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Ride London and predicted times

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  • April 27, 2015 at 6:10 pm #23864
    gonedownhill

    Hi all,

    So out of all my friends and acquaintances who entered, I was the only one who managed to get a spot in the Ride London ballot.

    Since then two of my mates have managed to get charity places, however the estimated finish times we have put down are an hour apart. I’d much rather ride with those guys than on my todd, so my question is how do they let riders off and how cool are they about moving times about on the day? I realise it’s difficult for them to organise so many people and that they need the course for the pro race later so wouldn’t blame them if they were pretty militant about it.

    Frankly my estimated time was way optimistic anyway and even if I add an hour to my estimated time I think I will struggle to get inside it! Not sure what I was thinking putting that time down and kind of suspect it may have been a typo.

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  • April 29, 2015 at 1:59 pm #843641
    0
    gonedownhill

    Thanks for advice all,
    Thanks for advice all, especially the stuff about flint.

    April 28, 2015 at 12:44 pm #843639
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    CXR94Di2

    I had to repair my puncture
    I had to repair my puncture on the start line. Then a young chap turned up, saw me mending mine and asked me to mend his puncture! He had never done it before, only had one spare tube which I was now using to get him off the start line. Luckily for me I didn’t have another puncture, but had spares just in case I did.

    April 28, 2015 at 10:07 am #843637
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    Iamnot Wiggins

    Sounds like I got of lightly
    Sounds like I got of lightly then as I didn’t puncture until just outside Wimbledon last year. And that was due to a rather large gash in my tyre caused by something in a puddle. God bless the Mavic support guys!

    April 28, 2015 at 9:56 am #843635
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    The Rake

    CXR94Di2 wrote:The rest were

    CXR94Di2 wrote:
    The rest were mending punctures from the bloody flints used on all paths around the Olympic park.

    Warning to all participants.

    Arrive a few minutes early, then walk with your bike to the start. Before you begin the ride wipe down your tyres to remove all flints and just hope you don’t pick up a puncture in the first mile or two.

    I found that. A more experienced club rider I was chatting to in the pen suggested I do that last year. The only puncture I had came seven miles after the finish and on the way back to the O2. The streets in the early miles were lined with puncture victims.

    April 28, 2015 at 8:03 am #843633
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    Notgettinganyfaster

    CXR94Di2 wrote:Arrive a few

    CXR94Di2 wrote:
    Arrive a few minutes early, then walk with your bike to the start. Before you begin the ride wipe down your tyres to remove all flints and just hope you don’t pick up a puncture in the first mile or two.

    +1

    I made it about half a mile.

    April 28, 2015 at 7:45 am #843631
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    Al__S

    Last year they weren’t
    Last year they weren’t checking the “entry cards” and there were people with different letters and even different colours in my wave…

    April 28, 2015 at 7:25 am #843629
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    CXR94Di2

    The rest were mending
    The rest were mending punctures from the bloody flints used on all paths around the Olympic park.

    Warning to all participants.

    Arrive a few minutes early, then walk with your bike to the start. Before you begin the ride wipe down your tyres to remove all flints and just hope you don’t pick up a puncture in the first mile or two.

    April 28, 2015 at 6:55 am #843627
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    stueyboy

    If you happen to be in the
    If you happen to be in the same start colour stream as your friends then you might be able to join the same start pen as them (or they could join you). Last year my other half had a start time 30 minutes behind me but joined my pen and no one bothered. If they are in a different stream, that might make it more difficult and you would be better to wait after the start. Last year there were loads of people waiting about 200m after the start line for other riders

    April 28, 2015 at 6:42 am #843625
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    CXR94Di2

    I think they only have the
    I think they only have the elite riders go early. Those of us who fall into average pace all go roughly together. I passed many slower riders in front of me but was passed by many others who were faster. My pace was around 5hrs last year for 86 miles so I would of come in under 6 for a hundred. As I went by Wimbledon the elite riders were already coming back into london at a fair lick

    April 27, 2015 at 7:26 pm #843623
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    Jimbonic

    You could always get some
    You could always get some sleep for an hour!

    I think you’ll find you’re pleasantly surprised with your time. I predicted >6 hours and got under 5 hrs. The lack of stopping and almost constant “peloton” make for an easy swift pace. I usually ride 80 km at about 27-28 km/h. At Ride London ’13, I was averaging 32 km/h!

    Anyway, it doesn’t matter about getting inside your time. You’ll probably have plenty of time; they set the faster times off earlier, I think, to stop bunching too much. I could be wrong…

    Enjoy

    April 27, 2015 at 6:43 pm #843621
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    lolol

    They are quite strict about
    They are quite strict about the start time. They recommend you start, then wait somewhere on the course, an hours a pain though.

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