RideLondon-Surrey 100 (2016) Anyone?

[lazybloke]

Can give you a partial answer Swansonj (did we discuss hub gearing on a train back from the Shoreham FNRttC a couple of months ago?).

The A246 is a planned contingency for those wanting or needing a hefty bypass (avoiding Newlands Corner, Leith Hill and Box). You just have to turn LEFT at East Horsley then follow the A246 West, go down Young Street and rejoin the route at Givons Grove roundabout.
Note that the A246 is not fully closed between Horsley and Leatherhead, but it is subject to the no parking and tow-away zone rules.
It's also extremely quiet on LS100 days, due to effectively being 'land locked' within a loop of the route.

The other short cuts (avoid Box Hill by staying on the A24 from Burford Bridge to Givons Grove, or avoid Leith Hill by staying on the A25 from Abinger Hatch to Hollow Lane) are already closed to cars on the day, so no issues in diverting that way.

I can only guess what happens if large numbers of riders have to be diverted onto open roads. I would assume that the police have plenty of powers to enact emergency road closures wherever necessary; am sure RideLondon have the the police on speed dial! Wait : Wot mjray said

 

[Elybazza61]

That is tarring everybody with the same brush.There were probably a lot of regular cyclists who went down the charity route because they didn't get in on the ballot.That's the way i went,trained hard and it paid off in me finishing at the mall still feeling fresh.

Yeah,you are right(two of our club guys were doing it for charities)but the point I was trying to make is that there will always be a wide range of abilities hence a wide variation in pace so not everyone will be going along at say 15mph;some will be a lot quicker and some a lot slower.

Definately think the field is too big and also wonder if the charity element is getting saturated,seemed to be lot of ads for places this year.

 

[TheJDog]

Ride 100 finish time distribution

• TheJDog
• 3 Aug 2016

Here's a distribution graph of finish times for the ride. As you can see, there is a first peak at around 5:00 hours, then a drop, then another later peak. I imagine this is because of the delays in the course. If the finish times after the middle trough were brought forward 30 minutes or an hour, then we'd get a more normal bell curve with a peak around 6 hours....

p.s. Excel is the worst thing I have ever used.

 

[TheJDog]

Thanks for that. Does similar data exist for other points on the route?

Graphs for mile 17, 26, 47, 55, 75 and 85

 

[swansonj]

...If the finish times after the middle trough were brought forward 30 minutes or an hour, then we'd get a more normal bell curve with a peak around 6 hours....

Or even a log normal distribution, the statistical pedant in me can't resist whispering quietly from the corner.... Definitely skewed anyway....

 

[Norry1]

Ride 100 finish time distribution

• TheJDog
• 3 Aug 2016

Here's a distribution graph of finish times for the ride. As you can see, there is a first peak at around 5:00 hours, then a drop, then another later peak. I imagine this is because of the delays in the course. If the finish times after the middle trough were brought forward 30 minutes or an hour, then we'd get a more normal bell curve with a peak around 6 hours....

p.s. Excel is the worst thing I have ever used.

Interesting. Where did you get the data?

 

[srw]

Or even a log normal distribution, the statistical pedant in me can't resist whispering quietly from the corner.... Definitely skewed anyway....

I can't help thinking that it could be deduced from an assumption about the distribution of speeds (?normal) and a knowledge of the distribution of start times (uniform). Once upon a time I might even have had a go...

 

[Dogtrousers]

There would probably be peaks on the hour, where people have paced themselves to get round in (say) 6 hours. I know that tends to be the case with marathon finishing times. (Or at least it was on the occasion that I looked at some data years ago)

 

[Dogtrousers]

I was reading the graph as finishing time, without regard to individual time on the road.

You may be right. In which case my comment would be irrelevant. Which would not be a first.

 

[swansonj]

Do I have that wrong?

The reference to "5 hours" made me think it was time-on-road.

 

[jefmcg]

Thanks for that. Does similar data exist for other points on the route?

In which case, it is not quite so useful when considering density at any given point at any given time.

OK, so maybe ask for what you want next time?

 

[Norry1]

This was my 4th RideLondon - I have been lucky enough to get through 3 ballots and in 2014 I took a charity place. As usual I started really early. I had the alarm set for 3.30 but woke at 2 a.m. so got up at that time.

The event seemed even better organised this year and my wave Orange Wave D started bang on time at 6.25. I know it is not a race, but I was, like many people, trying to get the best time I could. My best was last year at 4:47 and I wanted to beat it. This was an average of 20.9 mph.

I joined many trains which massively helps and tried to balance speed with not burning out. After 30 miles I had averaged 23.5 mph which was good but I knew I had the hilly section to come. I took it steady and quite a few people passed me on the hills. I am a quick descender but I was pretty careful with people all around and so was quite pleased when I came out the other side of Box Hill with my average at 20.5mph. I knew it got quicker from here if I still had energy in my legs. I had felt cooked at 60 miles but was feeling better.

My plan was to go quick but not flat out from there until the top of Wimbledon Hill, then go all out till the end.

I did this and joined a fast train - pretty much all the way to the Mall. It felt great. I amazed myself by taking 7 minutes off my previous best and doing 4:40 at an average of 21.2mph.

I missed all the bad accidents, although I passed a few less serious ones on the road. Sympathies to all involved which includes a guy who works at our place.

I'll plan to be back again next year.

Martin

 

[srw]

It is a question of what there is.

I would be extremely surprised if those nice people at LSCP, who have start times as well as road times, aren't doing exactly this exercise. They've been made to look a bit silly this year, which TfL, the councils and they won't like

 

[srw]

Wouldn't they be doing it live on the day? With timing chips and mats at intervals they ought to be monitoring the volume and flow in different segments, and use that to make decisions. For instance they could use it to determine the time cut-off for the Leith Hill loop, bring it forward if the know that riders would only be being stuck onto the back of a walking queue. Conversely cut a bit more slack if it is flowing, rather than send a stream of riders straight on and risk creating more of a bottleneck where the routes rejoin in Dorking. That sort of thing?

True. I don't know if they did, though. It depends whether the chip reading technology has got transmission to base built in.

Dorking and subsequent (double track roads) wouldn't be much of a bottle neck, though. The main potential bottle necks are Richmond Park, around Ripley and the Leith Hill loop, with a looser bit up Box hill.

 

[mjr]

Maybe they should get the TfL pumps team to manage the flows? If they can keep the tube from flooding, maybe they can keep a bike race moving.