The London–Surrey Cycle Classic was a one-off, one-day bicycle race that served as one of three U.K. events in the year-long 2010–11 UCI Europe Tour and acted as the test event for the

2012 Summer Olympics The 2012 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012, were an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...

. The race was part of the London Prepares series of events. The race was run over most of the Olympic course, starting in the Mall and heading into

Surrey Surrey () is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Greater London to the northeast, Kent to the east, East Sussex, East and West Sussex to the south, and Hampshire and Berkshire to the wes ...

, where the riders completed two laps of the Box Hill loop before making their way back to the Mall. The course took the riders through or beside four Royal Parks and six London Boroughs. Most of the riders represented countries instead of trade teams; however, there were several, mainly British, trade teams in the race with England being classified as one of them. The race was won by

2011 Tour de France The 2011 Tour de France was the 98th edition of Tour de France, the race. It started on 2 July at the Passage du Gois and ended on the Champs-Élysées stage in the Tour de France, Champs-Élysées in Paris on 24 July. The cyclists competed in 2 ...

Green Jersey winner

Mark Cavendish Sir Mark Simon Cavendish (born 21 May 1985) is a Manx people, Manx retired professional cyclist. As a Track cycling, track cyclist he specialised in the Madison (cycling), madison, points race, and scratch race disciplines; as a road racer he ...

. Following the Olympic Games, an annual race was held on a similar course between 2013 and 2019 – part of the

RideLondon RideLondon is an annual festival of cycling held in London. Intended as an annual legacy of the London 2012, London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, it was first held in 2013. The festival consists of a series of cycling events on closed roa ...

cycling festival.

Route

The race started on The Mall then headed out of London, using the

King's Road King's Road or Kings Road (or sometimes the King's Road, especially when it was the king's private road until 1830, or as a colloquialism by middle/upper class London residents) is a major street stretching through Chelsea and Fulham, both ...

via

Putney Bridge Putney Bridge is a Grade II listed bridge over the River Thames in west London, linking Putney on the south side with Fulham to the north. Before the first bridge was built in 1729, a ferry had shuttled between the two banks. The current for ...

, part of

Roehampton Roehampton is an area in southwest London, sharing its SW15 postcode with neighbouring Putney and Kingston Vale, and takes up a far western strip, running north to south, in the London Borough of Wandsworth. It contains a number of large counc ...

Richmond Park Richmond Park, in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, is the largest of Royal Parks of London, London's Royal Parks and is of national and international importance for wildlife conservation. It was created by Charles I of England, Cha ...

, Richmond Hill,

Twickenham Twickenham ( ) is a suburban district of London, England, on the River Thames southwest of Charing Cross. Historic counties of England, Historically in Middlesex, since 1965 it has formed part of the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, who ...

and

Teddington Teddington is an affluent suburb of London in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. Historically an Civil parish#ancient parishes, ancient parish in the county of Middlesex and situated close to the border with Surrey, the district became ...

running towards

Hampton Court Hampton Court Palace is a Listed building, Grade I listed royal palace in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, southwest and upstream of central London on the River Thames. Opened to the public, the palace is managed by Historic Royal ...

(on the Greater London border). From Hampton Court the race continued southwest, passing the towns of

Walton on Thames Walton-on-Thames, known locally as Walton, is a market town on the south bank of the Thames in northwest Surrey, England. It is in the Borough of Elmbridge, about southwest of central London. Walton forms part of the Greater London Built-up ...

and the outskirts of

Weybridge Weybridge () is a town in the Borough of Elmbridge, Elmbridge district in Surrey, England, around southwest of central London. The settlement is recorded as ''Waigebrugge'' and ''Weibrugge'' in the 7th century and the name derives from a cro ...

, then turned south, however unlike the Olympic course, took the town centres of

West Byfleet West Byfleet is a village in Surrey which grew up around its relatively minor stop on the London & South Western Railway: the station, originally '' Byfleet and Woodham'', opened in 1887. More than from the medieval village of Byfleet, the ...

Woking Woking ( ) is a town and borough status in the United Kingdom, borough in north-west Surrey, England, around from central London. It appears in Domesday Book as ''Wochinges'', and its name probably derives from that of a Anglo-Saxon settleme ...

and

Guildford Guildford () is a town in west Surrey, England, around south-west of central London. As of the 2011 census, the town has a population of about 77,000 and is the seat of the wider Borough of Guildford, which had around inhabitants in . The nam ...

, before heading east on the A25 to

Dorking Dorking () is a market town in Surrey in South East England about south-west of London. It is in Mole Valley, Mole Valley District and the non-metropolitan district, council headquarters are to the east of the centre. The High Street runs ro ...

. From Dorking the race headed north around the Box Hill loop, twice instead of the nine for the Olympics, taking in The Zig Zag road climb twice. From there the race headed north through

Leatherhead Leatherhead is a town in the Mole Valley district of Surrey, England, about south of Central London. The settlement grew up beside a ford on the River Mole, from which its name is thought to derive. During the late Anglo-Saxons, Anglo-Saxon ...

and

Esher Esher ( ) is a town in the borough of Borough of Elmbridge, Elmbridge in Surrey, England, to the east of the River Mole, Surrey, River Mole. Esher is an outlying suburb of London, close to the London–Surrey border; with Esher Commons at its ...

on its return to London via Hampton Court before going through Richmond Park from the south (

Kingston upon Thames Kingston upon Thames, colloquially known as Kingston, is a town in the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames, south-west London, England. It is situated on the River Thames, south-west of Charing Cross. It is an ancient market town, notable as ...

) and then heading along the same roads the race used on its outbound journey back to the Mall.

Teams and riders

138 riders from 19 national teams and 10 trade teams took part in the race.

was the pre-race favourite and he was joined in the race by his HTC teammate, Australian Matthew Goss. Other Australians accompanying Goss were Heinrich Haussler and Stuart O'Grady. Also in the race were Tom Boonen of Belgium and American Tyler Farrar.

National squads

Trade teams/non-national squads

Race

The race gave one more leg than the previous year in Britain to the season-long UCI European Tour in 2011 by including not only the Rutland–Melton International CiCLE Classic and

Tour of Britain The Tour of Britain is a multi-stage cycling race, conducted on British roads, in which participants race across Great Britain to complete the race in the fastest time. The event dates back to the first British stage races held just after th ...

but also this prototype long-distance circuit (taking in London twice and its large section within

). The course would also witness most of the Summer Olympics road race in 2012, however was slightly modified. In the week preceding the race London experienced a series of riots; several football matches were called off, but the London–Surrey Cycle Classic was allowed to proceed. On race day British riders Liam Holohan, Kristian House and Tom Murray and Brazil's Cleberson Weber opened up a 6-minute gap in the breakaway before the peloton started to pull them back on the final Box Hill climb. 2009 British road race champion House won the King of the Mountains award. The lead quartet were swept up in the final 9 kilometres as Great Britain and England controlled the pace.

Kurt Asle Arvesen Kurt Asle Arvesen (born 9 February 1975) is a Norway, Norwegian former professional road bicycle racer, who competed as a professional between 1998 and 2011. Arvesen is from Eresfjord, Nesset Municipality, Nesset. He won the Norwegian National Roa ...

then made a bid for the win before being brought back. With 12 kilometres to go,

Tyler Farrar Tyler Farrar (born June 2, 1984) is an American former road racing cyclist, who rode professionally between 2003 and 2017 for the , , , and squads. Farrar's achievements include winning the 2009 Eurométropole, Circuit Franco-Belge and the 200 ...

suffered a puncture. After chasing furiously he reached the peloton with 2 kilometres to go, only to see his chance of the win wiped out as a crash occurred; according to

Heinrich Haussler Heinrich Haussler (born 25 February 1984) is an Australian former road racing cyclist of German heritage, who competed as a professional from 2004 to April 2023. He won 2 stages in Grand Tours during his career, one at the 2005 Vuelta a Espa� ...

it was caused by two riders fighting. The crash split the peloton and in a group of just 20 riders

beat

Sacha Modolo Sacha Modolo (born 19 June 1987) is an Italian road racing cyclist, who currently rides for UCI ProTeam . Career Colnago-CSF (2010–2013) In the spring of 2010, he sprinted his way to fourth place in the cycling monument Milan – San ...

of Italy and France's Samuel Dumoulin in a sprint finish on the Mall.

Result

Criticism of lack of women's event

Unlike the road race the following year, no women's event was held, which led the 2008 Olympic Champion

Nicole Cooke Nicole Denise Cooke, MBE (born 13 April 1983) is a Welsh former professional road bicycle racer and Commonwealth, Olympic and World road race champion. At Beijing in 2008 she became the first British woman to win a Gold Olympic medal in any ...

to accuse the organisers of sexism. 2010 World Time Trial Champion Emma Pooley was also disappointed, stating "How much extra effort would go in to putting on a women's race? I'm sorry, but we have a sport as well, it kind of annoys me every time." To remedy the lack of racing on the course Cooke and

Lizzie Armitstead Elizabeth Mary Deignan (née Armitstead; born 18 December 1988) is an English professional world champion track cycling, track and Road bicycle racing, road racing cyclist, who rides for UCI Women's Team, UCI Women's WorldTeam . She was the 2 ...

followed the race in the team cars to survey the course.

Reaction

LOCOG's Director of Sport, Debbie Jevans declared herself pleased with the event. However, in her debrief with the UCI she said she would look at comments from riders, the impact of the full road closures along the route and the crowd restrictions on Box Hill. Jevans said that consensus was that it was a 'fantastic' course which was 'technically challenging.' However, riders complained about parts of the first part of the course; Dumoulin commenting that it was "a little dangerous." The Director also noted that the a section of the Box Hill area would be widened. As for the limited crowd of 3,400 on Box Hill, Jevans stated that she would look into trying to increase the capacity on that section as an estimated 100,000 people turned out to watch the event in total. Pat McQuaid, president of the UCI, was impressed by the spectator turnout. BBC Surrey received complaints about inaccurate signage and road closures that cut off large parts of the towns. Complaints about the closures led

Surrey County Council Surrey County Council is the county council for the non-metropolitan county of Surrey, England. The council is composed of 81 elected councillors, and in all but one election since 1974 the Conservative Party has held the majority. The leader ...

to issue an apology through Councillor Denise Saliagopolous for the problems experienced.

TV coverage

A 20-minute highlights package was televised a week after the race on 21 August 2011. It was screened at 13:00 on BBC Two.

References

External links

*
Route map
{{DEFAULTSORT:London-Surrey Cycle Classic Surrey Cycle Classic Cycle racing in London Sport in Surrey 2011 in road cycling 2011 in sport in London Box Hill, Surrey August 2011 sports events in the United Kingdom RideLondon–Surrey Classic