Prudential Bike Riders Climbing Box Hill

The long-term future of the Prudential RideLondon-Surrey cycling event is doubtful. The county council is likely to withdraw support after next year, a final decision to be made by Cabinet on October 27.

A report by Denise Turner-Stewart, Cabinet member for communities, cycling, proposes the county will support the reduced 2021 event but turn down a five-year option. Instead, they would focus on smaller, community-led cycling events that encourage a greater variety of participants and minimise disruption for residents.

This year’s event was cancelled because of pandemic restrictions

Consultation this year showed a large proportion of residents strongly opposed the event. The disruption caused for some communities “cannot be taken lightly”, the report said.

It also points out a huge effort was made by councillors and officers to try for financial support from London Marathon Events and Trust to provide more cycle training for young people in Surrey’s schools. But due to the present situation, this could not be agreed.

Cllr Denise Turner-Stewart

Cllr Turner-Stewart said: “We are committed to encouraging cleaner, greener travel and we recognise the health and well-being benefits from all kinds of sport including walking and cycling. We are actively seeking new opportunities within Surrey to encourage all sorts of people to get out and about on their bikes.

“We held off making this decision until we had exhausted all available options to try to make the event work for our residents. But the ethos of the smaller event, focusing on inspiring the take-up of cycling by women, families, and Wheels for All, more closely aligns to the council’s objectives to encourage cycling for everyday journeys.

“Although we can no longer support the larger closed-road event, we remain open-minded to hosting less disruptive, smaller, family-focused events.”

This year’s RideLondon-Surrey event was cancelled due to Coronavirus, and the May 2021 event is cut back, with no 100-mile sportive event or men’s UCI World Tour race, passing through the county for only about four miles.