RideLondon returns in spring 2022

New date and new events unveiled after two years off the calendar

- Owen Rogers

RideLondon returns next spring with a new date, new route and new headline event. Having not run in 2020 or 2021 due to the pandemic the organisers recently announced a completely new look to the weekend of events. The men’s one-day race has gone, and instead the organisers will run a three-day Women’s WorldTour stage race along with the closed-road sportive.

Both events will take place in central London and Essex after Surrey County Council decided not to renew its involvement following an online backlash from just a handful of residents.

The women’s RideLondon Classique will now be the only professional part of the weekend and is a significant step up from the central London criterium race of the previous format. While details are still to be announced the first two stages will run in Essex with the final stage in central London.

The Classique takes place on 27-29 May, finishing just seven days before the UK’s other Women’s WorldTour event, the AJ Bell Women’s Tour, creating a big block of top-level women’s racing on British roads.

“It’s terrific it’s a few days ahead of the Women’s Tour as both a standalone event and a warm-up event, and it also gives riders the chance to peak for both races. It’s bloody brilliant,” Simon Howes, manager of British Continental team CAMSBasso Bikes told CW.