Champs-Elysées winner Caleb Ewan heads to RideLondon next weekend

Caleb Ewan, the most successful sprinter at this year’s Tour de France with three stage victories including the prestigious Champs-Elysées stage in Paris yesterday, is among the stars of the race heading to London next weekend to take part in Sunday’s RideLondon-Surrey Classic.

Joining the Lotto-Soudal rider at the race will be three other men who won stages of a vintage edition of the Grand Tour over the past three weeks.

They are Deceuninck-Quick Step’s Elia Viviani, Daryl Impey of Mitchelton-Scott, and Jumbo-Visma’s Mike Teunissen, the surprise winner on the opening day in Brussels and the first wearer of the yellow jersey at this year’s race.

There will also be four past winners of the Prudential RideLondon-Surrey Classic taking part this year – Lotto-Soudal’s Adam Blythe, Jempy Drucker of Bora-Hansgrohe, the UAE Team Emirates rider Alexander Kristoff, and the winner of the debut edition in 2016, Arnaud Demare of Groupama-FDJ.

Michael Matthews of Team Sunweb, whose chances of contesting the sprint in Paris yesterday were denied by a late mechanical, also rides, as does Giro d’Italia stage winner Sam Bennett of Bora-Hansgrohe and Deceuninck-Quick Step’s Philippe Gilbert, former world champion and winner of multiple Monuments.

Race Director Mick Bennett commented: “We are very excited by the line-up for this year’s Prudential RideLondon-Surrey Classic which I think has the potential to be the most fascinating edition we’ve had in the seven years of the race.

“On the one hand we will have the stage winners from the Tour, and Caleb Ewan in particular, who will be absolutely full of confidence right now, but they have just finished an exhausting three weeks of racing. While on the other hand, there is the likes of Sam Bennett and Arnaud Demare, who did not ride the Tour, but who will be fresh and determined to win.

“Interestingly, in the previous six editions of the race, only one man who rode the Tour de France has come to the Prudential RideLondon-Surrey Classic next and won and that was Alexander Kristoff in 2017. And Kristoff is riding this year so he is also a rider that cannot be overlooked.

“But it might not come down to a sprint finish this year,” Bennett continued. “We have changed the route for 2019 to include five circuits of Box Hill so that could really break the peloton up and play into the hands of the one-day specialists such as Philippe Gilbert. I think it will be an absolutely thrilling spectacle for everyone watching, whether that is on the road-side or on TV.”

Besides those five circuits of the Box Hill climb, this year’s 169-kilometre route of Great Britain’s only UCI WorldTour race also sees a different start location, moving from Horse Guards Parade to Bushy Park, close to Hampton Court Palace, with the finish line on the Mall.