Steve Cummings – one of the stars of this year’s Tour de France and now on Great Britain’s team for Rio – is the latest big name to be confirmed for the 2016 Prudential RideLondon-Surrey Classic on Sunday 31 July.
Cummings, 35, made it two Tour de France stage wins in two years when he won stage seven of this year’s Tour with a trademark solo breakaway.
The Dimension Data rider won stage 14 of the 2015 Tour de France in similar fashion and is enjoying an amazing season. Cummings has an incredible record of winning a stage in every UCI WorldTour race he has entered this year, collecting victories at Tirreno-Adriatico, the Tour of the Basque Country and the Criterium du Dauphine.
He will also now be competing as part of the Great Britain team in the Olympic Games Road Race in Rio on Sunday 7 August after receiving a late call-up.
This will be the first time Cummings has raced in the Prudential RideLondon-Surrey Classic.
Mick Bennett, Race Director of the Prudential RideLondon-Surrey Classic, said: “Steve Cummings has had a truly phenomenal season and we look forward to welcoming to the Prudential RideLondon-Surrey Classic.
“We have assembled our best ever field at the Prudential RideLondon-Surrey Classic and Steve Cummings makes it even stronger.”
The Prudential RideLondon-Surrey Classic, ranked 1.HC by the UCI, will be shown live on BBC TV for the fourth successive year.
This year's line-up includes seven UCI WorldTour teams and a selection of the best riders in the world including 2016 Tour de France stage winner Michael Matthews (Orica-BikeExchange), German sprinter Andre Greipel (Lotto Soudal) and former world champion Tom Boonen (Etixx - Quick-Step).
The organisers of the weekend festival of cycling will deliver an extensive community engagement programme with the support of TfL, the London boroughs on the route and Surrey County Council to help residents and businesses along the route plan ahead. This will include pre-awareness campaign posters on the transport network, a series of customer information emails and a leaflet drop in July to 1 million+ residents and businesses along the route. Information on travel disruption and advice will be available on www.tfl.gov.uk/ridelondon. To avoid delays over the event weekend, all drivers are advised to avoid areas near the event routes.