A record number of 86,001 eager cyclists entered the ballot for a place in the 2015 Prudential RideLondon-Surrey 100, part of the Mayor of London’s award-winning festival of cycling.
The ballot will be drawn later this month and the riders will learn whether they have won a place in the first week of February.
More than 25,000 riders are expected to participate in the third edition of the 100-mile sportive on Sunday 2 August, which begins at Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park and heads out through London to the testing hills of Surrey's beautiful countryside before coming back to the capital and a spectacular finish on The Mall in front of Buckingham Palace.
The event has already set two UK records for charity fundraising in a one-day cycling event. In 2013, riders raised more than £7 million and in 2014, despite very challenging wet and windy weather, the riders raised more than £10 million for charity.
Event Director Hugh Brasher believes that the ballot entry has set another record.
“We think this is the biggest number of people to apply for a sportive anywhere in the world,” he said. “The growth of cycling in the UK continues to develop at an extraordinary rate and Prudential RideLondon is proud to do its part in getting more people on bikes."
Prudential RideLondon is now acknowledged as the world’s greatest festival of cycling with 95,000 riders expected to participate in five events over the weekend of 1-2 August 2015.
1. Prudential RideLondon is the world’s greatest festival of cycling with 95,000+ cyclists participating in five separate events on traffic-free roads in London and Surrey over the weekend of 1-2 August 2015. The events are: the Prudential RideLondon FreeCycle, the Prudential RideLondon Grand Prix, the Prudential RideLondon-Surrey 100, the Prudential RideLondon Handcycle Classic and the Prudential RideLondon-Surrey Classic over the weekend of 1-2 August 2015. Find out more at www.PrudentialRideLondon.co.uk.
2. Prudential RideLondon was developed by the Mayor of London, Transport for London and London & Partners in partnership with Surrey County Council and is sponsored by Prudential. The event is managed by the London & Surrey Cycling Partnership.
3. Prudential RideLondon has won a total of eight national awards to date:
• BT Sport Industry Awards: Participation Event of the Year
• UK Event Awards: Large Event of the Year and Sports Event of the Year (2013 and 2014)
• 2013 Cyclosport Industry Award, given for an outstanding contribution to the cycling industry
• Most Innovative Cycling Event and Favourite British Cyclo-Sportive in the Cycling Weekly readers’ annual poll
• UK Cycling Event of the Year in the Total Women’s Cycling readers’ awards