Following on from the success of last year’s London Olympic Games the inaugural Prudential RideLondon-Surrey Classic welcomes the WorldTour circuit onto the capital’s roads.
Unlike at the Olympic Games, where national teams took centre stage, the RideLondon Classic will pit some of the best WorldTour teams against each other over a course similar, but certainly not identical, to the one that saw Alexander Vinokourov race to gold on The Mall in 2012. Belkin, Cannondale, Garmin-Sharp and FDJ are among some of the teams who have already confirmed their participation.
There’s no start on The Mall, as there was in 2012, with the race instead beginning from the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in east London.
Heading through Canary Wharf the peloton will then enter centre London on a circuit that will take them through 12 of the capital’s boroughs.
The race then heads into the leafy countryside of Surrey and through the heart of Kingston-upon-Thames, crossing Hampton Court Bridge and along the route made famous by both the road race and time trial events during last summer’s Olympic Games.
The picturesque surroundings mark the start of the climbing with Newlands Corner, and three ascents of Leith Hill and finally Box Hill with 25 miles to go.
Heading back over Putney Bridge the race passes over the Thames for the final time and then winds along the Embankment towards Parliament Square. The Mall finally beckons with the race finishing in the opposite direction from the Olympic road race.
