Ride London 100

Good luck everyone. Hope you're all as excited as I am.

Look forward to seeing many of you on the road on Sunday. I guess what I mean by that is I won't see any of you who start earlier than me, but I'm pretty confident that I'll get a chance to see all of you who are starting later than me! Just so long as I beat Boris...!

Best, Duncan

Patrick,

Fitted a new chain at the weekend, so all I need to do now is possibly take a link out of the chain and fit my new 10 speed 11-23 tooth cassette which arrived today. 

I am going out for a 38 mile ride tonight with the local chain gang (albeit the slow group this time) and then I shall be resting.  Hopefully I will then be ready to dance on the pedals up Leith Hill and sprint along the Mall at 30 mph!

Now looking forward to meeting you all at the end of the ride.

PS. I understand that we may even have our own special pit stops at 30 and 80 miles, however this has not been confirmed yet.

Hi Guys

Hope everyone is enjoying the well earned taper and not too fed up with pasta as yet.

I did the Surrey Hills section on Sunday and all is coming along well with the road repairs.  Abinger and Headley Down have been resurfaced and swept (unforunately not the full smooth tarmac, but its better than before) and there were warnings that there would be road repairs on Leith this week.

Lots of competitors out trying the hills, with quite a few taking in the views at the top of the Box.

Lets hope the weather is good and not as windy as last Sunday as it made the hills a lot more challenging.

I am undecided as to whether I will wear the official jersey for most of the ride as it is very tight on the sleeves - will wear it for the finish line though.  If not I will be sporting the "Green Eggs and Ham" Dr Seuss top so do come over and say hello.

All the best for Sunday

Patrick

GeoffP said:

I've got a start time of 07:22 

I've also got a 07.22 start, and have 6hr 30 in mind  I'll be looking out for you.

Also, I'll claim to be on the Spectrum - self-diagnosed aspie. 

At last I have now met my initial fundraising target!

Although I have a Virgin Giving account, I have found the only way of really encouraging others to support me is by going around with the old fashioned hard sponsorship form.

Geoff,

I am certain that you are not going to end up in the broom wagon and I am sure that you will beat your 6h 30m time as I am sure that you will be amazed how much quicker you will cycle on closed roads.

The jersey is really stylish (thanks Kate) - I couldn't resist wearing it for my training ride this morning. Today I took in lots of the west London parts of the route, including the finish along the Mall (both directions), Richmond Park, Kingston Bridge and Hampton Court. It was good to see all the yellow 'Cycling event 3/4 August - Road Closed' signs posted.

I've got a start time of 07:22 - quite late but not as late as Marc; I hope that doesn't mean they expect us to end up in the broom wagon! I'm aiming for 6h30m or thereabouts, including plenty of refuelling stops.

Recovery mode for the rest of today - watching the Ashes match and Cav making it five in a row on the Champs-Élysées.

Marc,

You will have to get up very early to start with me as I have been given a 06:04 start time.  With all that training you have already done, you should easily have the legs now to keep up with me!

My NAS cycle jersey has arrived.  Excellent quality with pockets the right height, glad that I went for a small size now as even this is lose on me now!

Thanks Kate for organising this essential team item.

Looks like im the late starter then. Hopefully will manage it in good time but work family and flu haven't helped recently.  Hopefully manage a 50mile early loop of the three hills early in the morning. 

Ill bgetting to the start early just in case I can make an earlier start group and to share in the excitement with some of the team hopefully as we'll all be easily identified with our tops.

I am delighted with the number of responses which this thread has generated and it appears that so far I am the only one in the in the NAS RL100 team personally on the spectrum.  Unfortunately living in the East Midlands I do not normally get into the Surrey Hills; however it does mean that I do get more of an opportunity to get out into Derbyshire and the Peak District.

I notice that for many of you this is going to be your first closed road cycling event, however will be my eighth and third this year.  Can I assure you that if you are worried about your overall time, on these events your speed will be at least ten to fifteen percent greater than you will normal average.  The only difficulty is trying not to slow down for red traffic lights!

I have been out training hard and have already done the necessary miles, however as we are (hopefully) moving house this week I am now grounded for a short while!  How many of you are going for the 100 press-up challenge as identified in the training section of the RL100 pre-event magazine.

It is possibly now is the time to think about any major maintenance work as I suspect that many of the Local Bike Shops (especially in the South East), that will be inundated with work nearer the date.  My chain is now due to be changed as it about 60% worn.

My start time is 06.04 time, is there any one else in the team with an early start?

Finally (time permitting), it would be nice to try and do a reccy of the Surrey loop of before the big day.  All I have done is just the uphill sections of Leith and Box Hill!

Morning all.

Firstly what a great weekend to get in some miles...the Surrey Hills were quite stunning.

For those taking part that have not experienced the Surrey Hills you  are hopefully in for a treat.  Leith is definitely the real challenge, but with enough training and self believe you will get over it and enjoy the descent

Of course the challenge with the hills on the day will not be the hills themselves rather the sheer number on participants and their road etiquette.  Fingers crossed it all goes smoothly.

My start time is 7.26 which is later than I would have hoped, but so be it.  Not expecting too much sleep that evening anyway due to excitement, so getting up shouldn't be a problem.

I am doing this as my son is on the spectrum, specifically with Asperger's and was diagnosed before he was 5, although we became of his problems when he was 3.  He is now 12 and is doing really well at More House School in Farnham where they support boys that have a variety of learning issues...a fantastic school!

My longest ride this was was 81 miles a few weeks ago and I have the Wiggle Magnificat next weekend, so I am hoping that I have put enough miles in the tank.

Unfortunately, like Boris, I have been unable to attain the physique of the chiseled Whippet so will have to settle to something akin to an over-fed Dalmatian or Dogue de Bordeaux...hope the shirts are not too small

Looking forward to seeing you all on the day.

Cadence up!

Patrick

Evening to all in the NAS Ride London team. Rider 7737 reporting for duty. 

I'm a father of a 15 year old son on the autistic spectrum. He currently attends Helen Allison School in Kent which has been a fantastic placement for him since he joined in 2005. The support that the NAS has given was the catalyst for my cycling "career" that started in 2007 with a London to Paris ride. The highlight was stage 5 of the Tour de France in 2011 when team NAS stood on the podium ahead of a vintage Cav victory. 

I'll be cycling with my Dorking Cycling Club colleague, Mick. Please take this as an open invitation for any of you to come down and visit the club so that you can recce some the roads and climbs. The club meets on Sunday's at 9am outside Dorking Leisure Centre . Check out www.dorkingcycling.co.uk for contact details or through Kate at the NAS .

I'm pretty much in line with previous comments - Leigh Hill will be by far the most challenging climb on the route. The hardest part of Box Hill is the actually the top part the National Trust Cafe. Mentally you think I'm there, yet the road is a false flat until you get through Box Hill village. Newlands Corner is a nice steady climb - good descent and do look over your right shoulder - some of the best views in Surrey.

Look forward to meeting you all 

Bananas and jelly babies are great sources of energy. I have a fairly early start 6:38, which means I will be getting up at 2:30 so energy boosts welcome! 

Training is going well, my biggest ride to date is 78 miles, but I am sure with the opportunity to draft, we will all be fine on the day. 

I did the London Brighton a few weeks ago and rode up ditchling beacon, so box and leith are just going to be speed bumps with attitude. 

Looking forward to meeting the team, and proud to wear the NAS team shirt. My youngest daughter has Aspergers and ADHD, and we suspect my little boy has ADHD. So they are my inspiration! 

Is anyone else in the 6:38 blue start? All my training buddies have got different starts

i still have some fund raising to do but I am on target, I found out yesterday that some people prefer good old fashioned paper sponsorship forms rather than online payment methods! 

Anyone in the Bedfordshire area who wants to go for a training ride let me know

Good luck to everyone

Paul

DJA im aiming for between six and seven hours so happy to share he wind . The only problem is start times as ive got a 7.52 time.

Kate I'm thinking Wimbledon/raynes park is a good point to place the supporting team. With the hill through Wimbledon (although ive not seen or ridden it before) will need an extra boost im sure .

Anybody about tomorrow for a ride of the surrey hills ? Planning on doing 80miles as my peak ride before tethering starts.

Hi everyone. I'm rider number 15066 and really excited about joining the NAS team at the Ride LondonSurrey 100.

I've ridden several sportives before, but never one on closed roads so this will be a real treat. At the moment I am limited to training on a single speed bike - hoping that my new road bike will be built in time for the event - and did Box Hill for the first time in 2013 last weekend. Isn't the new tarmac lovely?! The fact that I managed it in 9 minutes on a 44x18 leads me to hope that Leith Hill and Newlands Corner will be OK (I agree with DJA that Leith Hill is much more of a challenge than Box).

When I missed out on a ballot place I was delighted to be able to join the NAS team to get a place on the ride; my 22 year old son is severely autistic and really benefits from the support he gets at his NAS-run day centre.

I had a bit of a scare earlier in the year and thought I might have to pull out of the ride because of a bit of a cancer problem; thankfully that is now (almost) behind me, and I can concentrate on the fundraising and training over the next four weeks.

Thanks to Kate for her inspirational emails and to Arran for setting up this forum - looking forward to meeting you both, and the rest of the team.

Geoff

Dear Kate and Arran,

Thanks very much for setting this up and for making all the arrangements thus far. 

I'm not normally a forum contributor, but excitement of the event is clearly getting to me (!) and I'm looking forward to being part of the team. Kate, from the latest photo, the jerseys look great - I'll be proud to wear one. 

By way of introduction, I suspect my background is typical. I became aware of the challenges of autism after our elder son received a diagnosis of Aspergers. Our challenges are relatively mild compared to those of other families we've come to know, but even so we were very grateful for some of the free services provided by NAS, which have allowed us to learn about and respond to our son's condition as early as possible.

As for the cycling, have just enough time for semi-regular 60-70 mile rides. It's been a while since I've done 100, but when I watch the pros on TV they always do the last 20 miles really quickly, so I'm assuming I'll benefit from the same phenomenon (?!). If I average 14-15 mph for the lot, I'll be delighted. Happy to share the pace with any others at that level, though finding each other might be a challenge.

Living in Wimbledon, I know most of the course quite well. As previously noted, Leith Hill tougher to my mind than Box Hill. I think the official map had marked a hill in Richmond Park, but it really isn't. What might be a little more tiring is the steep rise into Wimbledon village after 90 odd miles.

Anyway, Kate, let me know if there is anything I can help with. My one question - is there any NAS meeting point at the Start? Obviously, it's great to have the Carlton House location at the end, but wondered whether there would be a congregation point at the start. Admittedly, it might be chaos and we'll all have separate start times... which might rule out that idea. Thought I'd check though.

Many thanks, Duncan

Our own team pitstop would be very nice and will be useful if other feed stations run out of food.  I would keep it very simple bananas, gels and sweets work well, however flapjacks I find difficult to eat later in the ride, however something savoury also helps arrest the onset of cramp in the calves.

I would recommend somewhere in the 50 – 80 mile region and you will need to ensure that it is away from the barriers so that cause a crash.

Personally (unless it is very hot) I shall be one of the few who are not planning to stop, therefore I don’t want to appear rude when I go past.

If we have our own fan base, even if it is other members of the NAS RL 100 team, please let us know where they are so that we can also wave as we go past.

Great news about the number Arran and thanks so much for the tips and info guys...

There will be sandwiches and snacks at the post-race event but I was actually wondering if you could think of any snacks for us to bring along to hand out during the ride - bananas?  Sweets?  More flapjacks and energy gels?  Let me know what you think!

Also let me know if there is anywhere in particular on the route that you think you would benefit from a pit stop... preferrably London-based for our kind volunteers!

Thanks all :)

I have now got my number today which is 23624

I am also doing this for several reasons.  When I first heard about this event as a serious cyclist, but as someone on the autistic spectrum I also wanted to specifically represent our community in this event.  I shall also be undertaking this event with Isobel’s name on my jersey to inspire me.  She is a neighbour’s daughter who also autistic!

I have cycled this distance many times and my goal is to achieve this occasion with a PB time however my objective currently focused on fundraising.

riding tip 1.)  ~ beetroot juice, it has been found had beetroot juice helps cycling and recovery

 quote"Other studies have found the positive effects beetroot juice can have on human exercise and performances. In studies conducted by Exeter University, scientists found cyclists who drank a half-litre of beetroot juice several hours before setting off were able to ride up to 20% longer than those who drank a placebo of blackcurrant juice"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beetroot

Riding tip 2.) know the finish.., scientists have found that if you know the finishline and ride over it, before you start, your sub-conscious mind will not hold back energy when you are cycling because it knows there is no threat, you know the end (finishline) so when cycling pain starts, it does not hold back energy in the body. Another example of this is,, the crawling finisher at the marathon, suddenly runs like a fast bunny rabbit over the finishline, because the conscious mind releases the sub-conscious mind, thus mind to body energy.

Riding tip 3.) oil your chain and drink plenty of water hours before, so it is in the system(body) on an isotonic level

Riding tip 4.) streamline behind some one, use there jetstream, follow them, takes less mind and body energy to follow the pack, they jump out of the streamline and win

Riding tip 5.) think of sex,, let me know if that one works, sperm race theory

Riding tip 6.) Get a seat pad, it is worth the investment OUCH !  especially if using riding tip nr 5.

Enjoy your day