Routes for the Prudential Ride London Surrey 100 sportive and accompanying international pro event have been released.
Organisers of the 100-mile (160km) sportive, which is expected to attract 24,000 participants and hundreds of thousands of fans to watch the pros tackle the popular Box Hill and Leith Hill climbs on 10 August 2014, announced the routes this morning. A massive community engagement programme will also be launched over the summer to minimise disruption to local residents.
The massively oversubscribed Prudential Ride London-Surrey 100 is the UK’s biggest mass participation cycling event. It raised more than £7m for charity last year and organisers have set their sights even higher this year and hoping to raise £12m.
The sportive route remains largely unchanged from the inaugural 2013 event that started in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park and finished on the Mall. However the route will now showcase Kingston’s refurbished ancient marketplace and there are further adjustments at Dorking, Leatherhead and Esher to minimise traffic disruption, which caused friction with local residents last year.
The 200km (124 mile) Classic, which caps off a weekend festival of cycling in London, has been awarded a higher ranking in the UCI calendar, meaning a stronger field of international stars are likely to attend. A harder route with multiple circuits in the Surrey hills before returning to the Mall in central London has been devised, say organisers.
New climbs at Denbies Vineyard and Staple Lane have been added to the route, which is likely to be lined by tens of thousands of supporters.
London’s Mayor Boris Johnson, said: “After last year’s roaring success, cyclists across London will be cheered to see the return of an event that has quickly established itself as an unmissable fixture. As well as bringing economic benefit to the capital, events such as Prudential RideLondon help to support our two-wheeled renaissance and I am confident this year’s event will be even bigger and better.”
Last year more than 15,000 people completed the Prudential Ride London Surrey 100 sportive. Other events in the weekend festival of cycling include the family FreeCycle, and eight-mile loop of London’s historic landmarks on traffic-free roads and criterium racing for handcyclists, women and juniors in central London.
The Prudential RideLondon series of events will start on 9 August.
For more information, visit Prudential RideLondon.