After a successful inaugural staging last year, Prudential RideLondon returns for 2014 and both BBC Sport and British Eurosport will be screening extensive coverage of the weekend’s festival of cycling.
Two years on from the London 2012 Olympics, RideLondon celebrates the Games’ legacy with a series of major cycling events based in the capital across two days.
Elite professional races take place alongside various junior and mass participation events with the aim of encouraging more people to cycle in the capital.
Taking a cue from the London Marathon, there is no other closed-road event like it in the UK as it combines the element of a cycle ride open to the public in central London with the excitement of watching the world’s best professional cyclists in action.
The elite action begins on Saturday as London’s St James’s Park is the venue for the Women’s Pro Grand Prix, with cycling’s elite female racers battling it out for supremacy.
Britain’s double Olympic champion Laura Trott emerged victorious in the inaugural race last year.
Supported by her Team Wiggle Honda and Great Britain teammates Joanna Rowsell and Dani King, Trott beat national criterium champion Hannah Barnes in a dramatic sprint finish on The Mall.
More than 100 riders will line-up for Saturday’s star-studded race, including Lizzie Armitstead, who claimed gold in last week’s Commonwealth Games road race in Glasgow.
Armitstead, who is also the current leader of the UCI’s World Cup, joins her Team England colleagues Laura Trott and Hannah Barnes on the start list
She will be competing on The Mall alongside reigning world and Olympic champion Marianne Vos, in a repeat of the one-two from the London 2012 road race.
Vos herself is in good form, having won the latest round of the World Cup, the Sparkassen Giro in Germany, ahead of double world champion Giorgia Bronzini, who will also be on the start line, and the inaugural La Course on the Champs-Elysees.
Then on Sunday, many of the world’s best men’s cyclists from 2012 return to race in the third London-Surrey Classic race, on specially-designed 200km course, which has been altered slightly this year, starting at Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park and finishes at The Mall in central London.
Surrey’s beautiful countryside, complete with several leg-testing and lung-bursting climbs, provide the ideal examination of a rider’s talents but also a stunning backdrop for the race.
Last year saw French road-race champion Arnaud Demare claim an impressive victory, fending off tough competition from the likes of two-time Tour de France green jersey winner Peter Sagan and 2013 Milan San-Remo champion Gerald Ciolek.
This year’s field includes 2012 Tour de France winner Sir Bradley Wiggins, who makes only his second competitive appearance in London since winning time trial gold at the 2012 Olympics.
After his crash during the opening stage of this year’s Tour de France in Yorkshire which forced him to abandon with a collarbone injury, Mark Cavendish is sadly not ready to compete in London having initially planned to take part.
2012 world road race champion Philippe Gilbert of Belgium, who has won the likes of Liege-Bastogne-Liege, the Amstel Gold Race and the Tour of Lombardy among a host of other titles, is part of a strong list of internationally acclaimed riders as he returns to race in Britain for the first time since the London Olympics.
The list also includes Scotland’s David Millar, who was devastated to miss out on selection for the Tour de France – in his final season of racing on the road, and Millar’s Garmin Sharp teammate Dan Martin, like Gilbert a former winner of the Liege-Bastogne-Liege classic.
There will be further British interest as Ben Swift, a top 10 finisher in last year’s event, returns with Team Sky, while fans will also have a chance to cheer on rising international star Simon Yates, who made a big impression in his Tour de France debut with two breakaways in mountain stages, in action with Orica GreenEDGE.
Joining Simon will be twin brother Adam, winner of the Tour of Turkey earlier this summer, with Prudential RideLondon set to be one of his final events before making his Grand Tour debut at the Vuelta a Espana later in August.
As well as the elite races, Prudential RideLondon comprises several events to encourage more Londoners to mount the saddle, including the mass participation race on Sunday as well as a host of junior races.
Amateur cyclists participate in the Prudential RideLondon-Surrey 100, a 100-mile challenge on the same closed roads as the professionals, with the added incentive of raising money for good causes.
Following many years of success for British cycling, coupled with this summer’s Tour de France Grand Depart in Yorkshire and the dramatic Commonwealth Games road races last weekend, interest in cycling has never been higher and the second RideLondon weekend adds to what has been an already bumper summer of sport.
BBC Sport will be screening extensive coverage of the 2014 Prudential RideLondon live from the heart of the capital on August 9-10.
Jonathan Edwards presents two live programmes covering the event over the weekend, starting with live coverage of the RideLondon Women’s Grand Prix on Saturday evening at 5.00pm on BBC Two.
The event will feature some of the biggest names in women’s cycling and will be staged on a 1.3-mile route in and around St James’s Park, with the start and finish on The Mall.
Then on Sunday, the BBC will broadcast more than four-and-a-half hours of live coverage of the London-Surrey Classic road race, featuring many of familiar faces from the Tour de France and beyond.
Coverage starts on BBC One and BBC One HD at 2.00pm, an hour after the race starts at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park at 1.00pm.
As well as the elite men’s race, BBC One’s live programme will also feature action from the mass-participation event – the RideLondon-Surrey 100 – held earlier in the day, plus highlights of the other events on a busy weekend of cycling in the capital.
Simon Brotherton will lead the BBC TV commentary team throughout the weekend alongside Brian Smith for the men’s event and Rochelle Gilmore for the women’s race, while roadside reports come from Jill Douglas.
Speaking to SOTB ahead of the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games, Brotherton gave his verdict on the inaugural RideLondon event held 12 months ago.
“I thought the event as a whole was a big success for something in its very first year,” said Brotherton. “To incorporate so many aspects of cycling and include so many people over the two days was a major achievement.
“The men’s race needs and should get a stronger field this year and the women’s race will benefit from live network TV coverage and the presence of the best in the world.
“I believe it’s future looks good both as an international sporting event and as a mass participation celebration of something so many in the capital do.”
British Eurosport will also screen live coverage of the RideLondon 2014 with action from both the Women’s Grand Prix on Saturday and the London-Surrey Classic on Sunday.
Graham Little presents coverage alongside regular Eurosport experts Marcus Backstedt and Stephen Roche, while Rob Hatch and Matt Stephens provide race commentary.
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Saturday 9th August
RideLondon: Women’s Grand Prix
LIVE: 5.00pm-6.00pm BBC Two / British Eurosport
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Sunday 10th August
RideLondon: London-Surrey Classic
LIVE: 2.00pm-6.35pm BBC One
LIVE: 1.45pm-6.30pm British Eurosport
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