After swerving this for a few years as didn't really enjoy it, took the plunge as Team Wheelers needed a man for the Mixed Team of 4 - so glad I did.

The biggest faff of this event is the registration, which is at the Excel Arena. It is handy for nowhere, and a 3 train journey from Kings Cross where we were staying. Decided to register on the Friday evening to beat the Saturday rush and glad I did as met Fabian Cancellara who was doing promotion duties and riding on the Sunday.

Other than that, underwhlemed by the bike expo, a massive Evans shop and not a lot else of great interest. The goodie bag is basically a Prudential branded bottle and that was it!

Team Wheelers comprised Andrea, Cheryl, Ally Mills and me and the plan was to go round together and aim to break the 5 hours. Up at 3:30am to try and eat a porridge pot before meeting the Team at Kings Cross station - which was heaving. The ride out to the start at the Olympic Park was around 6 miles and easy enough as Andrea had the route on her Garmin and as we hit the CS2 there were a fair few others going the same way. We actually arrived at the Park BEFORE the start gates had opened! On the plus side, the weather was perfect even at 5am, warm, no wind and dry.

It must be a logistics nightmare to try and get 27,000+ riders on 3 different event distances all off and seemed to go to plan. The first wave is off at 5:44 and the last around 9:30am! We were in the second wave, which was great as meant not too many folks ahead, later starters had to contend with very busy roads with riders of all abilities, a few crashes, route closures and a tough day - thankfully none of that for us.

Bang on our start time of 5:48 we were off and got into our formation of me - Andrea - Ally - Cheryl. 

I knew it was a fast start, with groups blasting past, but kept to our plan and pacing. So pretty much the next 100 miles I sat on the front, looking over my right shoulder to check Andrea was there, the odd shout of "steady" to keep me in check, and had a great ride :-) No idea if I was leading 3 others or 100 in our group, so in my head I was Tony Martin leading the Peleton round. Also, if you need advice on cornering without braking ask Cheryl, or you may have heard her back in Dundee as she "offered" advice to some folks who had tagged on to us as we rounded the one sketchy tight corner, that vexed her a tad.

Apparently we did the first 40 miles at a 23mph average, believe it was mentioned at least once :-) which was my plan as knew we would lose some time when we hit the hilly section. First up is Newlands and the start of the hills. We agreed to regroup at the top / bottom which we did and when I could catch Andrea on the descents we settled back into our formation. Thankfully due to the early start the roads were not busy and we could go at our own pace, not having to dodge too many people or folks walking up the hills. Next up was Leith Hill which is the only "proper" climb on the route, a couple of wee sharp bits before a rather sketchy descent on the worst surface of the whole route. Again, glad it wasn't busy as really wouldn't fancy that with 1,000's of others around.

Then a wee roll along to Europe's most ridden Strava segment that is Box Hill. It is a lovely climb, but it is pretty easy, helped by the super smooth surface.

Then a quick bottle fill at the top, where Andrea didn't have to break stride as she entered the feed stop, we picked up her bike and walked it to the exit as she got her bottles filled and off again - an F1 team would have been proud :-)

Only 32 miles to go and a lot of it downhill or flattish. We were making good progress and with about 25 miles to go Cheryl asked "have you done the calculations" to which my reply was " yes, it will be close". We needed to keep a 22 mph average for the last hour to get under 5 hours and I knew there was a nasty wee bit at Wimbledon, where the road kicked up - but there were hoards of folks cheering us on which was great.

The miles ticked by pretty quickly and we passed Houses of Parliament, through HorseGuards and on to the Mall for the sprint finish.

I pulled up to let the 3 others roll up so we could go across together and realised too late the finish line was sooner than I remembered and we crossed it before Andrea got beside us! Quick check of the time, we had done it, 4:57 official time :-) I think it was all down to the perfect pacing by the lead domestique.

I had a cracking ride, loved it, think being in the team was great and all getting round together under our target was fab. The crowds were out in numbers all along the route and loads of shouts of encouragement, think us being in team formation got us lots of shouts. It is well organised and a great ride (if you get an early start). Only drawback was there was nowhere to get a beer at 11am once we finished!

Garmin stats for me: