Prudential RideLondon 2017: the highs, and the lows

I did the 46 and got knocked over by an arrogant goon trying to blast his way through a gap which wasn't there, so my experience is wholly negative.  I'm still suffering the consequences. So many of the problems could be solved by asking riders their speed and allocating slower riders to a later wave, seems so simple.

The ride was made unbearable by slower riders plodding along on the extreme right, and faster riders undertaking when there was space to overtake. What are they trying to prove? The marshalls did nothing about either behaviour, nor did the safety marshalls I saw cycling gently through Richmond Park. I don't recall any of the endless bossy emails from the organisers mentioning this. The ride organisers themselves don't seem interested in feedback.

I did the Pru the year of the storm.  Ill probably not do it again until a reliable application system is sorted.  A friend of mine had a good early start and suprised himself a  little with a very credible sub 5hours.

They do need the ID check.

It's oversubscribed as an event. If anyone could enter and get their numbers unchecked you'd get plenty of people just entering speculatively just to sell on places.

So chances of getting in would lessen unless you're happy to pay a scalper and have your ride under someone else's name.

I was surprised by how many commented they would come in handy as they'd recently broken a lever. May be worth checking any you have in a saddle bag, as it sounds like the plastic of some brands is subject to deterioration over time/exposure. 

I do like the tyre levers I have to admit although I question how many sets a person needs.  I think perhaps I shall have to buy a new bike to store them on

The only downside for me was not being able to stop suddenly to pick up a pair of Oakley Jawbreakers & a pair of POC DO glasses that had been dropped in the road - especially as I'd been considering a purchase of one of them for a while.  Too many on my wheel to suddenly haul on the anchors!

No real negatives for me - this was my 3rd time riding and the organisation does seem to have improved as the years have gone by.  Good to arrive at a feed station and find it fully stocked too as they've generally been quite poorly stocked in previous years.

Tearing down the Embankment at 65kmh took me back to my racing days which was nice. Sub 5 was my aim and sub 5 is what I got.

The entry cost increase in recent years is utterly ridiculous though. 

Having an earlier start than last year meant I had a great almost incident free ride and the weather was perfect - warm but not too hot or wet. Obviously the organisers can't help this but they did get us off well and the slight variant on lining up the start waves worked smoothly.

They can so better on the marsalls though, so many sitting about in groups chatting and generally seemed lacking in ability to help on the couple of accidents I did see. One looked the wrong way before letting a lady onto the road just in front of me - narrowly missed a 30km/h+ smash up.

Some well known London cycling clubs were the biggest downer for me. Dragged one group of a South Lonon club from before Tower all the way to Putney - no coming around when signalled to take a turn and when I moved to back did all they could to get me off the wheel (dropped back, made a gap and had a sprint). After the third time I couldn't make the gap and got spat out.
Their reputation for arrogance is well earned.

<p>My first time, loved it, thought the organisation very good, though I didn't use the food stops except for water as I prefer to eat my own choices on the move on all sportives and not waste time queuing. Was apprehensive about such a large number of other riders but never really felt this to be an issue. Was a bit of a shock though to come from 100 traffic free miles to then cycle to Victoria and onwards in city traffic.
Would certainly like to do it again.</p>

Loving all the encouraging comments from relatively inexperienced riders here. We were all newbies once. Mass rides like this are anathema to me, roads closed or not, but this thread has put a smile on my face.

and to the chap finding it hard to get the time to train for a long ride...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/men/active/recreational-cycling/11005580/Laur...

After everything I read about the event I was expecting to spend most of the time held up in blockages from overcrowding or accidents.  Was also expecting a sea of litter and bad behaviour, none of these things happened.

I started at 8:20 (a lot later than I hoped for) and turned up at 07:00, as mentioned above I could have turned up around 08:00 as this was the time they started moving my wave down towards the starting area.

The only negatives from the whole day was a pinch point a few miles before Leith hill that almost caused us all to go piling into each other, luckily everyone had great reactions, this area should have had warning signs.  Leith hill bunched up a bit as was to be expected but there was just one idiot who was pretty much demanding everyone get out of his way.  He was saying he just wanted to beat his time from last year, suprised he wasn't lamped by someone!  This was the only moron of the day that I came across.

I only saw two accidents, one was straight after a sharp bend going under a bridge (either before or just after Leith), the woman was laying in the road and was being attended to by a paramedic, strangly this only seemed to hold up the flow of riders by about 30 seconds (hope she was okay).  The second happend straight in front of me and if I'd been 1 or 2 seconds ahead, probably wouldn't have been able to avoid the poor woman.  She seemd to lose control of the front wheel and half went over the handlebars, she jumped straight up and looked quite embarrassed.

I'm not a club rider so haven't had loads of experience (other than the odd sportive) with riding on someone else's wheel and have only ever been at the back as I'm not confident enough to take the lead, in terms of knowing what pace to take.  When riding with friends I've either gone too fast or too slow at the front so I just haven't risked it with strangers.  I tagged on the back of a few fast riders for a short while on this event but didn't want to take the p*ss so only spent a few minutes here and there.  One thing that suprised me and has given me a great confidence boost was turning round to find about 6 others on my wheel, this happend about 3 times on RideLondon.  One guy even thanked me for helping him along for about 10 miles!  It's normally me thanking others so that was a highlight of the day.

My aim was to try and get 6 hours which I thought was ambitious given my start time but ended up getting 5:20!  Beyond happy with that time as it was quick enough to be proud of (for me anyway), and yet I didn't have my head down the whole time.  I was able to take in the atmosphere of the whole event, high fived dozens of spectators, chatted to several other riders and couldn't help but grin most of the way round!  It was an experience I'll never forget, the closed roads in such an iconic place really did feel special.

My girlfriend now wants to do it next year after coming along to spectate so we're going to try and enter.  I don't feel any need to ever beat my time as it would mean relying on external factors and putting others at risk so if I take part next year I can just take my time and probably stop more often along the route.

Good: On paper, having to turn up at 7:30 for a start time of 8:58 seemed diabolically wasteful - however on the day the whole start process, especially once you see the number of people, went very smoothly. The weather helped too.

Appalingly Bad: The only idiots on Leith Hill were the Prudential Ride London support car. For some reason some prat had decided that a bike rack on the rear was a good idea rather than a roof rack as seen on every other ride/race support you've ever looked at. They were getting very aggressive trying to go up the hill with the bike on the back clipping the hedgerow and riders.

Good: The cycling Evans bike mechanics. They were both going a good clip and yet halting for every stopped bike to see if they could help - and all whilst carrying a track pump in a rucksac. 

Great: Not missing cars at all (apart from aforementioned support car above). My first time in a closed road event and it was nice. A few road trains belted past without giving warning but very very much a minority. A few cycled on the right when their pace should have put them on the left but there was space all alround so no harm/no foul. [I did ride on the Saturday on the 10-mile closed loop and that was much more stressful - generally lower pace and level of bike experience so almost always on the brakes the whole loop whilst the 100 needed very little braking]

Poor: At the finish, it was a long way to any loos. The start abounded with portaloos. The route had great provision (none of this indicates I had any problem) but at the finish you had to walk a long way to find the first portaloo. I know Lizzie probably didn't want them on the front drive so to speak but to have them after the medals/free water/bag collect/bike park was seemed odd.

If anyone found a Garmin 520 at the feed stop on box hill I'd love mine back.

With the Simon Jenkins story about an unbridgeable river of cyclists meaning he couldn't cross High Holborn: based on my limited number of trips to that there London, how is that situation any different to every other day of the year when that road is open to motor traffic?

First and probably last time for me. The organisation was good, the route and crowds were great. It's always nice to ride on closed roads. For me the negative was the feedstops, the only option was energy gels or bars; my guts still haven't recovered yet! Some real food would have been much appreciated.

And then there's the cost. Having to register the day before meant that we had to have an overnight stay so all in the weekend came in around the £400 mark hence why it will be a one off, I'd struggle to justify doing it again.

Bleep

Spaceman, and others:

How did you find the merge point. last  year there was a lot of congestion in Richmond town after the 46 merged back onto the 100 route. Afterwards there were also quite a few near misses, as slower riders spread across the road, not expecting faster 100milers coming up behind them.