RideLondon has been cancelled for 2025, with the organisers saying that this can be 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 lots of the similar 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 overview” is ready to happen. The 2025 RideLondon Classique, a Girls’s WorldTour occasion, had already been cancelled, attributable to calendar clashes.
The primary version was held in 2013, and it has run yearly since, aside from 2020 and 2021 as a result of Covid pandemic. It shaped one a part of the London Classics sequence of occasions, together with the London Marathon and Swim Serpentine, an open-water occasion. Over 10,000 locations had been open to members till the information of its “pause”.
“We really feel the time is true to take a pause this yr and convey all stakeholders collectively to work on a brand new idea for the world’s best competition 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 individuals to get again on a motorbike or cycle extra and in addition raised greater than £85 million for charity.
”No occasion in 2025 signifies that we are able to deal with a full strategic overview 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 a whole bunch of 1000’s extra individuals to cycle extra typically.”
Will Norman, London’s strolling and biking commissioner, described the information as “disappointing”. “It’s a incredible occasion to have a good time 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 fashionable 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 however 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 just lately the London Duathlon was additionally mentioned to be happening hiatus.
