 | |
| Race details | |
|---|---|
| Date | August |
| Region | Great Britain |
| Discipline | Road |
| Competition | UCI World Tour (Cat 1.HC) |
| Type | One-day |
| Organiser | London & Surrey Cycling Partnership (LSCP) |
| Web site | www |
| History | |
| First edition | 2011 (2011) |
| Editions | 8 |
| Final edition | 2019 |
| First winner |  Mark Cavendish (GBR) |
| Final winner |  Elia Viviani (ITA) |
TheLondon–Surrey Classic (also known as theRideLondon–Surrey Classic) was an annual 193 km (119.9 mi) men's professional one-dayroad cycling race, starting and finishing inLondon and routed via the picturesqueSurrey Hills. The first race of its kind was theLondon–Surrey Cycle Classic, on 14 August 2011, a1.2 classification[1] 140 kmpreparatory event for the2012 Summer Olympics, which was won by sprinterMark Cavendish. Themen's andwomen's Olympic road races were held on a longer variation of the same course the following year. On 4 August 2013, the race found a permanent home as part of thePrudential RideLondon weekend, a two-day cycling festival held in London, a legacy event of the Olympics.
The Prudential RideLondon–Surrey Classic was part of theUCI World Tour between 2017 and 2019.[2][3][4][5] Following the cancellation of the 2020 and 2021 events due to theCOVID-19 pandemic and the withdrawal of support fromSurrey County Council, the men's race did not return in 2022, with theRideLondon festival including a 3 day elite women's race (RideLondon Classique) instead.[6][7]
As part of theLondon Prepares test events forLondon 2012 Olympics and Paralympics a one-off one-day 140 km (87.0 mi) cycle race was organised for 14 August 2011 acting as a test event for the Road Cycling events to be held the following year. The race was named the London-Surrey Cycle Classic and was part of the2010–11 UCI Europe Tour as a 1.2 category event.[8]
The race started and finished onThe Mall in London and featured two laps of a 15.5 km (9.6 mi) circuit centred onBox Hill in Surrey.[9] 138 riders from 19 national teams and 10 trade teams took part in the race, and was won byMark Cavendish in a sprint finish.[10]
The 2012 Summer Olympics held road cycling races for bothmen andwomen on a largely similar course to that of the London-Surrey Cycle Classic held the previous year.
The RideLondon weekend, including the RideLondon–Surrey Classic, was announced by theMayor of LondonBoris Johnson on 10 August 2012, less than two weeks after the Olympic Road Cycling races.[11] RideLondon is managed by the London & Surrey Cycling Partnership, a joint venture between the organisers of theLondon Marathon andThe Tour of Britain.
The inaugural RideLondon–Surrey Classic was run as a 1.1 category event on the2013 UCI Europe Tour. The UCI upgraded the classification for the2014 race which was run as a 1.HC category event on the2014 UCI Europe Tour; the same classification asParis–Tours andMilano–Torino.[12]
The RideLondon event director, Hugh Brasher, stated his ambitions to attainUCI World Tour status for the RideLondon–Surrey Classic by 2016.[13] This was backed up by positive rider reaction following the inaugural race, including from Arnaud Démare's teammateDominique Rollin.[14] In March 2016 the race organisation applied for WorldTour status from the 2017 event[15] and in August 2016 the UCI confirmed that the race would be promoted to the WorldTour from 2017.[16]Surrey County Council agreed to support the RideLondon events until 2018, with an option of a further two-year extension.[17]
The 2020 and 2021 events were cancelled due to theCOVID-19 pandemic. Following the withdrawal of title sponsorPrudential andSurrey County Council, the event has concentrated inCentral London from 2022 with an 3-day elite women's race, theRideLondon Classique.[7][6] In June 2021, organisers of the event confirmed that the men's race would not return.[6]
The RideLondon–Surrey Classic route was a variation of the course used for the 2012 Summer Olympics.[18] The route featured both categorised climbs and intermediate sprint points.
Riders started from theQueen Elizabeth Olympic Park close to theOlympic Velodrome before passing close toCanary Wharf and theTower of London on the way through central London. Leaving London by theA4 the route passes throughRichmond Park,Kingston upon Thames andHampton Court Palace. In Surrey the route passed throughWeybridge andRipley on the way to the first of the categorised climbs and the leafy villages of the Surrey Hills.
Multiple laps of hilly terrain in the vicinity ofDorking incorporated further categorised climbs, includingLeith Hill – the highest point in South-East England. On the return to London the route took in the final categorised climb of Box Hill before the largely flat run-in viaOxshott, Kingston upon Thames,Wimbledon andPutney. The final kilometres followed theEmbankment, past thePalace of Westminster, alongWhitehall and turning left throughAdmiralty Arch before the finish on The Mall.
Intermediate Sprints counted towards the sprints classification; the points distribution for this classification is as follows:
| Sprint | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Intermediate Sprint | 5 | 3 | 2 | 1 |
Note that points were not awarded at the finish line.
Categorised climbs counted towards the King of the Mountains classification; the points distribution for this classification is as follows:
| Category | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | 5th | 6th | 7th | 8th | 9th | 10th |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cat 1 | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 |
| Cat 2 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 | ||||
| Cat 3 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 |
The categorised climbs that featured in the RideLondon–Surrey Classic included:
| Climb | Editions | Category | Length | Ascent | Average grade | Max. grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Box Hill[19] | 2013-2014 | Cat 2 | 2.5 km (1.6 mi) | 123 m (404 ft) | 4.9% | 10.9% |
| Coldharbour[20] | 2014 | Cat 2 | 1.8 km (1.1 mi) | 130 m (427 ft) | 7.2% | 14.2% |
| Denbies Wine Estate[21] | 2014 | Cat 2 | 2.5 km (1.6 mi) | 137 m (449 ft) | 5.5% | 13.1% |
| Newlands Corner[22] | 2013 | Cat 3 | 1.8 km (1.1 mi) | 84 m (276 ft) | 4.7% | 9.6% |
| Staple Lane[23] | 2014 | Cat 2 | 1.4 km (0.9 mi) | 82 m (269 ft) | 5.9% | 9.9% |
| Leith Hill[24] | 2013 | Cat 2 | 2.1 km (1.3 mi) | 139 m (456 ft) | 6.6% | 11.8% |
| # of victories | Country |
|---|---|
| 2 | United Kingdom |
| 1 |  France |
| 1 |  Luxembourg |
| 1 |  Belgium |
| 1 |  Norway |
| 1 |  Germany |
| 1 | Italy |
