Alas RideLondon, we knew it well…
RideLondon will not return in 2026 – and may be finished for good – organisers have confirmed.
“RideLondon, the world’s greatest festival of cycling, has been placed on indefinite pause following operational and financial considerations of the event’s future direction,” begins a statement on the website of organisers London Marathon Events.
It doesn’t sound positive. After taking a break last year, the demise of the UK’s biggest closed-roads sportive seemed only a matter of time – and that time has come, it seems.
First held in 2013 as a legacy of the London 2012 Olympic Games, RideLondon enjoyed ten successful editions with more than 500,000 people taking part. And Sportive.com reporters were among them: we covered several of the early editions, at a time when RideLondon was the hottest sportive ticket in town.
And it was more than just a sportive: the RideLondon festival as a whole was instrumental in encouraging people onto their bikes, on city streets free of traffic. The event also raised more than £85 million for charity, making – as the statement points out – “a lasting impact on communities and causes across the UK.”
The RideLondon-Surrey 100, as it was officially known from 2013-2019, was perfectly timed to surf the wave of cycling’s popularity in the wake of the 2012 London Olympics and Sir Bradley Wiggins’ Tour de France triumph – the first ever British winner, remember – for Team Sky the same year.
The first seven editions were a runaway success: demand was so great that entry was via a hugely oversubscribed ballot, with thousands of applicants missing out each year.
Roads closed, heavens opened: Riding the 2014 Prudential RideLondon-Surrey 100
But Covid saw the event paused in 2020 and 2021, and when it returned in 2022 it was with a new route – Surrey and the iconic Box Hill climb were out, replaced with arguably a less challenging excursion east organised in partnership with Essex County Council.
The new-look RideLondon failed to capture the imagination; demand fell, the ballot was abandoned, and even with tickets placed on general sale the event struggled to sell out.
The tenth and most recent – last, it now seems – edition of RideLondon took place in May 2024.
So, what now for London’s cyclists? RideLondon leaves a massive hole in the calendar, but its legacy will not be forgotten: for many, it will have been their first taste of a mass participation bike ride and a gateway to further challenges.
While RideLondon may be gone, there are still dozens of first-class sportives to choose from within easy reach of London. Check out the Sportive.com calendar and you’ll find not just dozens of road events, but plenty of gravel too.
The Hell of the Ashdown and the Kentish Killer from Flamme Rouge are two popular early-season sportives that attract a big crowd from London.
To the immediate north, SportiveUK offer a tried and tested selection of road sportives across Cambridgeshire, Essex and Hertfordshire. To the west and south-west, Sportiva Events showcase the stunning scenery of Devon and Cornwall with seven cracking rides.
At the national level, iconic events like the Dragon Ride, Etape Caledonia, and the Fred Whitton Challenge continue to attract full fields, and long may it continue.
For Londoners of a more gravelly disposition – perhaps inspired by Rapha’s Hell of the North rides, or more recently North London Dirt – Hidden Tracks Cycling are well worth a look.
Based at Herne Hill Velodrome in south-east London, they lay on a variety of gravel challenges for the more experienced cyclist – from Southern Grit (17 May), a 100km tour taking in England’s oldest grotto, a medieval map to Purgatory and Epsom racecourse – to the 360 (27 June), a full circumnavigation of London on gravel, bridleway, woodland singletrack, canal paths, field crossings and forgotten connectors.
The unique, off-the-beaten-path routes – combined with fresh coffee at the start and beer and pizza at the finish – should help ease the sting of RideLondon’s loss.
And that’s before we even mention the likes of Glorious Gravel, Focal Events’ Dirty Reiver, or the Stone Circle: a new crop of outstanding events that are in a more true sense festivals of cycling than RideLondon, for all its virtues, ever was.
While the end of RideLondon marks the end of an era, 2027 sees the return of the Tour de France to the UK. Cycling, like everything else, moves in…well, cycles. The next boom just might be waiting around the corner.