No Ride London 2025

[EltonFrog]

Not happening next year apparently.
https://road.cc/content/news/ridelondon-take-hiatus-2025-310287

 

[Specialeyes]

"As we're reimagining RideLondon, it's currently not possible to predict what that might look like."

Shame - it's one of the tentpole events of the year.

I naturally suspect Essex County Council, but then what happened to the route being secured until 2026?

 

[raleighnut]

In Leicester what was the 'Skyride' and cycling festival with (pro) road races on a closed course has gone despite a school now having a dedicated cycling course built in the grounds. The last event was held on this course sponsored by someone other than Sky (forget who but think it was a bank)

After effects of Covid possibly or inactivity by Leicester Council

 

[BrumJim]

In Leicester what was the 'Skyride' and cycling festival with (pro) road races on a closed course has gone despite a school now having a dedicated cycling course built in the grounds. The last event was held on this course sponsored by someone other than Sky (forget who but think it was a bank)

After effects of Covid possibly or inactivity by Leicester Council

Happened all around the country. Sky were very proactive in spreading cycling, the following sponsors of British Cycling, less so. Skyrides finished in Birmingham too, roughly the same time.

Would love to see Shell start it all up again, promoting getting people out of cars and on their bikes. Don't know why they don't.

 

[figbat]

Well the UCI pulling the women’s classique race won’t have helped.

 

[mjr]

Well the UCI pulling the women’s classique race won’t have helped.

Nor will the collapse of former Tour of Britain organiser SweetSpot who partnered with London Marathon to create RideLondon. I don't know if they were still involved, but it can't help if LM Events Ltd have one less company to call on if they need help.

 

[Dogtrousers]

It's been a long, slow, fizzling out. Probably with many underlying causes, one of which I suspect is demand tailing off.

Why would they advertise 2025, secure the route, open it up for sales, and only now pull the plug? The timing suggests to me that they just hadn't sold enough places and they had to cut their losses.

 

[EltonFrog]

It's been a long, slow, fizzling out. Probably with many underlying causes, one of which I suspect is demand tailing off.

Why would they advertise 2025, secure the route, open it up for sales, and only now pull the plug? The timing suggests to me that they just hadn't sold enough places and they had to cut their losses.

I suspect that sums it up, I recall that I had an email for the last one encouraging me to sign up, on the RLS 100 if you didn’t get in on the ballot, you were stuck with a charity place.

 

[Dogtrousers]

I suspect that sums it up, I recall that I had an email for the last one encouraging me to sign up, on the RLS 100 if you didn’t get in on the ballot, you were stuck with a charity place.

And ... speculating again ... I suspect that a couple of the reasons for the drop in demand are:

The route. Surrey with its soaring mountain peaks offers a different challenge to the Essex countryside, pretty as it is.

The second reason is just fashion and zeitgeist. When it was launched there was a Wiggo/Cav/Pendleton/Trott buzz about cycling and we were all a bit jollier than the morose culture warriors that we've become these days.

 

[EltonFrog]

And ... speculating again ... I suspect that a couple of the reasons for the drop in demand are:

The route. Surrey with its soaring mountain peaks offers a different challenge to the Essex countryside, pretty as it is.

The second reason is just fashion and zeitgeist. When it was launched there was a Wiggo/Cav/Pendleton/Trott buzz about cycling and we were all a bit jollier than the morose culture warriors that we've become these days.

Again, hammer nail interface has been introduced.

The good will factor of 2012 and the opportunity to ride (the mostly) Olympic road race route was part of the appeal.
However, having ridden RLS four times I’d lost interest, I also the greed of hotels was wearisome. Riding the Essex route held no interest to me.

I hope the organisers come up with something new and exciting, it’s great fun riding on closed roads.

 

[mjr]

I hope the organisers come up with something new and exciting, it’s great fun riding on closed roads.

I enjoyed riding the closed roads of the freecycle then watching the races (the Le Mans start of the Brompton race was great) but was never allowed by their rules to ride the 100s. I agree that hotels exploited the situation but I suspect the loss of the pro race and its TV coverage for sponsors has as much to do with the cancellation as sales of sportive places.

 

[Dogtrousers]

I enjoyed riding the closed roads of the freecycle then watching the races (the Le Mans start of the Brompton race was great) but was never allowed by their rules to ride the 100s. I agree that hotels exploited the situation but I suspect the loss of the pro race and its TV coverage for sponsors has as much to do with the cancellation as sales of sportive places.

Probably a drip-drip-drip of multiple causes. The 2025 Classique pro race was cancelled in June. This announcement comes after sportive sales have been open for roughly 2 months.

The struggles that the Tour of Britain has had, the failure of Tour de Yorkshire all suggest UK not being a place where a cost effective pro race can exist at the moment. Then there's lack of public enthusiasm for the sportive, add in a big wodge of regular cyclists who have been there, done that and don't fancy it again.

They'd secured the route, and doubtless had to overcome a lot of public opposition in doing that so I don't suppose that was a contributory factor - but the change of the event from Surrey to Essex probably was.

I think it's run its course now.

 

[mjr]

Probably a drip-drip-drip of multiple causes.

Agreed.

The struggles that the Tour of Britain has had, the failure of Tour de Yorkshire all suggest UK not being a place where a cost effective pro race can exist at the moment. Then there's lack of public enthusiasm for the sportive, add in a big wodge of regular cyclists who have been there, done that and don't fancy it again.

RideLondon had the great assets of spreading the increasing cost of road closures over multiple events (races, sportive, freecycle, ...) plus getting tourism money which I guess was due to the early Sunday start needing some hotel/restaurant use, but also the TV coverage which would probably be lost without the race or at least much reduced.

They'd secured the route, and doubtless had to overcome a lot of public opposition in doing that so I don't suppose that was a contributory factor - but the change of the event from Surrey to Essex probably was.

I'm going to doubt that. The usual foamers were in the local press (egged on by the usual negative reporting) but there didn't seem that much opposition.

The loss of the Olympic route and relative lack of equivalent replacement landmarks, and the pro race not having the same standing or using the same route as the sportive IIRC, probably did limit how often sportivers want to ride it repeatedly.

 

[lazybloke]

Interest in the Surrey route remained so high that I never got in by the ballot and had to use a charity place.
Whatever the reasons, Essex simply hasn't enjoyed that longevity, and I think the use of more boring roads in Essex might have been an issue. When I detoured off the route I was immediately in delightful lanes - they really could have planned a better route.


Living very close to the old Surrey route, I'm very well aware of the negative feelings from the knuckle-dragging car-centric end of society; and that negativity can grow when the event repeats every year, so my suggestion would be to have a new route EVERY year so it doesn't get stale. Ill-feelings in any geographical area would be massively diluted, we'd see different counties getting involved, a slightly different audience each year, and the revenue would go to different councils each time.

 

[PaulSB]

Then there's lack of public enthusiasm for the sportive, add in a big wodge of regular cyclists who have been there, done that and don't fancy it again.

This hits the nail on the head.

I entered Surrey every year for five years and got a place on my fifth attempt. When Essex was announced a bunch of people from my club decided to go. I joined in for two reasons, a good weekend away with friends and a flat course gave me the opportunity to achieve a personal goal, a sub 5 hours century.

My feeling is very much been there, done that. Add to this the cost of travelling from Lancashire and one soon gets the picture.