my panache out in the Surrey Hills, they will see a white ghost pedalling in squares.

[davel]

I retract my earlier comments

I retract my earlier comments and would like to echo Scoob_84’s: much more rock n roll.

[Scoob_84]

All the above advice is all

All the above advice is all well and good, but i say just go full gas the whole way. If you blow up, you blow up, you’ll still make it home and you rode with panache and you may even suproise yourself.

[turnerjohn]

crazy-legs wrote:

Depends what time you start – the early groups go properly caning off and with no traffic in front of them it’s complete freedom. I was averaging 27mph (yes, Mph) for an hour last year on the way out.

 

Exactly what I do….actually doing 27mph felt fine as you get the draft of others and the crowds are amazing (ok maybe not at 6am my start time !) etc but getting clear road is a major bonus….just back it off the pace if your not used to it when you get properly out of town, get the “hills” out the way (their not as bad as everyone makes out) then start to ramp it upslowly the last 40miles or so…..

biggest concern is the weather……………….

[crazy-legs]

Depends what time you start –

Depends what time you start – the early groups go properly caning off and with no traffic in front of them it’s complete freedom. I was averaging 27mph (yes, Mph) for an hour last year on the way out.

Starting further back means more traffic and, if there’s an incident (as there was last year) you may even find yourself at a complete standstill for 30 minutes.

Weather forecast is for fairly significant winds from the SW so headwind all the way out which will require some changes to your pacing not to go too hard into the wind and die horribly.

Personally I planned it not to stop at any feed stations however last year (possibly connected with the time I’d had breakfast and the amount of coffee I’d drunk) I found myself inexplicably needing a proper toilet stop at Box Hill – fortunately therre were loads of portaloos at the summit but that cost a chunk of time and I obviously lost the fast moving group I was with at the time.

The main hills (not that any of them are particularly steep or long) come in the latter half of the ride so save a bit in reserve for them.

Good luck!

 

 

[cant do wheelies]

I’m doing it for the first

I’m doing it for the first time this year and I think 6 hours is doable for alansmurphy (and me). I do roughly same times around Richmond Park but never get clean laps with no cars.

Some great tips on here, thanks.

Main decision is if/when/how often I should stop as I don’t ride 100 miles ever (well a couple of times but with a slow pace and a long lunch break!) I have got 2 massive bidons ready but see what the weather will be. How long do the stops take? Have a wee and fill 2 bidons? If I’m bursting or thirsty then I have to stop so maybe I shouldn’t worry about it.

Thanks “iron duck” for route profile links. Mile 56 for Leith Hill. Frak.

I just looked at the weather for Sunday. Not bad, maybe a bit windy later on.

[Daveyraveygravey]

See if you can get the crowds

See if you can get the crowds to applaud you – I was applauding them at points, and they went bonkers!   

And the thing about riding when tired is a good point, your brain slows down, you probably won’t be able to simple sums like work out how much time you have left to get under a certain time etc.  The descent of Leith has a left-hander that can catch people out, you can’t take it flat out if there is anyone else anywhere near you.

[Author]

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