London–Surrey Cycle Classic

London–Surrey Cycle Classic

Sprint finish on the Mall, as winner Mark Cavendish launches his bid to win.
Race details
Date 14 August 2011
Region London, England
Discipline Road
Competition UCI Europe Tour (2010-11)
Type One-day classic
Organiser London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games &
Union Cycliste Internationale

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 Olympic Games. 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, 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.[1] 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 Green Jersey winner Mark Cavendish.

Route

The race started on The Mall then headed out of London, using the King's Road via Putney Bridge, part of Roehampton, Richmond Park, Richmond Hill, Twickenham and Teddington running towards Hampton Court (on the Greater London border). From Hampton Court the race continued southwest, passing the towns of Walton on Thames and the outskirts of Weybridge, then turned south, however unlike the Olympic course, took the town centres of West Byfleet, Woking and Guildford, before heading east on the A25 to Dorking. 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 and Esher on its return to London via Hampton Court before going through Richmond Park from the south (Kingston upon Thames) and then heading along the same roads the race used on its outbound journey back to the Mall.[2]

Teams and riders

138 riders[3] from 19 national teams and 10 trade teams took part in the race. Mark Cavendish was the pre-race favourite and he was joined in the race by his HTC team mate, 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.[2]

National squads

Team[4] Squad[3][5]
AustraliaMatthew Goss, Stuart O'Grady, Michael Matthews, Leigh Howard, Heinrich Haussler
BelgiumTom Boonen, Jan Bakelants, Kevin De Weert, Stijn Joseph, Jurgen Van de Walle
BrazilJosé Medeiros, Gideoni Monteiro, Gregolry Panizo, Cleberson Weber
CanadaChristian Meier, Dominique Rollin, Jamie Riggs, David Veilleux, Stuart Wight
CroatiaRobert Kišerlovski, Vladimir Miholjević, Luka Grubic, Deni Banicek
FranceSamuel Dumoulin, Tony Gallopin, Jonathan Hivert, Blel Kadri, Yoann Offredo
GermanyPatrick Bercz, Marcel Klaz, Marcel Meisen, Theo Rheinhardt, Fabian Schnaidt
Great BritainMark Cavendish, Peter Kennaugh, Ian Stannard, Alex Dowsett, Roger Hammond
IrelandFelix English, Peter Hawkins, Martyn Irvine, David McCann
ItalyEros Capecchi, Oscar Gatto, Sacha Modolo, Luca Paolini, Diego Ulissi
JapanYukiya Arashiro, Yukihiro Doi, Shinichi Fukushima, Yusuke Hatanaka, Takashi Miyazawa
LuxembourgBob Jungels, Tom Kohn, Tom Schanen, Pit Schlechter, Tom Thill
MoroccoTarik Chaoufi, Mohamed Said El Ammoury, Adil Jelloul, Mouhssine Lahsaini, Abdeiati Saadoune
New ZealandClinton Avery, Jason Christie, Tom David, Julian Dean
NorwayKurt Asle Arvesen, Alexander Kristoff, Lars Petter Nordhaug,
PolandMaciej Bodnar, Michał Gołaś, Michał Kwiatkowski, Bartłomiej Matysiak, Maciej Paterski
RussiaEvgeny Bakhin, Roman Koltcov, Sergei Pomoshnikov, Victor Sudeykin, Alexey Velikanov
SloveniaBorut Božič, Jure Kocjan, Kristjan Koren, Gorazd Stangelj
United States of AmericaIan Boswell, Tyler Farrar, Ty Magner, Gavin Mannion, Tanner Putt

Trade teams/non-national squads

Team[4] Squad[3][5]
An Post–Sean KellyGediminas Bagdonas, Samuel Bennett, Niko Eeckhout, Andrew Fenn, Philip Lavery
Team Corley CyclesRichard Cartland, Simond Gaynood, Jake Hales, Ian Knight, Christopher McNamara
Cyclepremier-MataltekDale Appleby, Ross Creber, Stephan Gallagher, Richard Hepworth, Jason White
EnduraAlexandre Blain, David Clarke, James Moss, Evan Oliphant, Ian Wilkinson
EnglandSteve Cummings, Russell Downing, Chris Froome, Jeremy Hunt, Daniel Lloyd
MotorpointIan Bibby, Marcin Bialoblocki, Jonathan McEvoy, James Sampson, Peter Williams
Rapha-Condor-SharpEdward Clancy, Dan Craven, Graham Briggs, Kristian House, Andrew Tennant,
Team RaleighDan Fleeman, Richard Handley, Liam Holohan, Matt Jones, Gael le Bellec
Sigma Sport–SpecializedRussell Hampton, Steven Lampier, Tom Last, Tom Murray, Simon Richardson
Twenty3c-OrbeaMichael Cuming, Andrew Griffiths, Joeseph Perrett, Rafael Rodriguez–Segarra, Marcel Six

Race

The four-man breakaway. Right to left: Murray, Weber, House and Holohan in Ripley

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 but also this prototype long-distance circuit (taking in London twice and its large section within Surrey). The course would also witness most of the Summer Olympic Games 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.[6] 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.[7] 2009 British road race champion House won the King of the Mountains award.[8] The lead quartet were swept up in the final 9 kilometres as Great Britain and England controlled the pace. Kurt Asle Arvesen then made a bid for the win before being brought back. With 12 kilometres to go, Tyler Farrar 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 it was caused by two riders fighting. The crash split the peloton and in a group of just 20 riders Mark Cavendish beat Sacha Modolo of Italy and France's Samuel Dumoulin in a sprint finish on the Mall.[8]

Result

Position Rider Time
1 Mark Cavendish (GBR)3:18:11
2 Sacha Modolo (ITA)Same time
3 Samuel Dumoulin (FRA)Same time
4 Stuart O'Grady (AUS)Same time
5 Michal Golas (POL)Same time
6 Borut Božič (SLO)Same time
7 Alexander Kristoff (NOR)Same time
8 Matthew Goss (AUS)Same time
9 Ian Bibby (GBR) (Motorpoint)Same time
10 Andrew Tennant (GBR) (JLT–Condor)Same time

[3]

Women's Reaction

Nicole Cooke – seen here a year before in the Flèche Wallon, Belgium – accused the organisers of sexism

Unlike the road race the following year, no women's event was held, which led the 2008 Olympic Champion Nicole Cooke 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 followed the race in the team cars to survey the course.[9]

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.[10] Pat McQuaid, president of the UCI, was impressed by the spectator turnout.[11]

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 to issue an apology through Councillor Denise Saliagopolous for the problems experienced.[12]

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.[13]

References

  1. "Spectator information". LOCOG. London Prepares series. Retrieved 18 August 2011.
  2. 1 2 Will Irwin and Andy McGrath (12 August 2011). "London – Surrey Cycle Classic the big preview". cycling weekly. Retrieved 18 August 2011.
  3. 1 2 3 4 "Final Results" (PDF). LOCOG. London Prepares series. Retrieved 18 August 2011.
  4. 1 2 "Who's Competing" (PDF). LOCOG. London Prepares series. Retrieved 18 August 2011.
  5. 1 2 "Provisional start list" (PDF). LOCOG. London Prepares series. Retrieved 18 August 2011.
  6. ""Locog: London–Surrey Cycle Classic 'to go ahead'" published 10 August 2011". BBC (BBC News). Retrieved 18 August 2011.
  7. Ollie Williams (14 August 2011). "Mark Cavendish wins London 2012 road race test event". BBC News (BBC Sport). Retrieved 18 August 2011.
  8. 1 2 Andy McGrath & Nigel Wynn (14 August 2011). "Cavendish wins London–Surrey Cycle Classic". Cycling Weekly. Retrieved 18 August 2011.
  9. Simon Richardson (12 August 2011). "Cooke and Armitstead to follow men's race". Cycling Weekly. Retrieved 18 August 2011.
  10. Nick Bull (15 August 2011). "LOCOG happy with Olympic test event - but changes will be made if necessary". Cycling weekly. Retrieved 18 August 2011.
  11. "The London–Surrey Cycle Classic 2011 : Olympic test event hailed as a success". UCI (uci.ch). 15 August 2011. Retrieved 24 August 2011.
  12. "Surrey council apologises for pre-2012 bike race road closures". BBC News. 15 August 2011. Retrieved 18 August 2011.
  13. "Olympic Countdown". BBC. Retrieved 20 August 2011.

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