Tour de France green jersey winner tops the bill for the Prudential RideLondon-Surrey Classic on Sunday, August 4th, in the start list released by the race organiser. The Slovakian champion will lead the Cannondale Pro Cycling team in the Olympic legacy event, which will start from the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park and finish on The Mall, in front of Buckingham Palace, having covered much of the same course as the London 2012 road race.
“This star-studded field, headed by Peter Sagan, in the first year of the Prudential RideLondon-Surrey Classic is testimony to the international standing of the event and our ambitions for the future,” said Race Director Mick Bennett.
“The field has a great line-up of top sprinters, classics style riders and the very best domestic and rising stars from Great Britain. It is surely the best field ever assembled for the first year of a new one day race and we are set for an exciting and action-packed race and a thrilling finish on The Mall.”
Sagan will be challenged in the likely sprint by several big name sprinters, including the Vacansoleil-DCM duo of Romain Feillu and Danny van Poppel; the former being no stranger to winning in the UK after his overall victory in the 2007 Tour of Britain, while the latter became the youngest post-War rider to take part in the Tour de France at just 19 years of age.
Also expected to do well will be Milano-Sanremo winners Matt Goss (Orica-GreenEdge) and Gerald Ciolek (MTN-Qhubeka), while Goss will also be joined by Daryl Impey, whe became the first African to wear the Maillot Jaune at the tour de France last month and Swiss Michael Albasini, another former Tour of Britain winner.
FDJ.fr will be bringing former under-23 World champion Arnaud Démare, who won three stages and the overall at the Quatre Jours de Dunkerque, and also won a stage of last month’s Tour de Suisse.
The Team Sky line up does not include any of the riders that guided Chris Froome to victory in the Tour de France, although former British champion Ian Stannard is on the reserve list. Instead, the team includes rising British star Josh Edmondson, Aussie sprinter Chris Sutton and Italian Salvatore Puccio, who wore the Maglia Rosa of the Giro d’Italia this year.
An eighth WorldTour ProTeam has been added to the list of teams announced on July 4th in the shape of Argos-Shimano, but sadly will not be bringing four-time Tour stage winner Marcel Kittel, although his compatriot John Degenkolb - who took a stage at the Giro d’Italia - is listed among the reserves.
Also added to the list since earlier in the month are historic French Continental La Pomme Marseille, and Italia Professional Continental team Bardiani Valvole-CSF Inox. The latter will be built around sprinter Sacha Modolo (Bardiani-CSF), who took six stages of the recent Tour of Qinghai Lake, and will start as arguably one of the big favourites.
Missing from the line up is British champion Mark Cavendish, whose Omega Pharma-Quick Step team is not on the list of teams. The former World champion won the equivalent race in 2011, when it was staged as an Olympic test event, as part of the Great Britain team, but will not be in the national team’s line up this time.
13 of the 150-strong start list rode the Tour de France, with others - including Stannard and Degenkolb - on the reserve list. The race will be covered live on BBC TV, and broadcast internationally on Eurosport (Europe and Asia/Pacific) and in Brazil, Canada, New Zealand and the USA.
Prudential RideLondon-Surrey Classic (1.1) August 4th
List of Starters
AN Post ChainReaction
Shane ARCHBOLD
Glenn O'SHEA
Aaron GATE
Mark MCNALLY
Sam BENNETT
Nicolas VEREECKEN
Reserves
Alphonse VERMOTE
Nico EECKOUT
Sean DOWNEY
Ronan MCLAUGHLIN
Kieran FREND
La Pomme Marseille
Julien ANTOMARCHI
Jose GONCALVES
Christopher JENNING
Justin JULES
Yannick MARTINEZ
Thomas VAUBOURZEIX
Reserves
Benjamin GIRAUD
Yoann PAILLOT
Thomas ROSTOLLAN
Team IG-Sigma Sport
Peter HAWKINS
Peter WILLIAMS
Joseph PERRETT
Wouter SYBRANDY
James MOSS
Matt CRONSHAW
Reserves
Ryan MULLEN
Chris WHORALL
Andrew GRIFFITHS
Bardiani Valvole CSF INOX
Sacha MODOLO
Christian DELLE STELLE
Filippo FORTIN
Andrea DI CORRADO
Nicola BOEM
Andrea PASQUALON
Reserves
Marco CANOLA
Sonny COLBRELLI
Angelo PAGANI
Madison Genesis
Ian BIBBY
Andrew TENNANT
Alex PETERS
Dean DOWNING
Jack PULLAR
Dominic JELFS
Reserves
Chris SNOOK
Liam HOLOHAN
Brennan TOWNSHEND
Team NetApp-Endura
Iker CAMANO ORTUZAR
David DE LA CRUZ
Zakkari DEMPSTER
Jonathan MCEVOY
Erick ROWSELL
Scott THWAITES
Reserves
Jan BARTA
Russell DOWNING
Alexander WETTERHALL
Belkin Pro Cycling Team
Jack BOBRIDGE
Jetse BOL
Tim LEEZER
Paul MARTENS
Tom Jelte SLAGTER
Dennis VAN WINDEN
Reserves
Bram TANKINK
Sep VANMARCKE
Lars BOOM
Maarten WYNANTS
MTN-Qhubeka p.b Samsung
Gerald CIOLEK
Ferekalsi DEBESAY
Jaco VENTER
Jay Robert THOMSON
Andreas STAUFF
Ignatas KONOVALOVAS
Reserves
Bradley POTGIETER
Martin WESEMANN
Jani TEWELDE
Jousef REGUIGUI
Team Raleigh
Alex BLAIN
Eric BERTHOU
Tom SCULLY
Lachlan NORRIS
Evan OLIPHANT
Mark O'BRIEN
Reserves
Mark CHRISTIAN
Rob BRITTON
Richard LANG
Cannondale Pro Cycling
Damiano CARUSO
Paolo LONGO BORGHINI
Tiziano DALL'ANTONIA
Lucas Sebastian HAEDO
Peter SAGAN
Brian VANDBORG
Reserves
Mauro DA DALTO
Moreno MOSER
Alan MARANGONI
Node 4 - Giordana Racing
Michael NORTHEY
Roman VAN UDEN
Steven LAMPIER
Daniel BARRY
Shem RODGER
James WILLIAMSON
Reserves
Christian VARLEY
Nathan EDMONDSON
Richard HEPWORTH
Team Sojasun
Jimmy ENGOULVENT
Jeremie GALLAND
Christophe LABORIE
Rony MARTIAS
Paul POUX
Evaldas SISKEVICIUS
Reserves
David LE LAY
Julien LE FARES
Remi PAURIOL
Champion System Pro Cycling Team
Matt BRAMMEIER
Clinton AVERY
Matthias FRIEDEMANN
Mart OJAVEE
Fabian SCHNAIDT
Bobbie TRAKSEL
Reserves
Zackary BELL
Gergor GAZVODA
Chan Jae JANG
Orica-GreenEdge
Matthew GOSS
Stuart O'GRADY
Luke DURBRIDGE
Michael ALBASINI
Allan DAVIS
Daryl IMPEY
Reserves
Jens KEUKELEIRE
Brett LANCASTER
Sebastian LANGEVELD
Team UK Youth
Yanto BARER
Marcin BIALOBOCKI
Niklas GUSTAVSSON
Chris OPIE
Rob PARTRIDGE
Ian WILKINSON
Reserves
Tobyn HORTON
Joshua HUNT
Jonathan MOULD
FDJ.fr
Arnaud DEMARE
Mickael DELANG
David BOUCHER
Yoann OFFREDO
Dominique ROLLIN
Laurent MANGEL
Reserves
Murilo Antonio FISCHER
Francis MOUREY
Arthur VICHOT
Rapha Condor JLT
Kristian HOUSE
Elliott PORTER
Richard HANDLEY
Luke GRIVELL-MELLOR
Michael CUMING
James MCCULLUM
Reserves
Aaron BUGGLE
Edward LAVERACK
Felix ENGLISH
Topsport Vlaanderen-Baloise
Tom VAN ASBROECK
Sander ARMEE
Zico WAEYTENS
Stijn NEIRYNCK
Pieter JACOBS
Eliot LIETAER
Reserves
Jarl SALOMEIN
Jasper DE BUYST
Kenny DE KETELE
Garmin-Sharp
Jack BAUER
Caleb FAIRLY
Raymond KREDER
David MILLAR
Ramunas NAVARDAUSKAS
Jacob RATHE
Reserves
Fabian WEGMANN
Nick NUYENS
Robbie HUNTER
Tyler FARRAR
Koldo FERNANDEZ DE LARREA
Sky ProCycling
Joshua EDMONDSON
Mathew HAYMAN
Gabriel RASCH
Christopher SUTTON
Ben SWIFT
Salvatore PUCCIO
Reserves
Bernhard EISEL
Christian KNEES
Ian STANNARD
Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team
Kris BOECKMANS
Romain FEILLU
Wesley KREDER
Sergey LAGUTIN
Danny VAN POPPEL
Frederik VEUCHELEN
Reserves
Marco MARCATO
Wouter MOL
Mirko SELVAGGI
Willem WOUTERS
Great Britain Cycling Team
Simon YATES
Adam YATES
Samuel HARRISON
Alistair SLATER
Owain DOULL
Jonathan DIBBEN
Reserves
Samuel LOWE
George ATKINS
Joseph KELLY
Daniel MCLAY
Synergy Baku Cycling Project
Dan CRAVEN
Dene Thomas ROGERS Rico
Connor MCCONVEY
Christoph SCHWEIZER
Kirill POZDNYAKOV
Patrick LANE
Reserves
David CLARKE
Aleksandr SURUTKOVYCH
John EBSEN
Joker Merida
Reidar Bohlin BORGERSEN
Vegard BREEN
Kristoffer SKJERPING
Vegard Robinson BUGGE
Adrian GJOLBERG
Edvin WILSON
Reserves
Martin OLSEN
Oskar SVENDSEN
Stain REMME
Team Argos-Shimano
Jonas AHLSTRAND
Nikias ARDNT
Will CLARKE
Francois PARISIEN
Ramon SINKELDAM
Yandong XING
Reserves
Thomas DAMUSEAU
John DEGENKOLB
Tobias LUDVIGSSON