Results Day

Having recently moved house, I knew I wasn’t getting the result sent to me, so was waiting for a message from my old housemate. On Wednesday evening there it was – “Your RideLondon stuff has come…” – followed immediately by him going to sleep and not telling me what the verdict was until the morning, the stress! Fast forward to the next day and there it was, “Congratulations” – the fateful words that meant not only was I doing an 100 mile cycle race, but also that I needed to buy a bike…

You may be thinking, Louise…

• Why did you end up entering the ballot for RideLondon without even knowing you like cycling?
• You don’t have a bike?
• We all know you failed your cycling proficiency in year 6 and still haven’t got over it?

All valid points. Yes, admittedly, this was not a conventional decision, when the ballot was suggested, I was fairly bored, and thought to myself hey, would be barejokeslolzbantz if I got a place wouldn’t it – it’s a ballot, what are the chances anything will come of it? The fact I’d not really ridden a bike for years (main photo evidence of one of my more recent cycles circa 1997) didn’t put me off and admittedly not much thought was involved in the progression fromto…

To slightly address the point of ‘What if you don’t even like cycling?’ – A legitimate point for sure, however, when last year I found out that I’d been living a lie, contrary to both popular and personal belief I in fact do like running, I appear to have had some sort of quarter life crisis – what do I even enjoy these days?? WHO’S TO SAY. Having previously thought my greatest sporting achievement was to remain not coming last in the 1500m at District Sports Day 2009, thanks to some supportive friends telling me I’m better than that,  I’ve shifted a little from a very much, “can’t therefore won’t” attitude to one of “maybe I could try…”. It remains unlikely that I’ll be representing Team GB in Tokyo (hit me up if you’re a talent scout) but I’m just more likely to have a go now ok.
This said, of course, maybe I won’t get on with cycling, I’ll struggle through Ride100 then hang up my boots (bike), and that’s fine, but equally, maybe this will become the next big thing…Chris Froome eat your heart out.

---

What is the RideLondon/RideLondon-Surrey 100/Ride100 as you keep calling it?

The full name for the event I’m referring to is the ‘Prudential RideLondon-Surrey 100′, an 100 mile sportive starting in the Olympic Park, coming out into my birthplace and the greatest county of them all* Surrey and finishing back in London on the Mall no less (https://www.prudentialridelondon.co.uk/events/100/). This is part of a 3 day festival of cycling set up as a legacy from the 2012 Olympic Games in London. 

*Apparently up for dispute, I will not change my biased mind.

---

Up next: Bike vs. Wardrobe