RideLondon was back for its tenth anniversary this weekend (it’s a legacy of the London 2012 Olympic Games), with the route heading up in to Essex for the second consecutive year (having previously looped through Surrey). My colleague gifted me an entry to the 60-mile event a few weeks ago, as other plans prevented him from attending today.
Although I’ve done many long distance bike rides before, I’ve never until now taken part in a sportive. So I had little idea what to expect in terms of my average speed, as usually I am significantly slowed-down by traffic, junctions, map-reading and photography. I’ve never had the opportunity to cycle unimpeded over any significant distance.
The prep
With just a few weeks’ notice and a fairly busy schedule, I was not able to get much training in ahead of the ride, but did cycle 90km (about 56 miles) last Sunday, including three laps of Richmond Park and then 60km (37 miles) on Friday, including some country lanes in Hampshire as I returned from a work trip.
Other than that, I relied on my regular commute across South London for training, clocking-up an average of 148km per week over the last month. I also got my bike serviced a couple of weeks ago as the gears were jumping a little.
I carb-loaded last night, with a large portion of pasta and had a bowl of cereal for breakfast this morning, followed by eggs on toast for protein. I bought some fig rolls, a bag of sweets and a small box of nuts to get me through this morning.
I decanted half the fig rolls and sweets in to a small sachet within my frame bag and tucked the rest in to the rear of my jersey, along with a spare innertube and tyre levers. I opted to leave the pump at home, though, as it’s a little awkward to carry.
My very last bit of prep last night was a short practice ride to ensure that I could safely reach the treats from both the frame bag and my back pocket.
The ride
It was not a terribly early start as I found myself allocated to the penultimate Wave G, with a suggested arrival time of 8:00 for a 9:15 start on the Embankment. I left home at 7:15 and arrived at Buckingham Palace at exactly 8:00, after a leisurely ride through London.
The large loading zone (expanded since last year’s event) encompassed all of Birdcage Walk, Great George Street, Parliament Street and the southern end of Whitehall, before turning right on to Horse Guards Avenue and then left on to the Victoria Embankment, for the start line. It was very busy but relatively well-organised, and I crossed the start line at 9:16.
The route out of London took us due east past the Tower of London and Canary Wharf before taking a sharp turn to the north beside the new City Hall, inaugurated at the start of last year, to wind through Plaistow and Stratford and then on to the A12, which was closed to traffic in both directions between Bromley-By-Bow and the Green Man Interchange in Leytonstone.
We then entered Essex with a long and steady climb through the historic Epping Forest (about 90 metres of elevation over 15km or so), before crossing the M25 on Epping High Road, location of the first welfare stop (approximately 25 miles/40km in to the course).
The scenery became far more rural here, as we cycled along smooth lanes, often edged by lush hedgerows, and meandered through hamlets and small villages. The 60-mile route took us clockwise through North Weald, Ongar and Chigwell Row, before rejoining the outbound route at Woodford, in East London.
The inbound route diverted from the outbound one again just south of the Olympic Park, bypassing Stratford and Plaistow, instead passing the Jubilee Line depot and West Ham station. From Canning Town, we were retracing our earlier route again, past City Hall and Canary Wharf, before branching off at the Tower of London for the finish on Tower Bridge.
Finish and results
I completed the course in 3:27:17 without stopping but was immediately surprised to see the distance in my tracker showing 97.9km (61.4 miles). That’s when I realised that the welfare stops were “neutralised” areas, whereby approximately half a mile at each one was excluded from the timings (and total distance) of the ride.
Sensors either side of each welfare stop (apart from the last one, for some reason) recorded arrival and departure from these, so any time spent (and therefore distance covered) in between the sensors was not counted in the total. It would have been handy to know this beforehand but I’m happy that I was able to push on without stops in order to maintain momentum.
Having checked the official rider results later, my official time for the 60-mile ride was 3:21:29, an at average speed of 28.3km/h. I recorded the whole route as a timelapse on my handlebar-mounted GoPro (that’s where the front-facing photos on this post come from) and you can immerse yourself in the ride at approximately 12x normal speed below.
The finish zone on Tooley Street stretched all the way from Tower Bridge to London Bridge station. Wooden “finisher” medals were handed out here and there were also huge water tanks to refill those bidons.
Organisers were understandably keen to keep participants moving through this section, albeit on foot, to prevent congestion at the finish line and therefore there were no food options here, just toilets and medical facilities.
By this point, though, we were only a ten minute walk (or three minute cycle) from Borough Market, or ten minutes by bike from my favourite London streetfood market at the Southbank Centre, and there are countless other restaurants, cafés and shops in the area as well.
FreeCycle event
I exited the finish area at 13:00 and headed over London Bridge to join the FreeCycle route, an eight-mile (13km) loop of Central London roads that were closed to traffic for the day, allowing those of all cycling abilities to ride past many of the capital’s landmarks safely and for free, between 10:00 and 15:00.
The FreeCycle event incorporated two festival zones this year, at St Paul’s Cathedral and Bank, each of which offered cycling-themed activities and entertainment, as well as the all-important street food vendors. Meanwhile, the main RideLondon hub for the whole weekend festival was on Trafalgar Square.
I continued along the Victoria Embankment, which was occupied by the Start area for the RideLondon 30/60/100 rides just hours earlier, and branched-off the FreeCycle route at Westminster Bridge to head back over the Thames to the Southbank Centre Food Market, where I enjoyed a late lunch of chicken and chips.
Final thoughts
I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the ride today and it was really interesting to finally discover my average speed when unimpeded by traffic and wayfinding (28km/h). I’m keen to return next year and complete the 100-mile edition, if I can secure a place.
Next time, I’ll bring two bidons as I did struggle a bit this year with my second water bottle, which had a screw cap and was rather fiddly to use while riding. I’ll also ditch the fig rolls and focus on sweets, as these were invaluable in keeping my energy topped-up on the latter half of today’s ride.
But, apart from those small changes, I think I’d do it all about the same as this year. Bring on 2024!