RideLondon

Taking place on the Saturday, the Prudential RideLondon FreeCycle offers an opportunity for people of all ages to cycle on traffic-free roads in Central London, passing landmarks such as Buckingham Palace, the Bank of England, the Houses of Parliament and St Paul's Cathedral. Alongside the FreeCycle route, there are also seven festival zones, all of which have a variety of bike-based activities riders can get involved in.

The Prudential RideLondon Classique is a UCI Women's WorldTour race on the Saturday evening on a 5.5 km circuit in central London, beginning and finishing on The Mall.[1] The women's elite race, previously known as the Grand Prix pro race, was given UCI World Tour Status in 2016 and has the highest ever value prize money for a women's one-day race. This is also the same prize money as won in the men's elite race.[2]

The Prudential RideLondon-Surrey 100 takes place on the Sunday. Over 25,000 amateur cyclists start in Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, then cycle through the capital and onto Surrey's country roads and the Surrey Hills before a finish on The Mall in central London. Many of the riders are sponsored for charities: £12.5 million was raised for charity in 2017.[3]

First established in 2016, the Prudential RideLondon-Surrey 46 takes place on the Sunday morning. The 46-mile route on traffic-free roads begins at Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in east London and follows the same route as the Prudential RideLondon-Surrey 100 for the first 27 miles before linking to with the last 17 miles through London to the finish in The Mall.

The Prudential RideLondon-Surrey Classic on the Sunday, is a UCI WorldTour event which follows largely the same route as the Prudential RideLondon-Surrey 100 sportive with multiple circuits in and around Dorking.

The Brompton World Championship first became part of the RideLondon cycling festival in 2015. The event involves 550 Brompton riders racing around a central London circuit on the iconic foldable bikes and ends with a sprint finish on The Mall. Riders are generally dressed in suits, due to the strict no lycra rule in order to reflect the Brompton bikes place in a modern-day commuter lifestyle.

The prudential RideLondon HandCycle and Junior races are also included in the RideLondon weekend. The elite HandCycle event was won by Rafal Wilk of Poland in 2016 and 2017 while Christine Reppe of Germany won the women's elite handcycle in 2017. The amateur handcycle event is for injured veteran servicemen and women. The Junior categories feature boys and girls races for 13–16 years old.

The origins of RideLondon can be traced back to when London was awarded the rights to stage the 2012 Olympic & Paralympic Games. Subsequently, London has staged a number of cycling events. In 2007, London hosted the Tour de France Grand Départ and also closed roads to create a day-long safe cycling environment in the city centre, known at the time as The London Freewheel. This annual one-day event continued between 2007-2011 and from 2009 became known as the Mayor of London's Skyride.

Ambition to create a new world-class event for cycling, that could one day rival London's most iconic sporting events such as the London Marathon and the Wimbledon Championships,[4] was born. The aim of the annual event is to include the world's top men, women and hand cyclists racing as part of the international cycling calendar in order to challenge and inspire people from all backgrounds to get on two wheels. In late 2011 and early 2012, Mayor Boris Johnson assessed and formally approved the recommendation to create the event [5] and, at the start of the Olympic year, the search for a suitably qualified and experienced delivery partner was launched.[6] After detailed work, a joint venture including the organisers of the London Marathon and the Tour of Britain under the name of the London & Surrey Cycling Partnership was selected to make the event a reality. The event would be delivered in partnership with Surrey County Council and include a route through the Surrey Hills, which also mirrored the London Olympic Games road race. The event is part of the London 2012 Olympic legacy.

In August 2012, as the Olympic Games drew to a close, the Mayor of London and the London & Surrey Cycling Partnership, alongside British Cycling and double Olympic champion Laura Trott, formally launched RideLondon [7] and called for fans to sign up to the 100-mile challenge. The event's first title sponsor, Prudential, was announced in early 2013 [8] by which time more than 55,000 people had signed up to be one of the first riders to participate in the inaugural RideLondon-Surrey 100. This race is part of the Prudential RideLondon festival weekend with coverage to be broadcast live on BBC and international TV.

The RideLondon vision was to showcase the capital to nationwide and international audiences, generate economic benefit from participant and spectator expenditure and inspire more people to take up regular cycling.

In its first year, more than 16,000 people started the RideLondon-Surrey 100, more than 50,000 took part in RideLondon FreeCycle and over 1,000 volunteers helped run the event. 99% of participants rated the event as good or excellent and riders in the RideLondon-Surrey 100 raised more than £7 million for charity.[9]

In 2014, over 16,000 completed the RideLondon-Surrey 100 (shortened to 86 miles due to adverse weather conditions) with 60,000 taking part in the FreeCycle [10] and more than £10 million being raised for charity by riders in the RideLondon-Surrey 100. This set a new record for a UK one-day cycling event for a second successive year.

In response to the huge demand for the event, places were increased by 25 per cent in 2015, with more than 25,000 riders crossing the Start Line in Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park on 2 August.[11] This year a new event was also added to the RideLondon cycling festival: the 10th Brompton Bicycle World Championship Final. This event featured in the RideLondon Grand Prix races in St James's Park and was the first time that the Brompton World Championship Final had been held in London. The event opened with a Le Mans-style start as 500 smartly-dressed competitors from around the world made a mad dash to unfold their bikes before setting off on the circuit. Six Festival Zones (up from five in 2014) in RideLondon FreeCycle offered riders a chance to stop and enjoy a huge range of free bike-based entertainment and to try out many different bike-based activities. The women's RideLondon Grand Prix race was also one of the biggest one-day races on the international calendar and was again televised live by the BBC.

In 2016, a new 46-mile event was launched by Bradley Wiggins specifically for newer and younger cyclists. The RideLondon-Surrey 46 on traffic-free roads starts at Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, and follows the same route as RideLondon-Surrey 100 for the first 27 miles before taking a new two-mile route, which then links up with the last 17 miles to the finish in The Mall.

A new format for the RideLondon Grand Prix was also announced. From 2016 it is to be held at the Lee Valley Velopark in Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park and include handcycle, junior and BMX races for the first time.

In 2017, the RideLondon-Surrey Classic and RideLondon Classique both gained UCI WorldTour status and became the richest one-day races in cycling offering equal prize money for both the men's and women's races.[12] Riders in the RideLondon-Surrey 100 and RideLondon-Surrey 46 together raised £12.75 million for charity.[13]

In 2019 the RideLondon Classique was once again part of the Women's WorldTour. The race was won by Lorena Wiebes, a pre-race favourite.[14]

The 2020 events, scheduled for the weekend of 15–16 August, were cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[15]