Among the 26,000 cyclists assembled in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, to take on the 100-mile challenge of the London-100, was Darren Wrintmore from Shaw.
The event saw the culmination of six months training which consisted of an average of 150-miles per week and tackling many of the local climbs on a regular basis, including Bannerdown, Bowden and Brassknocker Hills.
Interspersed into the training were several Sportive events, including the Great Western and Mendips, where Darren achieved the Gold time standards and realised that a good time might be on the cards at the London event this year. He said, “I had taken part in 2013 without any proper training and achieved a respectable time of five hours and 21 minutes, so now with proper focus a time of under five hours was a possibility.
“My ride time saw me set off at 06:30 in the morning to the tune of ‘Club Tropicana’ by Wham which had been chosen as our wave send-off theme. The quick London roads which had been closed to traffic saw me cover the first 20-miles passing the Tower of London, Hyde Park and Harrods in well under an hour, and by the time the route had crossed into Surrey I was the best part of 10 minutes ahead of schedule.
“However 30-miles of climbing through the Surrey hills took their toll on my legs with Leith Hill proving particularly challenging, and by 80-miles I found myself 5-minutes behind schedule and feeling rather jaded.
“As we passed back through Kingston and Wimbledon I managed to tag onto the back of a group that was working together well and they helped me get my legs moving and by time we had reached the Embankment I was clocking nearly 25mph and sub-5 hours was back on the cards.
“As we passed through Trafalgar Square I noticed that the time was 4:59:00 but the finish line in the Mall was in sight through Admiralty Arch and I made a final effort to cross the finish line in 4-hours 59 minutes and 42 seconds, collecting my finishers medal outside of Buckingham Palace with a beaming smile.”
