Quickly becoming the most popular sportive on the planet, this year's RideLondon-Surrey 100, or whatever name you so wish to refer to it by, offered riders the chance to jet through central London and off into the Surrey countryside predominantly in the name of charity.

And jet we did. When I saw the 'Gold Time' required you average 18 mph I thought that would be difficult given my normal average speed of around 15 mph. However, after leaving the Olympic park and all of its early morning splendour to shoot off down the A12 you quickly find yourself pedalling at speeds you never though possible.

Rolling through the park en route to the leafy lanes of Surrey.

Once you take to the iconic streets of central London you are rapidly spurred on by the amazing sights and jovial attitude of other riders and the early morning crowds.

Just a quick disclaimer: I started about midway through the pack and as a result was largely free of the cavalier pipe-dream peloton racers that seemed to slightly stain the experience of some of those in earlier start groups.

With an event that attracts around 25,000 cyclists you are of course likely to get riders from every background and experience level. This is a large part of why RideLondon is such a fantastic event after all.

The down side of this, alongside the coming together of other factors like the closed roads and large crowds, is that some riders start to think they are a little more pro than they actually are. Examples of such behaviour abound on YouTube so I won't bore you with them here. Nevertheless, the best way to deal with this on the day is let these people shoot past and not spoil your once-in-a-lifetime day out in the saddle.

Anyhow, with that said let's move onto the rest of the route. Once you've left the confines of London and are out into Surrey the small hills started to rise and the pace slows slightly.

Newlands Corner is a nice warm-up for the sterner test of Leith Hill.

First came the largely innocuous Newlands Corner with its very wide road and steady sub-6% gradient. Newlands proved a nice warm-up for the rather nasty Leith Hill, which came just over half way through the day's riding.

Leith Hill proved to be one of the most harrowing experiences I've had either on or off the bike, as I witnessed the poor gentleman, who I later learned had passed away from a heart attack, getting CPR by the roadside midway up the hill. A sight like this really does make one realise that RideLondon isn't all that important in the scheme of things.

After this sobering sight the route continued on towards the famous Box Hill. Despite residing in South West London I had never climbed Box before, and as it turned out I had slightly over-hyped its severity. Box is a long 2.4 km climb by the area's standards, that is for sure, but its very steady 5% average means it is an easy jaunt up with a long descent running down from the summit.

From here you are quickly back to the outskirts of London and back onto the speedy flat and wide roads of the capital. By the time I'd reached this point the crowds had really started to turn out, especially as I rode through Kingston, and their cheering and clapping really buoys you to go as hard as you possibly can.

Riders pass by cheering crowds in Byfleet.

Produced by a likely a combination of crowd- and occasion-induced adrenalin, the last 20 miles of the route went by extremely fast at an average speed of over 38kph, despite the fact it didn't really feel like I was travelling that fast.

Once you pass the Houses of Parliament you realise that it is sadly almost over. The final sprint down the Mall towards Buckingham Palace is an occasion to savour, no matter what level of cyclist you are.

It seems strange to say but the 100 miles really do fly by, and you have to take a couple of seconds now and then to take the whole event in.

Watch out here comes the boss. Mayor Boris Johnson trundles over the finish line.

Cycling is no longer the niche pastime it once was and the sheer array of riders of all shapes and sizes who smiled, grimaced and largely enjoyed themselves around the course is testament to that. RideLondon is an event that should be a must for any keen rider in the UK; with the one caveat that it is also a ride on which you need to be extra careful and attentive, even though the roads are closed. Speed can be both a blessing and a curse and many riders, probably including you, will not be used to riding at such high speeds with so many other cyclists.

That said, with the sun out, you'd be hard put to find a better run, more enjoyable and more rewarding event in Europe than RideLondon.

The ballot for entry to the 2016 RideLondon-Surrey 100 is now open here.

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