This Sunday I rode the inaugural RideLondon Surrey 100, a 100-mile sportive held over roughly the 2012 Olympic road race course. It was announced probably best part of a year ago now and I applied and was lucky enough to get a place! From that point on it was going to be the big event in my summer of 2013 and indeed all of my season training was pointing towards that.
Unfortunately, during January I had to go into hospital and was faced with major surgery and a few months recovery from that. I still felt that over 6 months until the event was enough time and the surgeon promised me that I'd be able to cycle again 7 weeks after leaving hospital. Turned out it was 7 weeks and 3 hours before I was back in the saddle, but re-gaining the fitness I'd had at the end of winter was going to be really tough and one that's still ongoing. After riding the Festive 500 I was in really good shape but as I spent most of the first few months of the year on the sofa, I was going to have to put some work in to get fit enough to ride the 100!
Fast-forward a few months and I was well into my training programme and diet plan—loosing weight and getting fit again—although it's quite tough re-covering old ground, getting fit again after illness or injury but one you just have to keep chipping away at and not get too down. Spending most of August doing interval sessions, persuit sessions, long rides and then the Rapha Women's 100 and Dunwich Dynamo did prepare me pretty well though and when the event day appeared I felt ok really. I'd accidentally put down quite a slow time (factoring in the sort of time I'd do as a Sunday ride with a slower pace and plenty of coffee stops) so I was leaving after most of my friends, but in fact that was fine and I found it ok to move up the field during the day; and I could set my alarm a little later too!
We all arrived at the Olympic Park, got ourselves sorted and put our kit on the lorry which would take it to the finish line for us. I'd stayed off caffeine for a few days as part of my training so it was lovely to have a nice coffee before we were loaded into our start-wave.
Soon enough I was with my fellow starters and an excited but hushed chatter washed around us. The commentator over the PA system repeatedly stating that "Nobody has fallen over yet" caused many of us to wish he'd shut up in case we were the first!
I was pretty nervous about such a large event, with so many people on the road at once, but the start was really well organised and 20,000 of us passed through the start system at the Olympic Park and headed off towards The City. The start was neutralised as in a 'depart fictif' so we had a couple of miles to ride before the actual timing start so allowed us to get used to pedaling in our massive bunch and avoid any issues of people sprinting off the line. But soon I was into it and flew through London, pretty much always on the right-hand side of the road; just one of the many benefits of closed-road events. Though it's quite surprising how many people stick to the gutter on the left-hand side of the road.
Soon I'd passed Hammersmith in a blur and was heading out to Richmond Park which also whizzed by in a blur, though I do remember eating a Clif bar as we rode through the park. We'd bunched up a little on the narrower roads through the park so I used that as a chance to get some food into my tummy, to join my 5am breakfast of spaghetti. In fact I can't say I saw many people eating while riding; I seemed to be munching away most of the ride!
Most of the event I can remember as flashes of moments, Leith Hill, people cheering, drafting people and being drafted and this is how I spent most of the ride. Although I spent a lot of the ride looking at my feet, in an attempt to squeeze out a few more watts in an aerodynamic position; look in front, drop head, look up, drop head, look up... My plan was to not stop and only really had to leap off quickly to fill my bidon, but I prefer to keep cycling and if I stop, my legs just want to keep going. Would have been ideal to have been able to grab a handup on the way, but there are too many riders for that. Might try to organise a 'support team' for next year though! But at the water stop I used, just after Leith Hill I think, they had a rack of taps but only one was working so there was a bit of a delay.
After a really pleasant blast through the countryside which included a 80kph top speed and an 'attempt to get on the telly' we were soon heading back into London. I still felt really strong and was 'tapping out a good rhythm' to borrow a Liggetism. I could tell somebody was on my wheel, which I was happy about as it gives you an aerodynamic advantage as well as the person behind you. Though after a while the guy behind me drew alongside me (I thought, just to take his turn on the front) and said "You're a machine!" and pointed backwards with a smile. When I looked I had a string of bicycles on my wheel as far as I could see. Was a super-proud moment!
My legs had a lot of miles in them by this point but I just kept pushing on, repeating the same mantra I was repeating the entire day "Am I giving all I can give?". I did allow myself 5 minutes for my mind to wander a little after Leith Hill but I tried to keep focused and concentrating throughout.
Heading back into London we eventually dropped onto the Embankment and powered up towards the Houses of Parliament. There was a grim headwind whipping down the road so a small bunch of us banded together and formed a little chaingang riding towards the finish on The Mall. Flying past Downing Street we took a fast left at Trafalgar Square and under Admiralty Arch and down the finish-straight on The Mall. I've never in my life experienced anything like it; the noise of the crowd cheering and banging on the barriers was so loud! With 100 miles in my legs I put my head down and sprinted for the line, as if it were for a stage win!
100 miles done in 5 hours, 21 minutes and 5 seconds.
Roll on next year!
