Five thoughts on 2015’s sunny, packed, exhausting RideLondon 100

Did a borrowed aero bike make me faster? Did the event feel more packed than previously? And can we have the same weather every year?

So, if you were among the 26,000 or so people who rode yesterday's RideLondon-Surrey 100, how was it for you? Now in its third year, the event, beginning at the Olympic stadium in Stratford, east London, and building to a thrilling finish on the Mall, via big stretches of London and some climbs in the Surrey countryside, is famously held on roads closed to other traffic.

This does cause some annual grief among locals unable to travel anywhere by car for a day, though the RideLondon organisers say such anger is abating as people get used to the event. But for a cyclist taking part, it's a revelation. It's London (or any big city) as it could be in your dreams: taken over by cyclists - even if they are generally of the fast-moving Lycra-clad type, rather than everyday pootlers.