No Ride London 2025

[lazybloke]

I rode the Surrey one twice.
As much as I enjoyed my rides I don’t think mass participation cycling events will ever work as well as running ones. The staggered start is an issue for many which is impossible to overcome. Plus both my rides suffered from long stoppages and route changes which simply never affect running races.

My last RL suffered a road closure and significant delay when a rider was airlifted to hospital. That's a medical emergency that could affect running just as much as cycling.

But I do agree cycling has it's own specific risks that aren't present in running. High speed crashes and related injuries being the obvious (see RL 2016 - crash near Pyrford/Ripley).

The idea of a new route every year is attractive, but it would be a logistical nightmare.
Keeping the same route means you can just repeat everything year on year with a few slight tweaks because you know what works and what doesn’t without having to start from scratch every time.
Just simple things like knowing where to put WCs, which pit stops get used most and eliminating pinch points would all be unknowns.

Some good points there. And whilst loo placement seems a trivial example, it does illustrate that you can't learn from a mistake unless you're given an opportunity to try again.

So probably a host needs something like 3 years to run the event, then they have to bid alongside other counties to carry on.

I don't have any explanation for the current RideLondon hiatus, but I'm disappointed that Essex have apparently killed a successful event in only 3 editions.
Maybe that's a little unfair to Essex, but unless they explain what the problems are I have to guess, or go by own perceptions of their event; not all of which were favourable.