"Ludicrous": Disappointed RideLondon cyclists learn safety car will set 22mph pace limit

The first time I did Ride London, which was the year of the tropical storm, I averaged 23mph and I'd not been riding long / had never raced.

On my second go I managed an average of 25mph. I managed to stay with the front group, I did a turn on the front; it was a brilliant experience and felt perfectly safe.

I entered again this year as I wanted to see if I could make the most of the closed roads and get 'round in under 4 hours. I'm not interested in "racing" as such, just pushing my body on closed roads and enjoying the experience. If we ignore the silly medal, there are no points or prizes. I'm a 45 year old dad who has to work in the morning to support my family, so being safe takes precedence.  

I'm now faced with the decision to sack it off and go on a club ride instead, or take my chances starting an hour later and spend 4 hours trying to avoid slower riders. I know there are groups of first wave riders who will be doing this; Ride London have engineered the very situation that they should be trying to avoid at all costs. I hope they have a rethink or there will be carnage. 

If I'd known about the "safety car" speed limit I simply would not have entered. If I could get my money back I would. I feel misled by Ride London.  

22 mph actual or 22mph speedo ?

Hope the cruise control is better than my car where it won't work until you get to 25 mph.

This is possible one of the daftest ideas I've ever heard about. I have taken part in ride London twice both times with an average of over 22mph. Without the lumps of surrey hills, time will be way way faster.

The only thing that this will achieve is a ridiculously large group containing the first 3 waves of hundreds if not thousands of riders. I would suggest the organisers rethink as there is still time to change this very dangerous decision. Lets hope common sense will prevail.

I think the organisers have confused competitor safety with safety for the public. While slowing the riders down might seem to make it safer - slow = safe, in reality it will increase risk and possible accidents. As already said bunches will merge rather than seperate - there will be more rider crashes, not less. With bigger bunches its possible there will be more public interaction problems, as the groups will be bigger with fewer gaps between to cross the road.

Have they thought this through with the right risk assessors?

Anyone think someone has seen the Grand Tours and noticed a car is at the start of the ride slowing the cyclists and think they need one to match that, not realising it is for the first 5 miles or so?

One of our club members did the Fred Whitton at 18.9mph average.

I don't think they've thought this through. Is it an Audax where there are check points you are not supposed to arrive before?

What if there is a strong wind on the day - 25mph on the flat is a gentle cruise for many road riders in such circumstances, riding on the brakes to follow a car would nark me - as it does every time a MGIF then brakes for our humped zebra crossings in the High Street.

Never forgave Brasher Minor for suggesting that me crashing into a pedestrian who had crossed ignoring Marshall's, they were knocked unconscious and I summersaulted and my bike landed about 10 metres away, was not a serious incident. The London authority was particularly unhelpful on a FOI request of incidents on the ride, so I don't see how they can claim there is a safety issue when they suggested to me that they did not have any records of serious incidents.

I saw this at the weekend when the start waves were sent out (I'm wave E 0640-0655) and thought this might cause a few problems at the front bearing in mind that's where the faster riders are going to be. I did the 2019 Surrey version at 27.6km/h / 17.1mph and am happy riding in groups, so safety car won't trouble me, but I'm concerned about the bunching further back, particularly as the organisers have stated this:

"It’s not possible to change your start time to an earlier wave. However, you can join a later wave on the day and don’t need to notify us if you do, but please note you must cross the Start Line by 09:10."

I'm guess wave A, B & C are going to be empty then?

Secondly, the roads are not all closed for the whole day, however looking at the road closure plans, if fast riders overtake the pace car, they'd have to be going some to go on an open road, so this has been thought through maybe.

Link to road closure maps here:

https://www.ridelondon.co.uk/road-closures/routes

I felt totally let down by the organisers when they said (after places paid for and confirmed) the bag drop service in place at every previous RideLondon was not happening. So I have to do the ride with my lights and kit in my back pocket
from the 4am ride to the start AND I will have to cycle off right after the event or insist a friend/family members meets me at the finish with clothes and shoes so I can enjoy the post event atmosphere and wait for friends to finish.

With the surprise pace car announcement, with the above, I feel misold.

I dont think they are doing rolling road closures so good luck to the organisers either stopping a few thousand riders overtaking the pace car, or an IYKYK start time of 7am. The 6am wave will be empty!

I'm a heavy rider and have never been fast.  And yet, a few years back I averaged 20mph for the entire run back from the Leatherhead to the Mall.  It isn't supposed to be a race, fine, and having a 'safety car' would make sense if it was checking that the roads were indeed closed, but the speed seems needlessly low.

So what are they trying to achieve here?  The people starting in waves an hour after the start will go as fast as they like; there won't be a car in front of every wave.  All you'll achieve is to have a peloton of hundreds of riders following the carby halfway around, which will inevitably cause accidents as no-one other than category racers are used to riding at speed in that sort of group.

Brainless.

This has clearly been decided on by someone that is unfamiliar with cycling events and unaware of what actual safety issues there are in a cycling event.

This will create a huge clump of riders packed tightly at the front behind the car as faster people move up through the more inexperienced people with nowhere to go. This is really dangerous. 

I'm considering starting up the Association of British Cyclists - the people complaining about speed restrictions for safety reasons will be my first point of call. Happy to give a discount to all those who want to be able to go as fast as they want in Ride London with no thought as to the consequences of their demands.

I'm so glad now I didn't sign up (which was purely because it's on my wedding anniversary).  Farcical.

I have a start time of 6:30. With the possibility of some faster riders hanging back, could make it quite spicy. Surely Essex police knew what speeds might be expected from previous safely held events.

I've got no problem with this as long as they did it before taking the large amount of money from you for participating in the event.

I doubt I'd have troubled the limit too much, but plenty would have and now are understandably peed off. No it's not a race but people are trained to ride at different speeds and as long as they are safe there is no problem. 

Btw yes we all have seen d*ckheds riding like d*ckheads on these sportives many times before. They are a very small minority and this wont stop them, in fact it will enable them to catch the faster riders and potentially cause problems. 

Hopefully these fears will be unfounded having said all that. My problem is simply that they have said this now and not when they were taking peoples money.

I'm a slightly overweight, over 40 rider. Last RideLondon I did (2019) was 4hr 42min, and I had a fag half way. It was hillier than new route too. This is a pisstake.

If you want to race enter a race.   Number on back not bars.  Simple.