The Prudential RideLondon 100

So, Sunday 29th July was the big day.  Training rides, hours in the gym, watching videos of the big hills, driving the big hills, cycling the big hills in the middle of a heatwave to prepare me and my legs for the undertaking.

The Pre-Ride

I knew it was going to be a long day, the alarm going off at 4am making me drag myself out of bed and start cracking on with things.  First, into the kitchen to neck some sort of liquid carbo breakfast (chocolate flavoured).  Then into the bathroom for a quick wash, contact lenses in (at this point Claire F arose from the spare room with a "no" look on her face).

I checked, and double checked my ride bag and away we went to Richmond station.

At this point the skies were looking a bit crap but it hadn't started raining just yet although it was quite cold as you'd expect at that time in the morning.  Approaching the station is when the first drops of rain started to appear, and when I thought... oh blimey, I need to go to the toilet and it wasn't for something I could do standing up...

The train to Stratford was a mixture of people chatting away, the section of the carriage I was in with my bike leaning against me was a bit more "pensive" (nobody was saying anything) which gave me more time to think about how bad I needed to get to a toilet.  Fast forward to Stratford and I get off the train, realising I had no idea at all where "Orange" was (that was my loading colour).  A quick ask of someone that remembered to bring a map and away I went.  That was when I saw my salvation... a whole bank of portaloos!  I wont go into any major detail here, but the first one I went in didn't have any paper, but the second one did.  Unfortunately I realised afterwards that the flushing mechanism was broken.  Then it was on to the loading point...

Still so very early for a Sunday morning but the nerves were pretty much non existent.  The usual thoughts were there though; will I get around ok? is the weather going to stay alright? how many stops would I have (I was planning a 2 stop strategy)? have I brought enough energy gels / clif bars?

I heard this voice shouting "Orange O, walk your bike to the loading area!" (obviously spotting the number on my handlebars), so onward I walked towards the sea of cyclists in front of me.

Again, the was quite the buzz, a P.A. system in the background playing some music and I actually for a moment thought it was a radio show going on.  A guy pulls up beside me as we inch our way towards the start line (that you can make out in the distance on the photo above) on a mountain bike, complete with full on knobblies!  We start chatting and it turned out he had the same start time as me.  All the time we're still moving forwards so we're literally right at the line, maybe 1 or 2 more lots to be released before we are and its just past 7am at this stage.  I say to the guy that they can't keep  us waiting here for 1.5 hours can they? No, they didn't.  I start the MapMyRide app on my phone but couldn't get my FitBit started straight away. My Prudential 100 miles had started...

Here we go!
People flying out over the line, I was looking to maintain an average of 17mph over the entire 100 miles so I wasn't going to destroy my legs over the first mile.  "Ride smarter, not harder" was the ethos to follow.  I had my bike set in my "cruising" speed so a nice comfortable cadence, latch onto a rider in front of me and use them as a pace setter.  I had my phone display set to show my current and average speed.  I didn't care about the distance at that point, I had mental distance markers set.  Hampton Court palace, approx 27 miles, close to my flat, about 40 miles.  I needed to be sure my legs still felt OK even then because I'd still have Newlands Corner, Leith Hill and Box Hill to go.

There wasn't much to see at that point, we weren't even in the city but I'm cruising along quite happily, although there was one part where I'm going through a tunnel and my phone display said I was doing 31mph.  It certainly didn't feel like it but I was overtaking people and I was being overtaken.  Arguments for it being that speed, no wind resistance at all, arguments against it being that speed, how would the phone know due to being in a tunnel so how is it even tracking anything?

Out the other end of the tunnel and the rain is now falling, albeit lightly but we're now approaching central London.  I'll admit that it was a bit of a blur but I do remember going past Harrods and thinking "oh cool, I'm in Knightsbridge" not that I had any idea where that was in London.

Over the Hammersmith flyover, the rain is now falling a bit faster and I can feel my jersey getting wet, but I'm still OK.  Whats more, I came out of London with an average speed of 18mph!  Fast forwards and we get over the Thames, a while later I start recognising where I am, I'm approaching Kingston!

The weather is now, in a word, crap.  Theres not many spectators / cheerers on the sides of the roads, and to be fair I didn't hold that against them.  We head through Kingston and into Richmond Park, thats when the heavens truly opened and I felt like I was being beaten by hailstones.  The rain was cold, the wind was blowing it into my face, my clothes were soaked and my shoes felt like I'd trodden in a puddle.  Looking down at the phone display (safely protected in the all weather case I have on the front of my bike) my current speed was a dismal 12mph, my average was eeking down and nearly at 17mph not to mention rain just running down my handlebars and dripping onto the ground.  My legs felt cold as I was mainly coasting along and my brain just said "FFS Dave! Get those legs moving!".  Once I did that they started to come back to life.

It felt like the rain had started to subside, but that probably wasn't true as I was completely wet through so didn't feel any different.  It was nice being on familiar grounds so I was just able to crack on.  Hampton Court, Weybridge, Brooklands.  OMG Claire!  I've set off 1.5 hours before she (and I) was expecting me to!  I could only hope she was tracking me on the app.  Hmm, the app, I wonder how many people are following me online right now?  Yes, these are thoughts that were going through my head as I cruised along in the drizzle.

I see the bridge over the M25 its a straight shot past the Harvester, turn left and into Pyrford.  I have a quick glance at the barriers to see if I can see Claire and Sasha but I didn't and away I went. Down into Ripley and the weather turned crap again.  I see flashing blue lights up ahead, there was a motorcycle police officer talking to a cyclist that was sitting down with someone else and he was wrapped up in one of those foil blankets you see people wrapped up in when they have hypothermia or something like that.  I press on regardless...

The Surrey Hills

I see that sign that I saw only 2 weeks before.  Welcome to the Surrey Hills, outstanding beauty blah blah blah.  Again, my brain read it as "Welcome to hell".  A quick status check on my legs, they felt ok, I see Newlands Corner and it was like a chorus of clicking as you could hear everyone start to drop their gears.  I settle into a nice comfortable cadence and a balance of sitting down and standing.  Yeah I wish I had gotten up the hill faster but I got up it without getting off.  Objective 1 completed (Get up Newlands Corner without getting off and walking up it).  The roads were wet and it was a fast descent but nowhere near as fast as it was 2 weeks previously when the roads were bone dry but still in excess of 30mph.

Get the bike back into cruising gears again and maintain the speed because I know the next hill is the main one.

Several miles later, Leith Hill.  Again a chorus of riders clicking down the gears and settling into it.  The ascent was like a dodgy phonecall as you could hear people breathing deeply and rhythmically.  I knew to keep myself on the left hand side but I was still moving past people.  I can safely say that to someone unfamiliar with Leith Hill, even though I had only ridden up it once I would still say I was unfamiliar with it, it is a hill that messes with your legs and your head.  It climbs, then it flattens, then climbs again, then flattens, then climbs again, and just when you think you've done it on another flat you see it climbing again.  My phone display is showing a blistering 6mph.  My mind sees the item of art I saw in John Lewis of a cyclist and underneath the slogan said "Shut Up Legs!".  To be completely honest, even now I can't tell you how many times it ascends and flattens, but I think the final ascent part goes up and to the right a bit.  I peek through the trees on the left and see grey skies but great scenery so I knew I must be nearly at the top.  There's a lady sitting down on the left with another cyclist and it looks like she has seriously bad cramp.  A marshal goes to them to ask if she is ok and the guy helping her says he thinks she needs medical attention.  I press on.  I refuse to be beaten by this hill.  A facebook post I shared comes to mind "I dont care how slow you go, just don't stop".  The hill flattens out, I don't re-engage a bigger gear because I don't trust the hill to not climb again so I am spinning away, albeit a bit faster.  I've done it, objective #2 done (Get up Leith Hill without getting off and walking up it).  I then start moving it a bit more, here comes the descent.  Previously on the descent I wasn't pedalling at I still hit 42mph but on that day the roads were bone dry, the light conditions were good and there weren't hundreds of cyclists.  There was absolutely no way I was doing that.  The tree cover made the road dark, so many cyclists in close proximity to one another, I was riding the brakes on the way down and I was still doing about 24mph.

The hairiest descent ever and I was glad to break cover of the trees, yes it meant being out in the rain again, but it was lighter (in terms of daylight).

We start approaching Dorking and there were quite a few people lining the streets cheering us on. It was absolutely fantastic so I gave a few quick thank you type waves and felt energised by the cheering.  There was a downhill part and I just hear this almighty BANG and some rumbling.  It sounded like the heavens had truly opened and I was heading right for it.  I wont put in here what I was saying to myself at that point.  As it turns out there was a band at the bottom of the hill with quite a large drum section so that made me laugh a bit.  Then it was on to Box Hill

A few people lining the roads there to spur us on and I'm now wondering how long I've been riding for as I knew I was about 60+ miles in.  Had a quick look on the display and I wasn't doing too badly.  So I decided to reward myself with music.  Time to switch on the Aftershokz and get my prudential playlist going.  I put it onto shuffle and the first track truly did make me laugh, given the weather and road conditions and the state of me, the first track was by...

There were a couple of photographers nested into the side of the road in either a large poncho or small tent.  But they did appear to get some good pics...

We had shelter from the wind and a bit of rain on the ascent there but as soon as I got to the top, the wind and rain hit me from the side.  The only solace I could take from that was that it wasn't directly in my face like it had been in Richmond Park.  Oh and objective #3 completed (Get up Box Hill without getting off and walking up it).

Once I finished the descent of Box Hill I then realised that I had completed objective #4, not be forced to take a shortcut as that was the last point the organisers could have forced someone to take one!

Back out of the hills

Still listening to my awesome playlist that I'd created, I found myself settling into my riding even more with the average speed starting to climb again.  We got to Esher and, again, it was nice being on familiar roads. Through Thames Ditton, Surbiton and then we had to stop at Kingston.  The route went through Kingston market so I guess they were letting cyclists through piecemeal to let people cross the road further ahead.  So it was probably only 1 or 2 minutes but it felt like forever.  I took the opportunity to have a quick drink and swap my bottles around so I had the fuller one readily available then on we went again.  Only to be stopped two more times in Raynes Park and then Wimbledon.  It was starting to get annoying.  But that said, Wimbledon Hill was the last climb we had but it was loaded with spectators cheering us all on. I can tell you that I truly fed off their energy, got out of my seat and attacked that hill.  90 miles in at this point and I wasn't going to pootle up this one, the final climb.  I remember people on a mic cheering us all on saying "Come on! This is the last climb!" that really got the adrenaline pumping and a sheer "F**k you hill" attitude going.

Then the descent into Putney and over the bridge. I turned to a cyclist on my left and said to them "I'm so glad I put on sun cream today".  I'd been holding onto that all ride and needed to say it to someone.

I call Claire (as my headphones are bluetooth) to give her my approximate location where I had about 6 miles to go, she only had 1.5 miles so fortunately she had the foresight to get going alot sooner than originally planned.  After the phonecall and I put my phone back to the MapMyRide app, I couldn't believe what it was showing me.  I was at 5 hours 50 minutes!  I knew I was going to absolutely smash my final objective in doing it under 7 hours so I had a bit of a lump in my throat at that point. Then the playlist shuffle next chose "Eye of the tiger" by Survivor.  If thats not a song to get you going then I don't know what is.  I found some extra legs and started to shift it along the thames, overtaking cyclists left right and centre.  The final left turn into the mall and I could see Buckingham Palace in the distance. I just absolutely went for it.

Getting out of my seat to get that extra power into the pedals I was weaving through cyclists and seeing the distance markers counting down... 300m... 250m... 200m... 150m... 100m... 50m... and across the line!

6 hours, 7 minutes and 27 seconds!  Absolutely smashing what I was expecting to do it in but I am a little annoyed at the 7 minutes 27 seconds.

The aftermath

All in all it was an absolutely brilliant day.  My second century ride and the results themselves are a result of the weight loss and training I'd been doing in the months before and carrying a photo of Keegan and me in my jersey pocket...

I've just entered the ballot for the 2019 ride London. As I'd really like to now beat 6 hours.  As a result of this event I've seen huge gains in my overall fitness, I've joined my local cycling club so I'm quietly confident that a sub 6 hour time is very attainable.

Thank you for taking the time to read this somewhat lengthy blog entry and I'll write again soon, as for my next "event", well thats a belated birthday celebration in our fair capital city :-)