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Well I managed to complete the Prudential Ride London 100, all  one hundred miles of it and have raised over £550 for the York Road Project             

My training had gone pretty well  but I was slightly concerned that I wouldn't finish in the allocated of 9 hours.If you don't complete the course by 5pm you have to go on the van to the finish. The other option is that you take a short cut at various cut off points so don't complete the full 100 miles. I was very keen to avoid both scenarios and felt pretty confident as I had cycled 86 miles  from where I live  in Woking to Eastbourne in under 7 hours. I had  completed this  on a   hybrid  Giant bike which while not particularly heavy was not really ideal for a long  road ride such as this.

The good news was that a week before the ride a local on line bikeshop bikeswanky.com had lent me his carbon fibre De Rosa bike which is very light and pretty fast. Many thanks to the director  Paul Mander-O'Beirne for the loan of his bike.

I did have to adjust to the De  Rosa thiough as the bars are a lot lower on a racing bike such as this and you therefore need to lean a lot further forward.   Fortunately I had a week to prepare and get used to this new riding  position.

I stayed the night before at a hotel in the Barbican as there was  no way of getting to the Olympic Park by 6.30 am on public transport. Although the hotel was clean and  pleasant, I didnt get alot of sleep as there were quite a few vociferous people on the street below enjoying a Saturday night out.

A phone call woke me up at 5.15am as arranged and  after a couple of cups of coffee I was outside the hotel knowing I needed to get to the Olympic Park in just over half an hour. I was joined by another cyclist who was also staying at the hotel and also lived in Woking.

As we made our way up the A11 in the sunrise towards Stratford we were joined by more and more cyclists and for the last few miles marshalls were directing us. Then cycling in the opposite direction were thousands of cyclists who looked very focused on their task and were going at a  tremondous rate.  These were the early starters who were all obviously intent on completing a PB time.

We finally arrived at the edge of the Olympic Park where we had to walk to the start. There was a staggered  start with riders given a Personal Load time and Personal Start time with a gate letter(mine being P) where you would hopefully start within your allocated time (7.30am)                                      

I just had time to hand in my back pack at the left luggage van and then they announced that gate P was open. I made my way to the gate with the thousands  of other cyclists who were due to start at the same time as me.

It was beautifully oragnised and just after 7.30 am we were off, cycing  the 2.5 miles to the official start. It was a great feeling cycling through London without a car in site. Before I knew it we had got to Trafalguar Square and were only 37 minutes into the ride. I thought this is possibly quicker than going on public transport.

We the crossed the river at Chiswick Bridge and went through Bushey and Richmond Parks which appeared infintinely more attractive due to the  lack of cars on the road. 24 miles in there was the chance to refuel at Ham House. I was making pretty good time as it had only just gone 9.00am  so allowed myself about 20 minutes break.

The route continued on through Surrey and  at West Byfleet was  pretty close to where I live. We started a long gentle climb after the village of Ripley on to West Horsley and I started to feel a little tired at this point. Then came the first short serious climb of the route on the A25 up to Newlands Corner. Fortunately after this (45 miles)  came the next Hub which was pretty congested and I must have been there at least half an hour by the time I had refilled my drinks and had something to eat.

After Newlands Corner we then a had a welcome  down hill stretch to the village of Abinger Hammer where more people had  gathered to cheer on the cyclists, ( one person had a bell !) The respite was temporary though as we were shortly due to to begin the long ascent of Leith Hill the highest point in Surrey at 260 meters. I had climbed up this as part of my training so knew what to expect, but it still felt very long and everyone was relieved when we finally got to the highest point.

There was now a very welcome downhill stretch and at one point  the bike computer registered over 35mph as we passed  through Dorking where a large crowd was now gathered. Dorking means you're very close to Box Hill, which was thankfully the last serious cimb of the route. Fortunately unlike the Olympic cyclists, who cilmbed  it 7 times  we only had to do it once  We were still a few miles from the next Hub but  I decided to indulge in a cup of tea and flapjack at the Box Hill cafe having now completed almost 2/3rds of the route.

Feeling refreshed I by passed the final hub and carried on through Leatherhead, Cobham and Esher on a mainly flat route back to Kingston.

As we returned through  the suburbs of  south London, there was still time for one more short hill, Wimbledon Hill and one of the marshalls chllenged us to catch Boris who was apparently not far ahead. (I should mention he did have a head start as he started at 6.00am!)

I didn't quite manage this but still completed the route in 7 hours and 38 minutes and this included the stops, which totaled over an hour.  My average riding time was 15.3 mph. I also finished pretty strongly as the last 9 miles were completed in just over 30 minutes.

I would like to thank  everyone who has been geneous enough to  sponsor me  through just giving and also off line and at the moment have raised around  £600. Will update when all money has been collected  Couldn't  have done this without you!                                                                                                                                                    

I must also mention the   York Road Project, the charity I have been fundraising for.  Its a  Woking based  homelessness charity  project providing emergency and long term accommodation for those expereicing homelessness. It has one emergency shelter and three longer term 'move on' properties with a total of 25 spaces.

The money raised from the ride will go towards the new  day centre, the project has just set up enabling clients to access help with training, job search,  housing and benefits advice.

Many thanks for your  support!                   

Would I do the Ride London again? Probably in fact the ballot for the 2014  ride opens tommorrow! so you never know