Prudential Ride London – grown too big for its own good

THE serious crashes and subsequent disruption which delayed thousands of charity riders and held up the following RideLondon professional race by up to 30 minutes on Sunday was an “accident” waiting to happen.

There was also a bottleneck of charity riders which jammed the narrow streets of Dorking for a time. 

The pros are running late, a security steward informed me when I wished to check the timings with him.

He filled me with what he knew had happened earlier. And later the stories were all over the news websites.

Crashes are inevitable with such large numbers, especially among inexperienced riders riding in huge groups for the first time.

As grand as this annual double bill has become since the first one in 2013 – based on the course of the 2012 Olympic road races which received such wide public acclaim - sending thousands of amateurs off ahead of the faster professionals was always a questionable format. It ought to be the other way around, for obvious reasons!

The London Marathon doesn’t send the run runners off ahead of the elite runners, does it?

Last year 25,000 amateurs lined up for the Pru ride. This year, according to The Guardian, there were 27,000 registered riders.

It begs the question, has the Prudential Ride London, the “World’s largest cycling event”, grown too big for its own good?

The race, featuring triple Tour de France winner Chris Froome and several other Tour stage winners, was moving at a cracking pace.  They made a grand sight, dust and paper swirling in their wake.  But at that rate of knots, it was realised they might run into the back of slower event which was first held up near Ripley, well before the course had even reached the celebrated Surrey Hills. And the decision was taken to halt the race.

The riders didn’t appear to mind!  Spectators were delighted and began to move among them.  Instead of the expected blurred fly past there was Chris Froome, standing still, for Christ’s sake!  They seized the opportunity to have their photos taken with the Tour hero, who was his usual unperturbed smiling self. If there had been a coffee shop handy, they would have piled in there.

But can you imagine that happening to the Tour of Flanders, or Paris-Roubaix?

Well, it wouldn’t, because the amateur sportives run in conjunction with those races take place on different days.

It was just one of those things, the organisers were not to blame, opined BBC TV commentator Simon Brotherton.   Well, no, not if he meant the race organisation, they couldn't be held responsible.  I imagine they were furious. But the charity ride organisers, despite their efficiency in dealing with the crashes and re-directing the charity riders, they really need a rocket for agreeing to take so many more riders.  

I can’t imagine ITV’s Gary Imlach letting them off the hook without making a sardonic comment.

The answer is simple, either the Pru limits the entry for the charity ride or it runs on another weekend.  If the latter, that will go down like a lead balloon with those Surrey residents who will not relish another day of being locked in by, in some places, 12-hour road closures.  

Especially that haunt of our motorised brethren, the bikers cafe, Ryka’s, at the foot of Box Hill. They had notices up complaining they were forced to close on Sunday, their busiest day, because the road closures meant no one could get to them! All day!

To clear the roads for the pros, many of the charity riders had to be re-routed my neighbour among them.  This was the second successive year this has happened to her, when a crash on Leith Hill led to re-routing in 2015. 

She and others were again denied the suffering awaiting them on Leith Hill and Box Hill, the two main obstacles in an “Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty”.

I’d demand my money back!

These cock-ups aside, the charity riders on their diverted way, the pro race resumed business and headed for Dorking. It was thrilling to see them rush the town five times. On the first passage they exited south to power up Leith Hill, at 977 feet above sea level, the highest point in the south east.

When they came through the town again, it was to do four laps taking them over the North Downs via Ranmore Common each time.

Thousands lined the streets and the pubs and street vendors did a great business.  Carnival had come to town.  There was a big to screen opposite Lloyds Bank on the High Street.

When the race came through for the last time organiser Mick Bennett was standing up through the sun roof of his car giving   the cheering crowds the Churchill salute – V for victory – thanks, Dorking, he was saying.

By then the race had split in pursuit of an earlier breakaway, and both Sky’s Geraint Thomas and Ian Stannard were giving chase.

A valiant 25km lone bid by Thomas off Box Hill came to naught in the closing kilometres, as did Stannard’s lone attempt to join him in the final 10 kilometres.  It was inevitable that the peloton swept them up. Classics king Tom Boonen won the sprint.

The organisers said one man taking part in the charity ride, Robin Chard, aged 48, from Bicester died from a heart attack. 

A total of 33 riders in this event were taken to hospital and, of those, seven riders remain in hospital. Three riders were seriously injured.