Laura Trott (Wiggle Honda) won the inaugural Prudential RideLondon Grand Prix in a bunch sprint on the Mall in front of Buckingham Palace. The double Olympic champion beat national criterium champion Hannah Barnes (MG-Maxifuel) in a rematch of their last meeting at the London Nocturne six weeks before. Trott was led into the finishing straight by teammate and fellow Olympian Dani King, and managed to hold off a late surge from Barnes to win by a wheel.
Australian Loren Rowney (Specialized-lululemon) took third place, just ahead of King, at the head of the most international peloton to feature in a British women’s race since London 2012 the previous year.
“Fair play to Dani, she absolutely floored it!” Trott said after the race. “I could feel people on my shoulder, but I needed to be at the front this time, I didn’t want people around me. So I shouted to Dani to go an it just worked out perfectly.
“I like this course a lot more, there are no tight turns, it’s just left hand corners, which is much better for me,” she joked.
Because of the wide roads and sweeping bends of the course, which circled St James’s Park in an anti-clockwise direction, nobody was able to escape the peloton despite constant attacks from riders including Loes Gunnewijk and Amanda Spratt (Orica-AIS), Trott, King, Joanna Rowsell, Emily Collins and Anna-Bianca Schnitzmeier (Wiggle Honda), Hannah Walker and Jessie Walker (Matrix Fitness), European cyclocross champion Helen Wyman (Kona) and Katie Archibald (City of Edinburgh).
“Because it was such an open course we just had people attacking,” Trott explained. “Even I was attacking, although I was going to be the team’s sprinter, but with five laps to go we decided to stop attacking and start chasing. There was no point just to keep using people to get up the road because nothing was staying away.
“Then with five laps to go I just stuck on Dani’s wheel. There was no communication between us, it was just all or nothing, she just knew that I was there.”
A crash on the final lap saw a number of riders come down, with Rowsell the worst affected with a broken collarbone. Up ahead, however, The Wiggle Honda rider’s teammates were setting Trott up for victory over a late-charging Barnes.
“Who could complain, it’s Laura,” Barnes said to VeloNation after the finish. “The crowds were amazing.
“I’ve never actually been to Buckingham Palace, I was hoping the Queen would come out,” she joked.
“The race was just flat out from start to finish, and it was really good to show the jersey out there today.”
Prudential RideLondon Grand Prix
1. Laura Trott (GBr) Wiggle Honda Pro Cycling
2. Hannah Barnes (GBr) MG-Maxifuel
3. Loren Rowney (Aus) Specialized-lululemon
4. Danielle King (GBr) Wiggle Honda Pro Cycling
5. Loes Gunnewijk (Ned) Orica-AIS
6. Harriet Owen (GBr) Matrix Fitness Racing Academy
7. Jaqueline Hahn (Aut) Squadra Scappatella
8. Lauren Creamer (GBr) ISCorp Cycling/NCSF
9. Christiana Perchtold (Aut) Squadra Scappatella
10. Mary Costelloe (Irl) DID Electrical Racing Team