New Routes for RideLondon

The RideLondon-Surrey Classic has a new route for 2019 with the iconic climb of Box Hill as its centrepiece.

New Routes for RideLondon

• Changes also made to start and finish of UK’s only UCI WorldTour race
• New look circuit too for the Prudential RideLondon Classique, the UCI Women’s WorldTour event

The RideLondon-Surrey Classic has a new route for 2019 with the iconic climb of Box Hill as its centrepiece.

The world’s top professional teams will tackle the famous zig-zag climb in Surrey five times in 2019, rather than the one ascent the peloton have made of it in the previous six editions of the race. The hill is one of the most famous climbs in the south of England and is synonymous with the London 2012 Olympic Games road race which went up it nine times.

The new route will afford spectators who make their way up to Box Hill an amazing view of the action where they will get to see the race pass on five occasions before the riders race back into central London.

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The change is part of a series of tweaks to the RideLondon-Surrey Classic course for 2019 which takes place on Sunday 4 August.

Other route changes include:

A new start: At 14:00, the peloton will roll out of the picturesque setting of Bushy Park, close to Hampton Court Palace, in south-west London, before heading out to Surrey and the five circuits of Box Hill

Distance: The distance of the 2019 RideLondon-Surrey Classic has been reduced from 183km to 169km this year, which includes more than 1,700 metres of climbing, in an effort to encourage more aggressive riding

A new finish: The iconic finish on The Mall will remain in 2019 but the riders will enter the famous stretch of road from the opposite direction. The Flamme Rouge (1km to go banner) will be on Birdcage Walk with the riders passing Buckingham Palace before sprinting up The Mall to the Finish Line

Prizes and Classifications: In addition to the overall podium, The Continental Tyres King of the Mountains competition will be contested once again with points coming at Newlands Corner and all five ascents of Box Hill. New for this year is the Combativity Award which will go to the rider who is judged to display the most attacking, exciting and sporting riding of the day

The circuit race will remain in central London, starting and finishing on The Mall. But this year, 16 of the world’s top professional teams will race on a tight circuit of 3.4 kilometres around St James’s Park and Constitution Hill. There will be 20 laps in total covering a distance of 68km.

Also new for 2019 is the Combativity Award which will be awarded to the rider who is judged to be the most attacking, displays the most exciting racing behaviour as well as sportsmanship during the race. There will also be a Team Classification Prize with the award going to the team with the five highest placed riders at the finish.

This is in addition to the Continental Tyres Sprints classification with sprint points on offer on laps four, eight, 12 and 16.

The RideLondon-Surrey Classic and the RideLondon Classique are the richest one day races on the men’s and women’s calendar with both races having exactly the same prize pot of 100,000 euros. This is part of RideLondon’s commitment to parity between the men’s and women’s races.

The Prudential RideLondon Classique will be shown live on BBC2 from 18:00-19:00 on Saturday 3 August. The Prudential RideLondon-Surrey Classic is live on BBC1 from 15:35 to 18:30.