Amid the wailing about London 2012’s failure to deliver its promised legacy of a more sporty nation, one Olympic-connected event will this weekend mark its third incarnation in robust and vigorous health: the annual cycling festival that is RideLondon.
Fortuitously announced as Bradley Wiggins and his fellow Team GB cyclists were acquiring Olympic gold medals by the kilo, the event began in 2013 and has grown rapidly. This year it will see almost 100,000 people taking part in a variety of events on streets closed to motor traffic.
The two biggest are Saturday’s FreeCycle, a family-oriented trundle around a traffic-free 10-mile route in the centre of the capital and then, the next morning, the RideLondon-Surrey 100, a more demanding 100-mile route looping from the Olympic stadium into the hills near Dorking and back for a finish on the Mall.
There are also three main competitive events: one for handcycle riders, a women’s circuit race featuring stars such as Laura Trott, and a men’s race that will feature Wiggins and his eponymous new racing team, as well as Mark Cavendish. Among other teams taking part is Team Sky, fresh from helping Chris Froome to his second Tour de France title, although he will not be involved.
It is all run by the organisers of the London Marathon, in part explaining how RideLondon has appeared so well organised from the beginning.
Hugh Brasher, director of both the marathon and the RideLondon weekend, says he has big ambitions for the latter event: to use one of the few sports that has shown a meaningful increase in participation as a way to transform the nation’s fitness, whether by competitive cycling or everyday riding.
“It’s inspiring a new generation of cyclists,” he said. “It’s encouraging people to commute by bike. It’s a fantastic legacy – the only mass-participation sporting legacy we think really exists from London 2012, on any grand scale.”
He continued: “I believe cycling will be the number one exercise in Britain within the next five years. As a country, we have an obesity issue. The western world has got one. And cycling is a great way to lose weight and get fit. It’s a fantastic thing to encourage people to do.”
The ambition is arguably not yet matched by results beyond London. While cycling in the capital has become increasingly common in recent years, the national picture remains more static, with around 1% to 2% of trips made by bike, as opposed to around 30% in many places in the Netherlands.
But Brasher says that his organisation hopes to inspire similar events, both around the UK and elsewhere: “People from major cities around the world are here in London right now, looking at what we’re doing.”
Not everyone has been enthralled with RideLondon. Particularly in the first couple of years, some people in affected parts of London and Surrey were angry at being unable to use local roads for much of a day.
This appears to be abating, in part because of greater acceptance of the event, but also thanks to generous grants to organisations along the route from the charitable trust run jointly by the marathon and RideLondon.
Brasher can, however, be sure of one thing: this weekend cannot be as stressful as last year, when the arrival of the tail end of Hurricane Bertha brought tropical levels of rain to the Sunday’s events.
Organisers shortened the 100-mile mass route to 86 to avoid quick descents, but it could have been more drastic, Brasher says: “We had some very difficult conversations. We organise the marathon going back 35 years, and last year was the closest we ever came to calling an event off.”
