Pru-Ride 100 London-Surrey

Apologies to all who got hassle on Sunday due to 24000 riders who finished the above event, including me, along with Ged, Paul Kelly and his wife and as far as I know Paul Day though I did not see him. I met with the former at the Golden Lion King st., near the Ritz Hotel after the event for a free sandwich and soft drink provide by the UK association of Hospice movement, we were riding for St. Raphael's Cheam.
The pictures below depict some of the action and show Paul & I outside the pub with Emily from St. Raph's. Ged had already left. Getting registered is a night mare, you have to go to Excel in docklands and the whole exercise took me half a day and 55 miles riding from home to Greenwich, taking a pasta lunch at spoons, then walking through the foot tunnel, then riding to Excel where in the process I sat in Wiggo's coronation chair after signing on and getting my registration pack and free goody bag. It was relatively poor value in exchange for the £50 entry fee but then I suppose someone has to pay for the enormous organisation behind this ride and for the joy (joke - poor sods) of clogging up the roads and causing all that hassle for the motorists. In all I did 161 miles in the 2 days but unlike last year I did not ride home after the event but caught the train from London Bridge to Tadworth.
My time was quite poor, 9 hrs 40 mins  but then I made a day of it filling up at many of the food/drink stops and calling in for tea and cake at my friend Tina & Harry in Westcot, they were marooned for the day with A25 blocked. Son Tim who I did not see at all ( he started same time as me 7.20am but in a different wave - it's amazing how they do it) finished in 4 hr 38 mins and he tells me he's not fit!
Pity I did not see the ladies pro ride Saturday evening but after registering I went to London and got caught up in the family rides and could not resist a picture of the young lad in his Polka Dot top.. Will I do it again not sure. along with many hundreds I got stopped on Leith Hill due to a medical emergency. We were kept waiting for over an hour while a poor guy was airlifted out with a heart attack (later understood to have passed away). That standing around really aggravated my arthritic right ankle and gave me much gip for the rest of the event.

What was quite disappointing from CTC point of view, despite looking I saw no sign of activity or presence from our charitable club. Plenty of trade areas like Wiggle but no CTC as I could find, Sure I probably missed them but what an opportunity lost for the public good!