RideLondon has been cancelled for 2025, with the organisers saying that it is a “pause” not an finish for the mass-participation biking occasion, the UK’s largest. The information was introduced on Wednesday afternoon, with those that have already entered promised a full refund.
The annual journey, organised by London Marathon Occasions, noticed 1000’s of individuals journey 30, 60 or 100 miles on a closed-road course on a loop to and from London. It initially came about on a circuit round Surrey, on most of the identical roads because the London 2012 street race, as an Olympic legacy occasion, earlier than shifting to Essex in 2022. The tenth version came about this yr.
It’s unclear the place and when RideLondon will return, however a “full strategic evaluation” is about to happen. The 2025 RideLondon Classique, a Ladies’s WorldTour occasion, had already been cancelled, resulting from calendar clashes.
The primary version was held in 2013, and it has run yearly since, other than 2020 and 2021 as a result of Covid pandemic. It shaped one a part of the London Classics collection of occasions, together with the London Marathon and Swim Serpentine, an open-water occasion. Over 10,000 locations had been open to contributors till the information of its “pause”.
“We really feel the time is true to take a pause this yr and produce all stakeholders collectively to work on a brand new idea for the world’s best pageant of biking,” Hugh Brasher, CEO of London Marathon Occasions, mentioned in a press launch. “We’ve now staged 10 vastly profitable editions of the occasion which has impressed greater than 300,000 folks to get again on a motorcycle or cycle extra and likewise raised greater than £85 million for charity.
”No occasion in 2025 implies that we will deal with a full strategic evaluation of RideLondon, which was first held as a London 2012 Olympic legacy occasion again in 2013, and design a brand new idea which can have interaction extra riders of all ages and talents and encourage tons of of 1000’s extra folks to cycle extra usually.”
Will Norman, London’s strolling and biking commissioner, described the information as “disappointing”. “It’s a improbable occasion to have fun biking that brings collectively cyclists of all ranges, from newbies to skilled athletes,” he mentioned. “I’m dedicated to working with all companions to convey again this vastly widespread occasion sooner or later.‘’
“Essex County Council has been proud hosts of RideLondon for the previous three years,” Councillor Lee Scott, Essex County Council’s cupboard member for planning a rising financial system, mentioned. “Not solely has this occasion introduced substantial funding into our county to encourage bodily exercise nevertheless it has impressed many to get entangled in bodily train and take up lively journey. We very a lot sit up for working with the organisers and companions on the imaginative and prescient for the occasion in future.”
The cancellation of RideLondon is the most recent blow for home biking within the UK. This week, it was introduced that the prestigious Ryedale GP wouldn’t return, and not too long ago the London Duathlon was additionally mentioned to be occurring hiatus.
