It’s a very short review of the pub – good beer, atmosphere, snacks – because the real point of the review is about the reviving properties of almost any pub after completing the Prudential Ride London 100. If you’re ever after a little challenge to raise some funds for your favourite charity, then look no further. It doesn’t matter if you’ve never been on a bike for a hundred years, or even never been further than the paper shop, this event will get you going – and reasonably fit.

This is the second year for us – although the event has been running since 2013, when it was inaugurated to celebrate the 2012 Olympics in London. This might be the one event that achieves the nirvana that is the olympic legacy. The course is a hundred miles, starting at the Olympic Stadium, trundling through London and into the dreaded Surrey Hills [Box Hill, Leith Hill etc] and then a sprint finish on the Mall. Over 30,000 cyclists take part and the entry is strictly by [heavily oversubscribed] ballot and it follows the course of the Olympic Cycle Road Race. They close the roads, lay on lots of portable toilets and trestle tables groaning with energy bars and bananas. It really is a special sight.

We ride for Shelter, raising money to provide homes and other support services, and they kindly lay on some beer and some snacks in the Clarence at the end of the ride. For the record, we did it in 6 hours 56 minutes and 57 seconds; and average speed of around 15.6mph. Including all the hills. Not bad considering we’re in the 65-69 age group. Beat a lot of younger riders, so there.

Pub The Clarence, Dover Street, London, and

Prudential London Ride 100 – why don’t you enter the ballot for a place in 2018!

…somewhere in deepest Surrey

…the finish on the Mall

…Richmond Park. No, that’s not a real hill