This weekend saw a festival of cycling in London involving tens of thousands of people. The morning began with the London-Surrey 100, a century for amateur cyclists. More than 15,000 cyclists began and by 5pm, a little over 15,000 cyclists had finished.
Wladimiro D’Ascenzo of Italy was the first amateur to cross the finish line.
London’s ever popular Mayor Boris Johnson finished to huge cheers.
Meanwhile, the professional men’s race was well underway and approaching the finish line. Former Olympian and current triple jump world record holder Jonathan Edwards and double gold medalist and winner of last night’s RideLondon Women’s Grand Prix, Laura Trott, provided television commentary.
There was no big screen where I could follow the action, but event emcees provided us with frequent updates. At first the only riders they seemed to know were Ben Swift and Peter Sagan, neither of whom were actually doing anything noteworthy, so I was excited that when they finally did say other names it was to tell of Garmin’s exploits with David Millar’s aggressive attack on Box Hill and Jack Bauer catching the 7 rider breakaway. Unfortunately, neither were able to break free from the peloton and it came down to a bunch spring on The Mall. FDJ’s young rider, Arnaud Demare, managed to eek it out on the line.
Left to right: Cannondale’s Fabio Sabitini finished in 4th place, Garmin’s Raymond Kreder in 7th, Vacansoleil’s Danny van Poppel in 5th.
David Millar.
Jack Bauer.
The race crew quickly set up the victors’ podium with Buckingham Palace as the backdrop. Yannick Martinez of La Pomme Marseille finished in third place but, as the podium wasn’t particularly high, his face was just barely visible through the jumble of photographers. Sacha Modolo of Bardiani Valvole came in second. Here, Demare shows off his flowers, trophy, and sash to the press. (I thought I had misheard the announcer at first but, nope, everyone on the podium actually received a sash.)
Jonas Ahlstrand of Argos-Shimano took both the king of the mountains and the sprint competitions.
