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Boris Johnson finishes inaugural Prudential RideLondon 100RideLondon 2014 sportive ballot gets 50,000 entries in first 24 hours
We said you’d need to be quick. In the first 24 hours after registration opened for the 2014 Prudential RideLondon-Surrey 100, 50,000 people registered for the ballot to select next year’s participants. The ride on Sunday August 10 will be part of next year’s London Mayor’s festival of cycling.
The ballot will close when 80,000 people have registered. Alison Hamlett from the RideLondon press office tells us that they expect to hit 60,000 this afternoon, so while the deluge has abated to a medium-sized flood, you might still want to jump in quick.
Last year, the event took almost five months to hit 50,000 entries. Organisers London & Surrey Cycling Partnership, say they are delighted with the response.
Event director Hugh Brasher said: “The success of the inaugural Prudential RideLondon-Surrey 100 has galvanized people to take up this unique challenge, of being able to cycle on traffic-free streets, past iconic London landmarks and through beautiful Surrey countryside. It took us nearly five months to get to this landmark figure in the first year.”
More than 15,000 riders finished this year’s Prudential RideLondon-Surrey 100 from 20,000 entries and 16,500 starters. Finishers included Mayor of London Boris Johnson in a creditable eight hours and four minutes, while Jamie Wilkins of ProCycling magazine was the fastest finisher in 4:03:24.
It’s being widely assumed that there will be 20,000 spots available in the 2014 event but that number — and the 2014 route — hasn’t yet been decided by the organisers. “We will determine the number of places available next year after the debrief process,” Ms Hamlett said.
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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19 comments
It's taking the piss...the way there were many folks who didn't get a place, yer the number of people who dropped out or didn't finish is a real shame...
£48, and can we keep it if you're unsuccessful?
Think I'll pass.
I suspect some of the 3500 who didn't ride couldnt find a way to get to the ExCel to 'register' in the 3 days before the event. Another significant expense to add on top of your entry fee if you don't live in London or aren't staying there the night before. They kept that annoyance to themselves until a few days before the event. Everything could have been done by post.
But anyone who has done London Marathon is already more than familiar with this and it works well enough. Yes, ExCel is a pain to get to, but you can get someone to go on your behalf if you need to.
The only way to guarantee a place at the moment, be a high profile celebrity who cycles and ask them OR sign up and raise money for a charity who has places
There are an extra 1000 places in the ballot for entrants who pay and bequeath the £48 upfront...
Nope £48 doesn't guarantee you place, if you choose to pay it and hand it over to charity if you don't get a place. That's upto you.
If you choose NOT to hand it over to charity, you have the same chance of getting a place and have not handed any money over up front
Eh, I didn't have to pay £48, does the £48 payment guarantee you a place? and where does it go?
They need to word the site better.
Does someone understand the whole payment / charity thing?
Great that interest has jumped. When the public put their money into cycling events the government needs to deliver the desires of the constituents and invest in infrastructure. This will provide a healthier and more secure future as we simply can not sustain car growth.
I have paid my £48, not sure where the money goes to if you don't opt for the charity option if you do not get a place. 80,000 ballot applications at £48, that's a serious amount if money. Any thoughts on hiw much this would cost to put on and hiw much goes to charity..
Phew, in the ballot again, glad I didn't put on a todo list.
"The thought of fat city boys weaving up Box Hill on £5k bikes." Still plenty of that, but really the majority of people who spend that kind of money on a bike DO want to ride speedily regardless of how much they earn.
Great event and the ballot will be full this year. I hope they will open up returned entries this year.
I just hope they sort out this recumbent ban, I'm in the ballot anyway, but after a phone call to them, they think the ban will be lifted, along with the ban on handcranks
Fantastic news! I reckon a lot of keen riders - club riders etc - won't have signed up for the first one because they thought it was very expensive, because it would be full of nodders at 8mph, etc. They saw that it was a great event and now feel like they've missed out!
Basically yes you have summed up my application in a sentance for 2014.......
Have to admit I dismissed it early on. The thought of fat city boys weaving up Box Hill on £5k bikes combined with not being certain whether it was a mass start or wave start put me off. That said the final nail in the coffin was that it came 1 week after Ironman Switzerland and I just couldn't be sure I'd be up to it.
Notwithstanding, I'm glad to see it was a resounding success. Next year, I'll be there.
I think a few folk may have signed up then realised they couldn't make the early start time. Adds a huge expense if you've got nowhere nearby to stay.
I am a bit confussed.
"More than 15,000 riders finished this year’s Prudential RideLondon-Surrey 100 from 20,000 entries and 16,500 starters."
That suggests 3,500 people didn't bother turning up?
Yep. Bit of a sickener for those who applied but lost out in the ballot.
That's mental!