Bradley Wiggins, controversially left out of Team Sky’s squad for the Tour de France, will be back on British roads this Sunday after receiving a late call-up to its line-up for the Prudential RideLondon-Surrey Classic.
He’s the first former Tour de France winner to participate in the event, now in its second year, which follows much of the route of the Olympic road race in 2012 when Wiggins, less than a week after winning the yellow jersey, put in some huge turns to try and help Mark Cavendish win Olympic gold.
His efforts proved in vain, but a few days later Wiggins himself took the fourth Olympic title of his career as he won the time trial, and he capped 2012 by winning the BBC Sports Personality of the Year title and then being awarded a knighthood in the New Year Honours.
Speaking to the Team Sky website, Wiggins, who last year won the Tour of Britain, said: "I’m really looking forward to Sunday and to being back on the road with Team Sky.
"I always enjoy competing in front of home fans and have great memories of riding this route at the Olympics.
"The support we got then was unbelievable, and it was the same again at the Tour of Britain again last year, so this promises to be a really special day."
Race director Mick Bennett said: “We are delighted to welcome Sir Bradley to Prudential RideLondon this weekend. He completes an already first-class line-up for the event.
“The Prudential RideLondon-Surrey Classic enjoys great support from spectators at the roadside across the route and this announcement means fans can now look forward to seeing one of the greatest ever British cyclists racing in the event.”
Also in the field for Sunday’s race will be former world champion Philippe Gilbert, sprinters Mark Renshaw, Alessandro Petacchi and Elia Viviani, plus Commonwealth Games bronze medallist, Scott Thwaites and twin brothers Adam and Simon Yates. You can find a provisional start list here.
The Prudential RideLondon-Surrey Classic will be shown live this Sunday on BBC1 from 14:00 and on British Eurosport from 14:30 on Sunday 10 August.
17 thoughts on “Bradley Wiggins to race Sunday’s RideLondon-Surrey Classic”
Bet I reach the Mall before
Bet I reach the Mall before you Sticks.
“He’s the first former Tour
“He’s the first former Tour de France winner to participate in the event, now in its second year”
Under it’s current name, take off the sponsors name and it is the London-Surrey classic, which ran in 2011, in which Chris Froome took part 😉 The year Cav won.
Gkam84 wrote:”He’s the first
But Froome was not a Former Tour de France winner in 2011.
Boom, pedant wars!
bikeboy76 wrote:Gkam84
But Froome was not a Former Tour de France winner in 2011.
Boom, pedant wars!— Gkam84
I think Gkam84’s point was, if you include 2011 the race is in its THIRD year.
Him Up North wrote:
I think
Wasn’t that the Olympic test event, so only national squads? If that’s included, this is the fourth year as we had the actual Olympics too. So, it’s either the second or the fourth year as you choose.
atlaz wrote:Him Up North
Olympics doesn’t count as it was under the Olympics banner and not a “classic” race
Gkam84 wrote:”He’s the first
When Froome took part he wasn’t a ‘former Tour de France winner’.
Let’s hope that like the Tour
Let’s hope that like the Tour of Britain last season, Bradley is in it to win it.
Although I suspect a sprinter might triumph.
jimmythecuckoo wrote:Let’s
The only way he’s winning it is if he does a long range TT effort. It’s a sprinter’s course, Sky will almost certainly be racing for Swift, that’s a pretty good train they’ve got there. Not an out-and-out train, as it’ll all splinter at Admiralty Arch anyway.
Al__S wrote:jimmythecuckoo
The only way he’s winning it is if he does a long range TT effort. It’s a sprinter’s course, Sky will almost certainly be racing for Swift, that’s a pretty good train they’ve got there. Not an out-and-out train, as it’ll all splinter at Admiralty Arch anyway.— jimmythecuckoo
The only way he could win it was if he’d done considerably more training on the road in the past 2 months. Class won’t desert him but he’s more likely to step off the bike than finish top ten. The quote strikes me as saying ‘fulfilling contractual obligations…’
I have created a
I have created a printer-friendly start list for Sunday’s race, based on the list at Cycling News this morning.
It’s a 2 page PDF (57 kb) in a Dropbox folder, feel free to share:
http://bit.ly/1ovTslk
A race doesn’t become a
A race doesn’t become a “classic” just because the organisers use the word classic in its name. Paris-Roubaix it isn’t.
Edgeley wrote:A race doesn’t
No it isn’t Paris-Roubaix, but at the same time i’m not going to get churlish about a UCI race (and a 1.HC at that) being held in the UK.
Rain is forecast for Sunday
Rain is forecast for Sunday and given his embarrassing performances in the Giro and last years worlds in the rain will Wiggo finish the race?
iso2000 wrote:Rain is
If you’re only picking a select number of performances, clearly not. On the other hand, he won the national time trial championships this season in absolutely filthy weather. And there are no mountains on this course.
Well I canfirm that Wiggo has
Well I canfirm that Wiggo has been back training on the road. My brother-in-law passed him just outside Peurto Pollensa, Menorca on Wednesday this week. When I say passed him, they were going in opposite directions obviously!! :/
That just confirms that Sunday’s forecast rain won’t be to his liking and my bet he’ll step off the bike before the finish.
I really don’t understand
I really don’t understand this armchair vitriol against Wiggins for ‘climbing off’. He does it no more than any other pro cyclist (Spartacus abandons the TdF most years rather than climb any mountains – ’embarrassing’?). Sometimes I wish I had a support car following behind to take me home when it becomes truly miserable and all you want is for it to stop. Picking out Wiggo for climbing off at the world’s last year is daft – the attrition was massive.
In a one day race if you’ve buried yourself on the front for the nominated leader (e.g. 2012 Olympic road race) and then been spat out the back there truly is no point in carrying on, especially if you’ve got another race coming up to try and be in good condition for. Witness the Commonwealth road races a couple of weeks ago. Those guys did their job, were not in contention and probably had to get back out to a European race pretty much straight away. They may even have had orders from their team to do this.