Ride London Start Times

[Silver940]

yellowjack said:

I'm not a "bumbling amateur" but FAR from being a "pro", although I really ought to be quicker. Currently 45 years old, 72kg at 5'6" (1.67m), BMI of 26, 21% bodyfat, trying to work out where on earth I'm supposed to lose 3kg from...

Edited by yellowjack on Tuesday 2nd August 16:51

Your stats are very similar to mine YJ, I'm an inch taller and 3kg heavier. If you do want to go faster maybe mix your rides up a bit. You do plenty of long comfy rides, try some short fast ones that leave you ready to chuck. Intervals, pick a decent length Strava segment and go at it with everything. My fitness improved loads chasing that Alton-Odiham one last year.

Mixing it up for me keeps the interest alive.

Edited by Silver940 on Tuesday 2nd August 20:52

[ALawson]

As Scott says mix it up, I Dick about doing about 7 hrs a week as you know, 80kg 6ft 1 diet is pretty terrible. I would kill for the sort of spare time you invest each week.

Another Tenerife trip is about to be booked so roll on 3kg weight loss in the next 8 weeks.

I bet you could do sub 5 hours with a little bit of focused training, I wouldn't start on that segment mind it's reasonably long on a busy road. Scotts time on there is better than some pretty serious amateurs!

In terms of group riding FCCC are very sociable and the Sunday cafe ride is a sensible pace, you could cut your teeth on group riding there to build the confidence.

I only mention HFH as a lady at work has raised something like £75k for them in 5 years, no mean feat.

[Jonnny]

Ride London Classic has been given World Tour status for 2017.

As far as I'm aware, this means teams like PedalHeaven won't get in.

[Dowks]

Fourmotion said:

I was chuffed to bits with a 4:14

I bet, cracking time, the commute training works a treat then! I'll be back out there on my TDF spec bike tmrw

[richardxjr]

Lol @ our semi pro guinea pig



YJ ride with others more

[andyb]

HardtopManual said:

I had a 6:04 start and can only assume that about half the field lies about their ability on their application form.

I'm no slouch and, given the early start, was looking forward to making it around reasonably quickly and safely in a group of experienced riders. However, the standard of riding and etiquette I witnessed was quite shocking. Many in our group were clinging on for grim death and all over the shop, while others were just over-aggressive and downright abusive. I widened my line around a sharp turn in Richmond to avoid a crash right in front of me. This meant that the rider on my outside had to move into free space on his right. There was a light touch of arms, nothing dramatic. He shouted "hold your f*cking line you f*cking chopper" at me. He was wearing a club jersey but didn't seem to train much, as he struggled up the incline in the park.

It's a fantastic event, a great Olympic legacy, and it would be a real shame if we lost it due to accidents and general negativity. The anti-cycling lobby would be delighted if this year's ride was the last. As a "my first sportive" event it must be magical, sweeping through London on closed roads, so it should remain open to all. No accreditations, medicals etc. However, I do think there should be stronger wording around being honest about your ability, maybe even using last year's results to determine starting times, as is done in some of the European gran fondos.

Well, not quite my first sportive, but my second, however I think you are on the money - its a great event and it would be very sad if it (or indeed the Saturday closed roads in the centre of town) was stopped. Its partially justified on the money raised so they won't stop the charity riders. I can't actually remember what I put down as my predicted time but started shortly after 7 and took 5:05 which I don't think was overly slow... but would have understood if as a first timer I had been given a late start. Problem then I guess is not all first timers will be equally slow.

My only issue was nearly being knocked off on a fast down-hill by a 'RIGHT' warrior... just as i was overtaking a group which was a bit too close for comfort at over 30. Lesson perhaps to take it easier on the downhills - especially as saw one of the nasty accidents shortly after.

Anyway, time to find that thread about difference wheels can make to see if I can 'buy' 6 mins for next year if I get in

[Benmac]

Here's a spreadsheet with the finish times so you can see where you came in the non competitive event ;o)

I was 1,673rd of 21,309 finishers so I'm just going to pack my stuff ready for a late call up to the Olympic team.


http://www.amershamrcc.com/rl100-2016-results-spre...

[Silver940]

Cool, 1016th...

[ALawson]

Silver940 said:

Cool, 1016th...

1003rd.....how those legs Scott? May plot a graph of finishing times to see the distribution.

[CharlieB]

CharlieB said:

whatleytom said:

doing it in 6 hours or whatever time

Difficult to judge due to all the delays but I wonder what the avg finishing time is on the day?

And it is 6:25:17 according to the excel sheet..

[yellowjack]

Silver940 said:

Your stats are very similar to mine YJ, I'm an inch taller and 3kg heavier. If you do want to go faster maybe mix your rides up a bit. You do plenty of long comfy rides, try some short fast ones that leave you ready to chuck. Intervals, pick a decent length Strava segment and go at it with everything. My fitness improved loads chasing that Alton-Odiham one last year...

ALawson said:

As Scott says mix it up, I Dick about doing about 7 hrs a week as you know, 80kg 6ft 1 diet is pretty terrible. I would kill for the sort of spare time you invest each week...

...I bet you could do sub 5 hours with a little bit of focused training, I wouldn't start on that segment mind it's reasonably long on a busy road. Scotts time on there is better than some pretty serious amateurs!

In terms of group riding FCCC are very sociable and the Sunday cafe ride is a sensible pace, you could cut your teeth on group riding there to build the confidence.

I only mention HFH as a lady at work has raised something like £75k for them in 5 years, no mean feat.

richardxjr said:

...YJ ride with others more

The stats thing? That was more of a dig at the whole measuring/classification system. I weighed myself again yesterday (once a year, usually round about this time, I get on the machine at Boots) and it was OK. I've lost 2.5kg of overall weight compared to 11 months ago, but only 1kg of that was from my "body fat mass". I know those machines aren't the most accurate devices, but the trend over the past 4 years seems accurate - going up in weight/% body fat when I was injured and not exercising, and a downward trend when I'm riding 'normally'. I mean, it says I need to lose ½ a stone just to get out of the 'overweight' category, but even at my most self-critical it's hard to see an 'overweight' person in the mirror.

The short, fast rides that leave you on the verge of puking thing? Not for me, really. And that, ultimately, is why I don't get (significantly) faster. I'm just not willing to give up my "long, comfy rides" to blast about on short, fast, focused 'training' rides. Hence why I really ought to stop moaning about my lack of pace, really. I follow a lot of you chaps on Strava. I see your training, I see your races, I see your event times. I have "pace envy". Deep down I know what I need to do to get faster, but I'd rather just bumble along, not planning much at all, not even deciding which bike to ride (MTB or road) until the garage door creaks open.

Scott, Alex - I'm not sure which segment exactly you refer to. My 'focus' is easy to break, and one day I'll see someone crack a segment I didn't even know about, and promise to have a good go at it myself. Then, "Ooh! Squirrel!", I'm off chasing a time on a lap of Ash Ranges, or out trying to re-trace a MTB race lap from four years ago. I'm not sure about sub 5 hours, Alex, but maybe if I did apply myself, and then got to be even quicker because of the closed roads and fast groups, who knows? It surely can't be impossible?

The whole group riding thing is a minefield for me. I'm probably OK, technically, and I certainly can't be worse than the average club newbie, but it's definitely a psychological barrier for me. That, plus the fact that weekends are usually 'family time'. My wife rightly points out that I "have plenty of time for riding bikes during her working week". That, and when I started running socially on weekend mornings (a good few years back now) it started to put strain on things at home. So the early/weekend club rides are not a great option for me.

And Alex - that little 'rant' about HFH? I'm not criticising their desire to do good. I just see that they've somewhat cornered the military charity 'market' and some smaller, more 'niche' charities are simply better at providing their particular brand of specialised help, but they struggle to compete for the pool of donations available because of the juggernaut that is HFH. Kudos to your colleague for her efforts, but I'd ask anyone considering a donation to a military charity to at least consider one of the older, more established groups as a destination for their cash. SSAFA, ABF, BLESMA, Blind Veterans UK (St Dunstan's), Combat Stress, and individual Regimental and Corps charities could do with a bigger leg-up than HFH, what's profile doesn't really need raising when you can't walk down a street without seeing their 'corporate colours' being worn in some way.


Cheers for all the comments and advice, chaps. But I really need to duck out of this thread now. It seems to be getting close to my hijacking the thread, and it shouldn't be all about me when I didn't even ride the event 'properly' at the weekend...

[Silver940]

ALawson said:

Silver940 said:

Cool, 1016th...

1003rd.....how those legs Scott? May plot a graph of finishing times to see the distribution.

Sore hamstrings for some reason, much better than yesterday, will try a ride again today, just an easy one.

No pain no gain right?

[ALawson]

Indeed, I hope to see you smash three loops of that Hartley Wintney - Hook ride you do (circa 90km distance)!

YJ no need to duck out, FYI FCCC do a Thursday morning ride from memory so you can keep err in doors happy.

[Silver940]

ALawson said:

Indeed, I hope to see you smash three loops of that Hartley Wintney - Hook ride you do (circa 90km distance)!

lol, not today!

[AyBee]

Benmac said:

Here's a spreadsheet with the finish times so you can see where you came in the non competitive event ;o)

I was 1,673rd of 21,309 finishers so I'm just going to pack my stuff ready for a late call up to the Olympic team.


http://www.amershamrcc.com/rl100-2016-results-spre...

Now if only there was a spreadsheet with the times that people originally said they could do it in for comparison

[bakerstreet]

sidicks said:

I think the truth is that it's now too successful and there are two many people so any issue quickly gets compounded - I'm sure that for experienced riders with superior skills having so many people so close together is perfectly fine, but for the relative novices (and I include myself in that category), it is likely to lead to accidents and the congestion we saw today.

It could have been an experienced rider who crashed?

Unlike London to Brighton, there are much less of the less experienced riders at Ride London. L2B is full of nodders who haven't ridden the bike in years.

Saying that, I witnessed some riders on expensive bikes who couldn't handle their bikes at slow speed at all. One fell off about 100m past the start line

I was only held up once at around mile marker 37 (big accident). Think I was stationary for around an hour. Ride time was 5hr 35, which I was pleased with at the time, but then disappointed when I calculated the average mph

Awesome event though and I shall be entering the ballot for 2017 on Monday.

[Marcellus]

Benmac said:

Here's a spreadsheet with the finish times so you can see where you came in the non competitive event ;o)

I was 1,673rd of 21,309 finishers so I'm just going to pack my stuff ready for a late call up to the Olympic team.


http://www.amershamrcc.com/rl100-2016-results-spre...

mmmm seems to be missing riders from the upload... the 5 riders I checked for aren't there but you can look them up on the results tab of the Ride London site

[bakerstreet]

sidicks said:

I think the truth is that it's now too successful and there are two many people so any issue quickly gets compounded - I'm sure that for experienced riders with superior skills having so many people so close together is perfectly fine, but for the relative novices (and I include myself in that category), it is likely to lead to accidents and the congestion we saw today.

It could have been an experienced rider who crashed?

Unlike London to Brighton, there are much less of the less experienced riders at Ride London. L2B is full of nodders who haven't ridden the bike in years.

Saying that, I witnessed some riders on expensive bikes who couldn't handle their bikes at slow speed at all. One fell off about 100m past the start line

I was only held up once at around mile marker 37 (big accident). Think I was stationary for around an hour. Ride time was 5hr 35, which I was pleased with at the time, but then disappointed when I calculated the average mph

Awesome event though and I shall be entering the ballot for 2017 on Monday.

[Silver940]

Marcellus said:

mmmm seems to be missing riders from the upload... the 5 riders I checked for aren't there but you can look them up on the results tab of the Ride London site

I wasn't able to search the spreadsheet for some reason but the people were there when I knew their time and looked for that

[darth_pies]

Benmac said:

Here's a spreadsheet with the finish times so you can see where you came in the non competitive event ;o)

I was 1,673rd of 21,309 finishers so I'm just going to pack my stuff ready for a late call up to the Olympic team.


http://www.amershamrcc.com/rl100-2016-results-spre...

Given all the accidents and delays the recorded event times are fairly meaningless except for the first few unimpeded waves.

A mate of mine had a start time 4mins behind me. I was held up for 1hr 10mins at Pyrford by the major accident, he was there 1hr 25mins.
After a couple of hectic miles i then had a clear run the whole way to the finish (aside from maybe 2mins stationary at Leith Hill due to a Continental tyre car blocking the narrow road and making some of the novices unclip), while he had a 5min delay for an accident in Send, then 20mins stationary queuing at the foot of Leith Hill and overcrowding on Box Hill.
My mate rolled across the finish 45mins after me despite having a near identical moving time and average speed on his Garmin....all because of a 4min later start time.

I can also see on the spreadsheet that there are people ahead of me by a few minutes who clearly had no hold ups but were more than an hour slower than me in the second 50miles.

Strava segments are where the real data is...