I did the short. To be honest as nice as it was to be on segregated roads I'm going to give it a miss next year.
My main complaint was that I had to go and register in-person the day before, and getting to Excel was a complete pain in the arse. They didn't give any "how to cycle here" instructions in light of the road closures nor were there any signs up in the street (made even worse by many cycle routes from google being blocked by construction work). I'd rather have paid £5 or even £10 to have had my stuff posted out than cycle out to Stratford.
This is the number one thing that is making me want to stay away. I got to the Excel fed up and in a mood (had punctured on the way there having spent at least 30 mins fannying around trying to sort my route out).
The ride itself was OK. It'd have been nice to have had hot drinks at the hubs and while waiting around at the start (one coffee van doing boutique espresso with a queue half a mile long was a bit much). As it was, I was stood around on a brisk cool morning, after an 0530 start, for about two hours in the open air. A hot cup of instant coffee from a big bowser would have really hit the spot. Some people were getting very cold especially the less well prepared.
I was amazed at how many punctures there were. You'd pass someone stopped with one at least once a minute. Often, more frequently than that. I personally witnessed one serious accident where a pedestrian knocked a cyclist over. I wasn't impressed with the safety at the crossings personally, I saw that serious incident and a near miss when I was on the way home (cyclist missed that a crossing was closing ahead and nearly cycled straight into the non-flourescent rope (!) being stretched across the rode to close it). She could easily have been garrotted if we hadn't all screamed at her.
Full marks for getting the roads shut but everything else.... Unless I get on the classic I'll do the Dunwich instead.