Last year, along with 1,400 other riders, I took part in the London Revolution. The ride follows a circular route around the outskirts of London, taking in some of the most beautiful scenery. You can do the entire route or you can choose one of the two days.
This year it’s back and registrations are now open!
Whether you are in it to see if you can do it, for the beautiful scenery or just to catchup with friends and get some exercise then its a great ride worth taking a look at.
The circular ride starts and finishes in the Docklands. Once you exit London, the route takes you along mainly quiet roads through Epping Forest, the Chilterns and the North Downs. There’s also a lap around Box Hill, along the Olympic route.
On the final day you also get to ride around the Herne Hill Velodrome, which is a rather special experience.
Halfway along the route, there’s a basecamp at Windsor Racecourse with outdoor cinema, band, bar and a whole lot of pasta.
This year is going to be bigger than last, with places available for 2,500 riders looking to escape the city. The event takes place on the 18th to the 19th of May.
Registrations are open here:
Please note this did sell out pretty quickly last year.
The ride is fully supported which means if something goes wrong with your bike, they can help you with repairs and there’s also pitstops along the way providing water, free energy bars and so forth.
You’ll also get a training plan before the event.
I really enjoyed taking part last year, though I wish I had trained a little more before hand. The beautiful scenery along the way reminded me I should really take my bike out to the outskirts of London more often.
The MITIE London Revolution from Threshold Sports on Vimeo.
If you are already signed up then you might also want to join the London Revolution Facebook Page: http://www.facebook.com/londonrevolution for updates on the ride.
If you’re into these sorts of self-flagellation endurance rides it doesn’t get much better than this ride in Sweden: http://goo.gl/SclSY
It involves riding around this great big lake and you’ll be covering 300 km in just one day. people die (ok, that’s not particularly common but it’s happened) completing it…
I’m aiming to do this for my 40th.
I did the Revolution this year and I’ve signed up for 2013. Apart from getting pretty badly banged up 6 miles in on the first day (knocked off at high speed by an out of control mobility scooter of all things) I still completed both days and had a really good time.
I’m a bit disappointed that the ride is starting and finishing in the Docklands again. This was a pretty horrible location to cycle out from and return to. Extremely busy major roads were not a nice start or end to the ride. Rest of the route was good (although for some reason we were made to ride the ‘wrong’ way round the velodrome, which was a bit odd). To enjoy it properly i do think a bit of training is necessary, but as Andreas showed you can get round having done very little.
Camping is not for everybody and a number of my friends who did it and have signed up again are this time opting to get a hotel for the night. I spent most of the night in the medical block, so I’m actually quite looking forward to the camping.
I did the 2012 and signed up for the 2013. It was fun and recommend it. I remember trying to watch the football on in the bar on Saturday night and just wanting to drift asleep.
It was fun riding in a huge group of people and chatting to people as you went along.
Is this just for road bikes or could I do this – and not be left way behind – on my Cannondale Quick CX2 hybrid??
This is definitely do-able on a hybrid. There were people this year doing it on mountain bikes, road bikes, hybrids, recumbents and even cross trainer bikes! If using a hybrid you might want to fit bar ends to give yourself a different grip position. One of the hybrids that I saw doing this had aero bars, which I thought was a great idea as it gave lots of different positions to the rider.
Very interested in this as after my L2P24 last year I have been itching to try some long rides but lacked motivation to get out on my own.
Also one to think about is the Dunwich Dynamo 24 which is through the night and is free to join as far as I recall.
Will be looking into this Docklands ride for sure…
This looks fantastic!
If you like these sorts of events 2013 is also the year of London Edinburgh London – http://www.londonedinburghlondon.com
And take a look at Audax UK’s website – http://www.aukweb.net for lots of rides around London in brilliant company – and an anti-poser mindset!