A century sportive is one of those events within the cycling community where you don't feel you're a proper cyclist until you've completed one. So what better way to get my first under my belt than to ride May's Ride London-Essex 100, not the toughest 100 in the country but without question the biggest?
The 100, along with other events across the weekend, including a three-day women's pro race and FreeCycle family ride in the city centre, was resurrected this year. It followed an uncertain period, brought on by both the Covid-19 pandemic, which forced the event's cancellation in 2020 and 2021, and the withdrawal of both Surrey County Council as the host of the sportive and Prudential as a deep-pocketed title sponsor. It was originally established in 2013 as a legacy event of the 2012 London Olympics, and that version of the 100mile sportive traced the tracks of the road race through Surrey, up the likes of Box Hill and Leith Hill. For 2022, the sportive, in its longest configuration, remains 100 miles on roads closed to traffic, but now heads from central London and Victoria Embankment into the leafy lanes of Essex, on a course that might lack the iconic climbs of Ride London mark 1 but is by no means flat, with 1,100m of climbing. Across the three distances - 100, 60 and 30 miles - over 20,000 people were set to take part, with 23% of starters in the longest event women - up 40% from last time.
23% - The proportion of female cyclists who entered the 100-mile event
Triple whammy
Bu hikaye Cycling Plus UK dergisinin August 2022 sayısından alınmıştır.
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Bu hikaye Cycling Plus UK dergisinin August 2022 sayısından alınmıştır.
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Air Apparent - Pollution hasn't gone away. It's still there in every lungful, even if we can't see it in the air or on the news. But there are reasons to breathe easier, thanks to pioneering projects using cycling 'citizen scientists'. Rob Ainsley took part in one...
The toxic effects of pollution have been known about for years. 'Just two things of which you must beware: Don't drink the water and don't breathe the air!' sang 1960s satirist Tom Lehrer.Over recent decades, though, pollution has dropped down our list of things to worry about, thanks to ominously capitalised concerns such as Climate Change, AI, Global Conflict, Species Collapse, etc. That doesn't, unfortunately, mean the problem has expired. Air quality often exceeds safe limits, with far-reaching and crippling effects on our health.
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