Anyone done this at all? is it a good event? I’ve been offered a charity spot and 3 friends are doing it and thought i’d ask here if it’s worth doing…
Yes definitely.
Just for the closed roads imo.
The roll out through London is quite enjoyable, not the most taxing of routes though to be fair. If you can get yourself into a good/quick group it is a fun ride.
Try and save something for the final climb out of Wimbledon!
If you get an early ride its good, if not its 100miles of dodging Rainbow Jersey wearing Team Pie wannabes who cant hold a line and 1000’s of people walking bikes up hills.
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Good point. I’ve always been off in the first wave so never had to deal with all that
Done it twice, first time was with an early wave start and it was excellent! second time was a much later start time and it was rubbish, continual stop/start, had to walk up a big chunk of Leith Hill due to a traffic jam cos someone fell off and blocked the road! If you can get an early wave def go for it, otherwise I would give it a miss…
Be 5th time for me this year, so far always been in an early wave so had a great ride and would recommend. As above, friends who have been stuck in later waves have found it a PITA. The outgoing queue through Kingston looked bloody awful as I was on the homeward leg last year.
I’ve applied in the ballot every single year, and never got in. It’s become rather annoying. Especially as it seems nearly everyone else I know has got in multiple times. And numerous people who apply on a whim, also get in on their first try.
I know that’s just the luck of the draw on a ballot, but for something like this where they’re only getting 70k ballot entries, some kind of “5 and you’re in” policy would seem fair. They allow 25k riders, so that’s under 1:3 in terms of places to ballot entries (yes, I know I’m overlooking charity spots).
I’ve basically given up on the event, especially as there was some kind of consultation at the back end of last year about its continued existence.
Do/can the Chasers apply for the club event?
I’ve done it 3 times, all through my cycling club and getting a spot on one of the small amount of teams they allocate us.
I think on average we get two teams a year so 8 riders. But our club is fairly small with around 50 members
I got my 6th rejection from 7 ballot entries this week. The ballot seems to be heavily weighted against London-based MAMILs, so I’m always in two minds about whether it’s worth entering. They’re obviously aiming for a high proportion of female riders and most of the women I know who’ve entered get in every time. I’ve ridden the event 4 times, including 3 times through the BC club event, but in recent years our club allocation has been mixed teams which we’ve struggled to fill because all the female members who wanted to ride were already in through the ballot.
If you can get in, it’s well worth doing if you can get an early start. You get to ride like a complete hooligan, using the whole road. As someone who lives locally, the bit out in Surrey isn’t that remarkable, but the bits in London are great fun.
Riding with the masses in a later start is a different story and doesn’t look like much fun.
On the 2006 Etape du Tour I saw Chris Hoy before the start and had a quick chat. I thought him wearing his track World champs jersey was fair enough. At least he was a Brit not wearing Rapha.
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Tut tut. Wrong discipline. Should have called him on it
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Yes, they get some spots, but I think you need to be BC registered (I’m not joining another organisation! I’m already EA and BTF affiliated), and it generally goes to the proper keen cyclist only people, which is fair enough.
Yep, you have to be a BC member to claim a club place.
They’re one of the larger BC clubs in London, but that still means they’re just getting a couple of teams (and biased to mixed), so probably worse odds on a ballot there compared to a small club with one team.
Actually their size is interesting, as it does mean a lot of people are paying for EAL/BC and (presumably?) BTF as well, that’s a lot of money being sucked into their pockets.
Only EA is organised through membership. And that’s an opt in. BTF and BC are up to the individual to join themselves
He’s just like all the other MAMIL FPKW’s 
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do they still allow bronze members? they used to have some sort of offer for clubs and members to get bronze free for the years membership IIRC although it may have been a token amount.
It’s flat there …!?
Yep, only 3 hills of note. Newlands Corner, Leith and Box Hill. Probably just over 1500 meters climbing for the entire ride
I used to live in London
A long time ago… Box hill is how far from Wdon?
I’m going to do a few sportives this year, they kind of help long bike splits…