4th Ride-London-Surrey-100, 31.July 2016, 160km mass sportive event

This year an alleged 30,000 or so participants, I was lucky again to be selected through the ballot, although not for the first start group but the third. Bollocks. We had just returned from our fab holiday in good old Germany back home at midnight, then unpacking and rebuilding the bike, so I got to bed at 2:00 a.m. In order to make it in time to the start at 6.05 a.m. at the Olympic Park (28km ride through the entire city) I had had to get up at 4:00 a.m the very latest and leave home by 4:30 the very latest, as the start pens were supposed to close at 5:30.  Of course, I overslept, left home late and had to drill it all the way to the park to have a beating chance to get into my start pen. Despite being late I got in, literally 5mins before the start, rear row of riders. Felt a bit tired, but at least I was properly warmed up and didn't freeze like in previous years. As soon as we had started I realized I made a very very big mistake. Not only that I didn't get anywhere near enough sleep, not the fact that I didn't have a coffee (which I usually must have before anything, otherwise won't function), the worst that should not have happened, shit happened: I didn't go to the toilet! So the pressure built up so much that after more than an hour, just entering the Surrey hills, I had to make a poo-stop at Abinger Hammer. You know what that means, you lose your group, you lose any chances for a good time. The relief on the portaloo was heaven, the wooshing sound of passing follow up groups a total motivation killer. I lost 7:40 through my poo-stop and when I got back on the bike I was totally by myself, no other riders in sight. What was I going to do? Chase on or wait for the next group? So I just rolled a steady pace until I caught some riders who then latched on to my wheel, we caught more riders and soon where a group of like 8 or so riders, some of them getting involved in taking turns. When we got to Leith Hill we caught the splinters of the group ahead of us, dozens of small group and passed so many riders until we got to the core of that peloton. On the final km, up Wimbledon hill we got some good race action, breaking away with two others, charging furiously down and across Putney bridge before getting into the real city. The finale again terrific experience , despite not winning the sprint of that group, at least there was a properly fought finale. This years time was expected crap, with 4:15h possibly around 500th. But still, it was a memorable ride on a beautiful day, getting home with 220km in the saddle.

you can't possibly not have a finale on the Mall

on legendary Box-hill

just passing House of Parliament, 1km to go!