“A sad day for women’s cycling”: RideLondon Classique cancelled for 2025 as
UCI “unilaterally” moves dates “without consultation or prior warning”

The organisers announced that the UCI’s decision to push the stage race to the following week has made it “impossible” for it to be held in London, though the RideLondon-Essex sportive will go ahead as planned
by RYAN MALLON FRI, JUN 14, 2024 13:50

The RideLondon Classique will not take place in 2025, as the event’s organisers revealed that there was “no option” but to cancel the Women’s World Tour stage race after the UCI shifted its position in the calendar by
a week, making it “impossible” for the race to be held in central London.

While the loss of the three-day race, won once again in dominant fashion by Lorena Wiebes last month, has been branded a “sad day for professional women’s cycling”, organisers London Marathan Events did confirm, however, that the news will have no bearing on the RideLondon-Essex sportive events
and wider festival of cycling in London, which will take place in their
usual late-May slot next year.

A legacy event of the 2012 London Olympics, the RideLondon Classique was
first held in 2013 as a one-day race before being granted Women’s World
Tour status in 2016, the same year that it became the richest women’s race
in the world with a total prize fund of €100,000, equalling the now-defunct men’s RideLondon-Surrey Classic.

After a three-year break due to the Covid pandemic and following the demise
of the men’s race, in 2022 the women’s event was expanded to a three-day tour, as part of a wider ‘festival of cycling’ that includes the popular sportive events.

Since its expansion, Dutch sprinter Lorena Wiebes has proved the dominant
force on the largely flat roads around Essex and the capital, securing a hat-trick and clean sweep of stages and the overall victory in 2022 and
2024, with only Charlotte Kool breaking Wiebes’ streak last year.

This morning, however, the UCI unveiled its 2025 calendar for both the
men’s and women’s World Tours and with it the news that the RideLondon Classique has been shunted from its traditional slot in the last full
weekend of May to the following weekend, in order to provide space for the
trio of Spanish stage races – the Vuelta Femenina, Itzulia, and the Vuelta
a Burgos – that take up most of the month.

That date change – which London Marathon Events claims was made “unilaterally” and without consultation by the UCI – has forced the race into an unexpected hiatus next year due to the protracted and complicated nature of planning events in London, the organisers confirmed on Friday,
just a week after the UK’s other major women’s stage race, the Tour of Britain Women, made its return following a year’s break.

“We were extremely surprised to be informed by the UCI on 26 March 2024
that the 2025 Ford RideLondon Classique had been moved on the UCI Women’s World Tour calendar from the last complete weekend in May [23-25 May] to a
new date a week later [30 May-1 June],” RideLondon’s event director Hugh Brasher said in a statement today.

“There was no consultation or prior warning and the news came despite LME previously being advised by the UCI that there would be no changes to the calendar until 2026.

“Major events in London, one of the world’s biggest capital cities, are planned many years ahead and it is impossible for the Ford RideLondon
Classique to take place in central London on the new dates proposed unilaterally by the UCI. Alternative dates at this late stage are
impossible.

“The UCI will not reverse this decision or allow two Women’s WorldTour events to take place on the same weekend. Therefore, sadly, it will not be possible to stage the Ford RideLondon Classique in 2025. It is a very sad
day for professional women’s cycling.”

He continued: “The Classique was one of the higher profile events on the
UCI Women’s WorldTour, taking place in one of the world’s most influential cities with extensive sponsorship support and live coverage on BBC TV and internationally. Many teams and riders cite the event as one of their top races of the year.

“RideLondon is the most successful legacy event from the 2012 Olympic Games and we are delighted that none of the other events that make the day the world’s largest one-day cycling event are affected.”

Despite the race’s popularity among riders and teams, this isn’t the first time that the RideLondon Classique’s organisers have come into conflict
with the UCI in recent years.

In 2022, cycling’s governing body threatened to downgrade the race from a Women’s WorldTour race to a ProSeries event after the organisers breached
UCI regulations by failing to provide live TV coverage of every stage.

That year, only the final stage was broadcast live on BBC Two, while
highlights of the first two stages were made available on the BBC iPlayer
and GCN – a breach of the UCI’s rules stipulating that WorldTour events must provide live TV coverage of at least the final 45 minutes of each
stage.

However, the race retained its WorldTour status after the organisers, with backing from new sponsor Ford, ensured that all three stages would have the required live footage through streaming on Eurosport and the BBC iPlayer.

<https://road.cc/content/news/ridelondon-classique-cancelled-2025-due-date-change-308873>

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