Let me start this guest blog by stating I am not a cyclist; I am someone who likes to get
on a bike and have a ride. It’s great –
it’s exercise and enjoyable. But I’m not
hardcore.
Pootling around the local villages soon became too
easy. I needed a challenge, something to
take me to the next level. And after
seeing coverage of last year’s London 100 on the TV, I entered the 2014
ballot. Unsurprisingly, I was
unsuccessful. Surprisingly, my wife was
successful. And I got a teeny-weeny bit
jealous.
So the suggestion was that I should do the London – Brighton
as a consolation. This appeased my childish
sulk. Colleagues had done this event in
the past; one in particular had taken part in half-marathons and triathlons –
so I thought it would be just the sort of challenge I needed. So I entered.
At work, I told my colleagues about my plans. Knowing that I had wanted to do the London
100, they immediately warned me that it would be a very different type of event. I heard their horror stories about the rider
jams, the crawl to the edge of London, the roads weren’t closed & that due
to the volume of participants, there were crashes too (which in turn caused
hold-ups). Oh and about Ditchling Beacon
– they couldn’t impress on me enough just how evil it was. Throughout my training, they kept trying to
temper any enthusiasm that I might ride it in a good time, but encouraged me nonetheless.
Throughout this period, I received regular emails from BHF –
I knew that the principle aim of the event was fundraising. Rather than badger friends and family for
sponsorship, I chose to run a sweepstake on my event time. I assessed my training: knowing that I was
averaging 12-13mph when moving but I would need breaks; I allowed for the slow
first 10 miles (which in all honesty suited me – it usually took me 5 miles or
so to warm up and get into a regular rhythm); I also considered that I might
get punctures or other mechanical fault, possibly even get caught up in a peleton
crash. Of course I also included the
plus factors of adrenaline and the effect of being pulled along by other
riders.
So I thought 5-8hrs was a reasonable timeframe – hoping my
time would start 5h…, but expecting around 6h 30m. The sweepstake options went from “less than
5h” to “more than 8h” with regular intervals between – plus I gave a few
options for abandonment or even not getting to the event. All was going well. The only trepidation was that this was the first
mass sportive I had ever participated in, I didn’t know what to expect (in
terms of feed stations etc…) but again friends and colleagues were reassuring.
The day of the event came, and we got to Clapham Common
easily. I was in the last wave at 09:30 –
this is because I knew it would take us a couple of hours to get there from
home; this meant making my wife, daughter & dog get up at 06:00 to be there
for the last wave. Aside from the fact
the London Estate Agents 10k run was also on in the park, starting the event
was easy.
About half a mile in is when the hold-ups started.
And they never stopped.
It didn’t take me long to realize that this
wasn’t a sportive, it was a glorified, Race-For-Life style, fun run.
It was reasonable enough in the London traffic
– until we got to a roundabout in Mitcham.
Traffic control held us up for over 5 mins (it felt more like 10) as
they allowed traffic from all the other roads to move freely.
I happened to be near the Rave team - cycling
with speakers and dance music – so they kept us entertained with Fatboy Slim’s
‘Eat Sleep Rave Repeat’
for a while, but the first grumbles began to be heard.
After the roundabout, the congestion eased and for a couple of
miles the ride was good. I stopped at
the first feed station (10 miles) and checked the time: 1h 40m. Ah well, the worst was over; brief snack &
drink, then onwards to Brighton.
I must have got no more than a mile further when I
encountered the first pinch point, a steep hill on a country lane. I wish I hadn’t taken that break, I could
have had it whilst I waited for a gap for me to push the bike up the hill. And this was the theme from then on. The sheer volume of riders combined with some
people bringing bikes unsuitable for a Cat 5 hill meant there was a lot of
pushing bikes up hills. I’m not talking
about the riders who were riding on Bromptons and Choppers for a challenge –
the pair in suits who rode up Ditchling Beacon on Boris Bikes put most of us to
shame. I’m talking about the people who
thought that a 3-gear town bike would be fit for the ride. They’re like the old ladies that elbow
themselves to the front of the Race For Life start line with the intention of
only walking the distance, and get in the way of those who trained to put in a
good time. We dismounted yet again, this
time at the top of a hill; the (possibly unfounded) rumours spreading back was
that some people were walking down because they thought it was too steep.
It continued like this throughout the rest of the route –
every big hill & major traffic junction was a bottleneck. Admittedly some of the holdups were the
result of some nasty accidents – and we obviously all care for the condition of
those involved. But most of the holdups
were sheer volume – especially outside the feeding stations, where there seemed
little organisation to differentiate those wanting to stop and those wanting to
continue. Unrest was rife amongst the
participants – people were moaning that they had spent more time walking than
riding. I overheard a conversation at another
major junction around halfway through – a lady in front of me asked aloud “is it always like this? I thought it was going to be fun!” Another lady replied “I’ve done this a few time before, this is 10 times worse than it’s ever
been.”
That may have been hyperbole born of frustration, but it is
the crux. For the BHF this event was
about fundraising – and they expect to raise £5million. So as far as they are concerned, this was a
success. Yet I heard many people say “never again!” (I am one of them). I’ve
heard reports that 28,000 riders took part on open roads. London 100 has 24,000 riders and will be
closing the roads. If BHF want that many
riders to take part, they will need to make some improvements. They either need to get some roads closed or
spread the waves further through the day – or even the whole weekend.
At the very least they need to do something about Brighton –
it took 20 mins to do the last mile because of the section of traffic lights
every 100m. Each phase of lights allowed
approx 30 riders through: 28,000 riders
means over 900 light phases to get the riders home. This was frankly ridiculous. If they can’t close a road in the town, then find
an alternative finish line (perhaps the football stadium). I came in a disappointing 7h 8m 50s – I left
Brighton 1½hrs later and people were still coming down from the Beacon to join
that horrendous queue.
I can’t say though that the day was a total disaster.
The vast majority of the marshalls were
lovely, as were the crowds cheering us on.
A special thanks to the lady handing out jelly beans at one of the
traffic junctions – you were so kind.
Most of the car drivers were considerate, or at least sensible – apart from
the driver of a white Audi who nearly knocked me off my bike (
Top Gear are
right about you).
And although it
isn’t one of the official refreshment stops,
The Gardeners Arms, Ardingly (approx.
35 miles in), was a nice place for a swift half pint & loo break.
Most of all, I learnt a lot about my riding:
- I can do that sort of distance – at a reasonable
pace too in the places where it was easy to ride freely. I was going significantly faster than I did
in training. I’m up to looking for a
proper sportive.
- As I am 42 and not hardcore cyclist, I don’t
like being a MAMIL. I wore what looked like
normal everyday shorts with a padded liner.
This was fine in training, but with me having to dismount the saddle
every 10yds or so at bottlenecks, the loose material kept getting caught on the
saddle as I restarted. Next time, I’ll
just look stupid in tight shorts.
- The stop/start was the biggest danger to causing
me to abandon through injury – it was giving me cramp in my calf muscles
stepping off the saddle.
- I can’t ride easily one-handed & had been
practising drinking on the move. I didn’t
need to do that as I took my breaks at each hold-up. However I learnt not to High-5 kids on the
roadside with my left hand, whilst going downhill from the Beacon and
front-braking (on a disc brake). I very
nearly went arse-over-tit, which would also have taken out the poor bloke along
side me (sorry whoever you were).
- I should have taken more than a 10 min break at
Ditchling before tackling the Beacon. I
may have got further than 1/3rd of the way up before needing to push
the bike.
- Finally, I had heard from my wife that this song (which
I love) is commonly used by athletes as motivational music ahead of competing. So I put it on my phone and played it through
the speaker as I attempted Ditchling Beacon – thinking the euphoria would drag
me to the top. It turns out David Guetta
was wrong. I am not Titanium. I am Aluminium: a bit lightweight and a bit
flimsy.
