Top tips for RideLondon, the capital's cycling marathon

Here's how to prepare for the 100-mile cycling event ...

Shortly before 6am on Sunday, the first of about 25,000 intrepid cyclists will set off from the Olympic Park in east London on a 100-mile trip through the capital and into the hills of Surrey, finishing on the Mall.

It is the fifth year of an event which has so far lived up to its billing of a London marathon for two wheels, part of a wider and much-enjoyed weekend of cycling activities in the capital, which has now spawned similar events elsewhere in Britain.