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.

 

[Dogtrousers]

More info on the reason behind this: https://road.cc/content/news/ridelondon-hiatus-2025-due-new-car-tunnel-310721

Background: Early next year a new road tunnel under the Thames, the Silvertown tunnel is due to open. It's a very bad idea, but that ship has sailed, and it's planned to open early next year. Anyway, the existing RL route goes right through the roads/junctions that will form the entrance/exit of the new tunnel.

So the impact of the tunnel, which wasn't there before, had to be factored in and they decided they couldn't make it work.

According to options laid out by organisers London Marathon Events during discussions with Transport for London (TfL) earlier this year, the central London route used by RideLondon-Essex between 2022 and 2024 would have required the closure of Silvertown Tunnel between 4am and 7pm on the day of the event – a situation London’s cycling and walking commissioner Will Norman described as an “absolute no”.​

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Meanwhile, three of the event organisers’ five proposed alterations to the annual mass participation rides would have required either full or partial closure of the tunnel, which will link the Royal Docks and Canary Wharf with north Greenwich when it opens in March.​

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The other revised or alternative routes were also dismissed as having a “much higher” traffic impact on other parts of London and Essex, leading to the event’s ultimate cancellation for 2025.​

The good citizens of Essex can put away their burning brands and pitchforks.

 

[steverob]

Reading some of the comments on that road.cc article, the suggestion seems to be that as this new tunnel is tolled and is to be run by a private company (probably Crapita or someone of their ilk), if the tunnel is closed then TfL probably needs to pay compensation for loss of revenue and that's most likely to be the reason why. No idea if that's true or not, but sounds plausible.

 

[Dogtrousers]

It's odd isn't it? We would have to close a tunnel that isn't even open at the moment and that would cause too much disruption.

Oh well. I got my money back btw, so I can spend it on something sensible like iridescent valve caps or something.

 

[lazybloke]

Whatever the reasons for not wanting to disrupt tunnel traffic, you'd think a tweak to the cycle route would have been the solution; there must be other reasons. I suspect it's the general traffic disruption that causes objections.

Personally, I'd put the start in the Olympic Park (again), head out to Essex or wherever, then come back to London via a route that doesn't interfere with toll tunnels. That still leaves a question of where to end the event.

 

[Dogtrousers]

Personally, I'd put the start in the Olympic Park (again), head out to Essex or wherever, then come back to London via a route that doesn't interfere with toll tunnels. That still leaves a question of where to end the event.

You could end it in the Olympic park too. People would still get to ride past iconic London sights like ... er ... The Lee Valley Velodrome and, um, the Olympic stadium and maybe even the Leyton Orient ground. How iconic can you get?

 

[TomDW]

I never understood why the route wiggled around parts of E.Ldn near Stratford. surely closing a few more roads in rural Suffolk would be easier and more scenic?

 

[T4tomo]

I never understood why the route wiggled around parts of E.Ldn near Stratford. surely closing a few more roads in rural Suffolk would be easier and more scenic?

too many participants to go on narrow wiggly lanes. I think that's why it hasnt really capurted peoples imaginations much. A logistical challenge to ride on a few A roads in East London and Essex. Wasn't there chaos on the Surrey route when the went up some of the narrow hills?

 

[Beebo]

Wasn't there chaos on the Surrey route when the went up some of the narrow hills?

Yes.
I rode the Surrey one twice and never completed the full 100 mile route.
The first time they closed box hill, the second time they closed Leith Hill.
Both times due to safety concerns and congestion.

 

[mjr]

too many participants to go on narrow wiggly lanes. I think that's why it hasnt really capurted peoples imaginations much. A logistical challenge to ride on a few A roads in East London and Essex. Wasn't there chaos on the Surrey route when the went up some of the narrow hills?

More of a problem going down some of the narrow hills, causing closures that caused tailbacks onto the ups, I think.

The problem with getting back into central London is you need a route with either lots of grade-seperated crossings (so a quasimotorway like the A12 or the Limehouse Link tunnel is ideal), or close to an obstacle like the Thames so you only "trap" a relatively small area of motor vehicles for the day (so The Highway was a good run in, or Chelsea Embankment previously for returning from Surrey). What other possibilities are there? The inner ends of A11, A12 and A1 don't have many bridges over or rivers or parks alongside, so would be messy to close, sending motor traffic on long diversions to bottlenecks and cutting lots of bus routes.

They might close something like the A10 or A11 for the morning for the start, but if they can't use any tunnels, it seems like a Tower Bridge start and an Olympic Park finish might be most likely.

 

[Beebo]

More of a problem going down some of the narrow hills, causing closures that caused tailbacks onto the ups, I think.

The problem with getting back into central London is you need a route with either lots of grade-seperated crossings (so a quasimotorway like the A12 or the Limehouse Link tunnel is ideal), or close to an obstacle like the Thames so you only "trap" a relatively small area of motor vehicles for the day (so The Highway was a good run in, or Chelsea Embankment previously for returning from Surrey). What other possibilities are there? The inner ends of A11, A12 and A1 don't have many bridges over or rivers or parks alongside, so would be messy to close, sending motor traffic on long diversions to bottlenecks and cutting lots of bus routes.

They might close something like the A10 or A11 for the morning for the start, but if they can't use any tunnels, it seems like a Tower Bridge start and an Olympic Park finish might be most likely.

Your analysis of the issues is spot on.
Is Tower Bridge big enough for a start?
You would need to have a large area for kettling the waves of riders.
The reason why the marathon works so well is that the start is on Blackheath, which is huge.
Then the route hugs the Thames into relative back waters like Rotherhithe and Docklands.
It only really bothers central London for the last 5 miles.

 

[Dogtrousers]

In the end the only "iconic" thing about it would be the name and a quick glimpse of Tower Bridge. And maybe Canary Wharf if you find that impressive, which I doubt many people do.

East London, especially around Stratford, gives us a dismal vision of what London would have turned out like if they had carried out the Ringways urban motorway plan in full. Essex is quite pleasant I suppose, in a humdrum way.

TBH if I was in charge I'd probably just give up.

 

[T4tomo]

It only really bothers central London for the last 5 miles.

where it continue to hug the Thames so doesn't really "bother" central London. it only leave the Thames for the last Mile up to the Mall