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Bigger field for 2015 RideLondon 100 to make it Europe's biggest sportiveSlightly moist conditions at the 2014 Prudential RideLondon Surrey 100

Bigger field for 2015 RideLondon 100 to make it Europe's biggest sportive

Entry limit likely to be raised to 35,000
by John Stevenson
Thu, Aug 21, 2014 11:05
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Organisers of the 2015 Prudential RideLondon Surrey 100 say next year's event will be the biggest sportive in Europe and the second biggest in the world, with the number of entries likely to be to be around 35,000.

Just 72 hours after registration opened the ballot for the 2015 ride is already halfway to the 100,000 limit.

That larger ballot — up from 80,000 last year — reflects a likely larger field for next year's ride, if this year's post-event debrief shows that to be feasible.

RideLondon spokesperson Alison Hamlett told road.cc: "We are still undertaking the debrief of the 2014 event, but depending on the outcome of that debrief we are looking to take around 35,000 entrants for the 2015 Prudential RideLondon Surrey 100 — which would result in an anticipated start line number of around 28,000.

"This would make it Europe’s largest sportive and the second biggest in the world behind Cape Argus."

That event — South Africa's 109km Cape Argus Pick n Pay Momentum Cycle Tour — boasted 34,500 entries in 2014 and 31,046 finishers.

Take up for the Prudential RideLondon-Surrey 100 has been a bit slower than last year, when the ballot passed 50,000 entries in 24 hours, but still a lot faster than the inaugural event, which took five months to reach 50,000.

Last year's 80,000-place ballot filled up 27 days after opening. This year's will close on January 5, 2015 or earlier if it reaches the 100,000 limit.

Organisers say that more than 20,000 people finished this year's ride, despite the  hurricane-generated lousy weather, and conditions event director Hugh Brasher called "biblical" seem to have only slightly deterred people from signing up for next year.

"After conditions that have been aptly described as biblical, we are delighted to see that the enthusiasm of Britain’s cyclists and would-be cyclists to participate in the Prudential RideLondon-Surrey 100 has not been dampened," said Brasher.

The entry fee for the ride for 2015 and 2016 has been increased to £58.00 for UK participants.

“We held the entry fee at the same price for two years but the costs of putting on the UK’s biggest sportive means that we need to increase the entry fee by £10.00 this year,” said Brasher.

To enter the ballot go to www.prudentialridelondon.co.uk.

Prudential RideLondon Surrey 100
London
2015 Prudential RideLondon 100
John Stevenson

John has been writing about bikes and cycling for over 30 years since discovering that people were mug enough to pay him for it rather than expecting him to do an honest day's work.

He was heavily involved in the mountain bike boom of the late 1980s as a racer, team manager and race promoter, and that led to writing for Mountain Biking UK magazine shortly after its inception. He got the gig by phoning up the editor and telling him the magazine was rubbish and he could do better. Rather than telling him to get lost, MBUK editor Tym Manley called John’s bluff and the rest is history.

Since then he has worked on MTB Pro magazine and was editor of Maximum Mountain Bike and Australian Mountain Bike magazines, before switching to the web in 2000 to work for CyclingNews.com. Along with road.cc founder Tony Farrelly, John was on the launch team for BikeRadar.com and subsequently became editor in chief of Future Publishing’s group of cycling magazines and websites, including Cycling Plus, MBUK, What Mountain Bike and Procycling.

John has also written for Cyclist magazine, edited the BikeMagic website and was founding editor of TotalWomensCycling.com before handing over to someone far more representative of the site's main audience.

He joined road.cc in 2013. He lives in Cambridge where the lack of hills is more than made up for by the headwinds.

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