The Organising Committee of the 2012 London Olympic Games (LOCOG) has presented the courses for the men’s and women’s road races. After the rejection by the International Cycling Union (UCI) of a circuit race based on Regents Park and Highgate, the LOCOG has come up with a course that takes the riders out of London and into the hills of Surrey.
“This extends the Games into the south west of London and Surrey,” said Lord Sebastian Coe, double Olympic champion and chairman of LOCOG. “We are delighted to be bringing such high profile and exciting events here, and which will be bringing the Road Race into challenging cycling terrain through many new boroughs and districts. Following our medal success in Beijing, the Road Cycling events really will bring the magic of the Games to life for many thousands of spectators.”
The races will begin on the Mall, close to Buckingham Palace and pass through Westminster, Kensington and Chelsea and Hammersmith and Fulham, before crossing the River Thames at Putney Bridge. It will then pass through Richmond Park and follow a large loop around Surrey taking in Walton on Thames, Weybridge, West Byfleet, West Horsley and Dorking.
From Dorking the races will repeat a 15.5km circuit based on Box Hill, which will include the National Trust’s Zig Zag Hill, some of the only European style switchbacks in the south of England. The course then heads back into London via Richmond Park and the same route it followed on the way out.
“I think this route will produce an extremely exciting Olympic Games Road Race,” said UCI president Pat McQuaid, “and especially with the circuits of Box Hill it will be a worthy winner of both the men’s and women’s gold medals”
Whether Box Hill, which was climbed in the 1994 Tour de France, will be tough enough to break up the peloton remains to be seen, and with a flat run to the Mall afterwards the sprinters may fancy their chances of getting back on anyway. Should the men’s race end in a sprint though, Great Britain’s Mark Cavendish would be a strong favourite to give the host nation one of its first gold medals.
“Competing in a home Olympic Games is a once in a lifetime opportunity,” said Cavendish. “To compete in the Road Race on the opening weekend of the London 2012 Games in front of home fans is going to be amazing. I look forward to checking out the course in detail and to experiencing the well known cycling terrain in Surrey through to the finish on The Mall.”
The road races are scheduled to take place on the weekend of July 28th and 29th 2012, and the men’s race will be over a distance of around 250km, with the women’s at 140km; the pelotons will number 145 and 67 respectively.
The courses for the road time trials will be announced at a later date.