Category: Notable Rides

Date: 29th May 2022
Distance: 164.95km
Average speed: 28.4km/h

Compared to my two previous RideLondon experiences, everything felt very rushed. The ride was in May rather than July, meaning I had two fewer months of training (my own fault for not pushing earlier). We also didn’t receive instructions until quite close to the start day, by which time the hotel I’d had my eye on was sold out. I ended up booking one at South Mimms, and booked parking not far from Whitehall.

Getting there on time

My two previous attempts had taught me the importance of giving myself plenty of time to arrive for my wave, and this time I got it right. In fact, I arrived on Whitehall earlier than necessary, although this allowed me time for an emergency toilet stop(!) Everything was rather busy, which still feels weird in a post-Covid world.

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A post shared by Keane Ingram (@keaneingram)

I set off on-time and made excellent progress, the wind had been forecast to be coming towards us but we seemed reasonably sheltered. My leges feeling much better than I’d anticipated, the adrenaline was overriding the lack of sleep at this point. I was able to surf quite a lot of wheels and after two hours I was well on course to beat 6 hours.

Unfortunately, I had to stop shortly afterwards for just over 30 minutes due to an incident up ahead – I believe an air ambulance was required to take an injured rider to hospital. It was unfortunate but couldn’t be helped. In a way it helped, because with the delay I knew my chance of beating 6 hours was gone, so I didn’t have to stress about it.

Untimed stop

New this year was the decision not to include the time spent in the rest areas. I suppose it removes some of the “race” element and encourages riders not to rush in crowded areas, but it still felt a little bit like cheating to me. I only stopped once this year, just after the half-way mark. It took around ten minutes as we had to cycle a fair distance away from the course, and it was very busy. I was desperate for the toilet at this point after the enforced stop earlier, and I also refilled my bottles.

Back to London

There was a headwind now which made things slightly easier. My legs were feeling a bit tired now and I suffered the ignominy of being overtaken by a man in a chicken costume! My left calf cramped with around 20 miles left to go, but it wasn’t too bad. At around the 90 mile mark I started to get a little emotional as I knew I was going to finish. The Samaritans cheering point near the end offered some much-needed motivation!

Cycling on the A12 was exhausting at the end. I still had plenty of speed when going downhill or on the flat, but going uphill was horrible. Not that there are any major hills there, but at this point any uphill section felt like the Mur de Huy! We had to stop a few times as we approached the finish due to stewards allowing traffic to cross. This felt a little cruel so close to the finish line.

Due to crowding we were told not to sprint as we crossed the line, which again took some of the joy out of the occasion. But I got a decent photo of me celebrating!

Ouch

We had to dismount as soon as we crossed the finish line, and as soon as I got off the bike my right knee started complaining. I had to shuffle in my cycling shoes all the way around to near London Bridge before I could get on my way again. The ride back to the car park was a little painful, but I was mostly just very pleased to have finished.

My actual official time was 6 hours 9, which didn’t include the time for my stop. I was ecstatic with this! Sure, there’s no Leith Hill or Box Hill but considering what I’ve been through in the last couple of years this feels like a massive achievement.

I’ve uploaded some photos to Google Photos. No video this year.

I don’t know if I’d do it again. The organisation was nowhere near as good as in previous years, obviously Covid and a new route have made a difference, but it was much better with a bike park and events at the finish where you could relax.

I’ve raised £461 for Samaritans which I’m so pleased about. Without Samaritans I wouldn’t have been here to do this ride, I make a monthly donation but am still happy to have raised this additional funding.

The last few weeks have been pretty hectic and as a result I’ve only managed one ride in the last few weeks. We went away on holiday to the Isle of Wight for a week. I did take my mountain bike but only really went for one short ride with Nicky, although that one 4km ride had about the same elevation as my usual 24km loop! Next time we go to the Isle of Wight I’ll definitely try to take my road bike as there’s so many great roads to ride.

Nicky and I did the RideLondon FreeCycle again this year. We managed to do three complete loops for a total of 38.4km which is a bit more than we managed last time. Nicky has definitely got a bit faster and more confident riding in groups. Every time we were stopped to allow pedestrians to cross, he’d weave his way to the front whilst I’d be stuck behind everyone, so when we were allowed to go again he’d have a big head start! We also raced across the finish line on The Mall each time, I won 2-1 (although I might just have let him win his one!)

The route was different to the first time we did it, and it was much improved – there were less hold-ups around Trafalgar Square and we had a nice fast run along the Embankment. Nicky did have a minor crash – I think he was tired and he says his foot came off the pedal. The staff in the Red Cross tent in Green Park were very helpful and patched him up nicely.

The only disappointments on the day were the South Bank festival zone and the climbing wall at Lincoln’s Inn. The climbing wall needed power (it was some kind of “smart” wall) but their generator broke and as the roads were closed they couldn’t get another one (I did make up for this disappointment by getting some free Clif bars). The South Bank zone was just pointless – it wasn’t on the route itself so we had to make our way there, only to be told that bikes weren’t allowed into the zone (and we couldn’t use the bike racks at the entrance of the zone because of health & safety). We only went there so Nicky could get the sticker anyway but it all seemed a bit daft.

Here’s a couple of photos – I haven’t got around to buying the full sets yet:

Here are some pictures I took on the day:

London without cars is awesome! @ridelondon #FreeCycle #cycling #outsideisfree

A post shared by Keane Ingram (@keaneingram) on Jul 29, 2017 at 2:54am PDT

It was an enjoyable day though and we’ll definitely be doing it again (unless I get a place on the sportive again – but I’m not holding my breath!)

Date: 26th August 2015

Last Wednesday saw my long-awaited trip to the Olympic velodrome to cash in my birthday voucher for a taster session. I was both very nervous and excited beforehand – it was going to be brilliant cycling around such an iconic venue, home of Olympic heroics and Wiggo’s hour record. However, I was both a little stressed about getting there in time and about driving a fixed gear bike!

In the end I drove and parked at Westfield, only to find they had parking next to the velodrome. Oh well! We arrived in plenty of time and I had a coffee beforehand. Anna and Nicky sat in the stands whilst I went to get changed and go down to the centre of the track. After a little bit of toing and froing (eventually I decided to hire some cleats) I was given my track bike and was all ready to go. Everyone was in the same boat, a little worried about crashing without having brakes or a freewheel. Our instructor started us off slowly, doing a single lap on the warm-up area, then a couple of laps on the cote, progressing to multiple laps around the black line and red line. In our first multi-lap session I quickly got to grips with things, I had one minor wobble where the rider in front of me slowed unexpectedly and my reaction was to stop pedalling – luckily I remembered just in time! I also went a little too slowly around one of the bends but soon got the hang of the banking.

The only way to describe this session was AMAZING – I have not had so much fun in a long time! It quickly became apparent that I was faster than most and was soon happily overtaking people whilst riding above the blue line (shouting “stay” at every overtake). I lapped most of the field in the first multi-lap session, but this took a little out of me and in the second session I took it a little easier (I was still pretty quick though). It’s difficult to gauge exactly how fast I was going – in the video below I completed a lap in 25s which equates to 36km/h – it looks so slow on the video though! I did do some laps faster than that but I didn’t do any sprinting or anything, I wasn’t quite that confident!

The hour ended far too quickly and I had a huge grin on my face for the rest of the day. I’ll definitely be going back, hopefully I can save up and get my accreditation!

In this video I’m the one in second place, this was early on whilst we were still getting used to riding on the actual track.

I didn’t get a place on the RideLondon 100 this year, so instead myself and Nicky went up to London the day before to take part in the FreeCycle. An 8 mile route around the centre of London is closed off to traffic and for 7 short hours the roads are owned by bikes!

We drove to Upminster and got the mainline train from there. I had been a bit worried about getting the bikes on the train – I had assumed they would be busy with others also trying to get their bikes on the train, but as it turned out there was plenty of room. From Fenchurch Street it was not far to get onto the route.

It was a fantastic day out and very enjoyable – Nicky did brilliantly, at his age I was barely out of stabilisers but he managed 30km and probably could have done more, he was a natural at picking his way through the crowds and only had one ‘off’ when he rubbed tyres with someone in front, but he got straight back on and carried on. I couldn’t be more proud! The festival sites around the route were also good, Nicky had a go at handcycling, and there were stunt bikes and other performances everywhere. Everyone had a smile on their face 🙂

I’ll upload some photos when I get a chance – there are some great ones on marathon-photos.com which I’ll buy at some point. I’ve applied for the sportive again next year but I’m sure we’ll do the FreeCycle again regardless as it was lots of fun!