Road Cycling News

Great Britain team announced for Olympic test event

Alex Dowsett, Roger Hammond, Peter Kennaugh, Ian Stannard will support Mark Cavendish when the Manx Missile bids to win the official dress rehearsal for the London 2012 Olympic road race on Sunday.

: Mark Cavendish will swap HTC-Highroad colours for the Great Britain jersey

Ben Swift was also named in the GB’s provisional line-up but the 23-year-old is riding the Eneco Tour for Team Sky. In a bid to allow as many riders as possible to recce the course, British Cycling have also named an ‘England’ squad, with Steve Cummings, Russell Downing, Chris Froome, Jeremy Hunt, Dan Lloyd set to line-up.

Nineteen national teams will contest the race alongside nine domestic trade teams – Cyclepremier–Metaltek, Endura, Motorpoint, Team Raleigh, Rapha Condor Sharp, Sigma Sport, An Post Sean Kelly, Twenty3c-Orbea and Team Corley Cycles.

The high-class field includes a host of sprinters looking to draw first blood ahead of next year’s Games, with Tyler Farrar (USA), Tom Boonen (Belgium) and Matt Goss (Australia), Davide Appollonio (Italy) expected to start.

“It’s a great chance to get a look at the course a year before the race,” said 2005 world champion Boonen. “Even though it will only be 140km, it will be interesting to study the route.

“It will also be important to understand how to move with just five riders per team, a situation that doesn’t happen very often and that could lead to different scenarios than what we’re normally used to.”

The course

The 28-team peloton will leave The Mall at 9am on Sunday for the London-Surrey Cycle Classic, which takes in 140km of the course to be used during next year’s Games.

: The race will be run over a 140km course

The test event will complete two laps of a 15.5km Box Hill circuit, although the Olympic road race will tackle nine laps, before a flat run-in back to The Mall which is expected to suit sprint king Cavendish, who this year became the first Brit to win the green jersey at the Tour de France.

Race schedule

The Mall (restricted access) – start 09:00 and finish 12:10
Fulham – 09:05 and 12:05
Putney – 09:10 and 12:00
Richmond Park – 09:15 and 11:55
Richmond – 09:20
Bushy Park – 09:30
Hampton Court Palace – 09:35 and 11:40
Walton-on-Thames – 09:45
Ripley Village – 10:05
Gomshall – 10:25
Westcott – 10:30
Dorking – 10:35
Box Hill (restricted access) – between 10:40 and 11:20
Esher – 11:35
Kingston-upon-Thames – 11:50

Access to The Mall and Box Hill is limited to spectators with wristbands.

Television

The race will not be broadcast live but a BBC highlights programme will be shown next week. Commentator Ant McCrossan will present the teams, give periodic updates and call home the race for spectators on The Mall.