RideLondon-Surrey Classic 2017: route

As ever, the 185.9km RideLondon-Surrey Classic route is very similar to past editions but with a couple of tweaks to keep things fresh.

The biggest change on this year’s route is moving the climb of Box Hill closer to the finish line, potentially opening up the race for a successful breakaway.

Staple Lane is the first climbing challenge, while Box Hill is the final one of the Surrey Hills to feature, with the peloton first climbing Leith Hill and twice heading up Ranmore Common.

From the top of Box Hill to the Mall finish line there are just less than 50km, though a bunch sprint is still expected in front of Buckingham Palace.

Nevertheless, both the 2014 and 2015 editions were won from the breakaway, so anything is possible on Sunday…

RideLondon-Surrey Classic 2017: riders to watch

Defending champion Tom Boonen (QuickStep Floors) will not be returning to defend his crown, having retired in the spring, but there is still a stellar list of riders set for Sunday’s race.

Michael Matthews (Team Sunweb)

First among those riders is Michael Matthews, who was in outstanding form at the 2017 Tour de France as he went on to top the points classification to win the green jersey.

On paper, he looks the clear favourite for Sunday’s race – and Mark Cavendish has backed him as such – but much will depend on how well recovered the Australian is.

Matthews put a huge shift in at the Tour, regularly getting in breakaways in order to hoover up intermediate sprint points and claiming two stage wins too.

He lacked the all-out speed needed on the Champs-Elysees to win at the end of the Tour, but he is more than capable when the going gets tough – as it might well do in the Surrey Hills.

Andre Greipel (Lotto-Soudal)

If the race comes down to a bunch sprint, then Andre Greipel has a big point to prove – the Gorilla finished the Tour de France without a stage win for the first time ever, and ended a run of stage wins in 12 consecutive Grand Tours for the German.

He was second on the Champs-Elysees, however, and if it does come  down to a sprint he is undoubtedly one of the fastest men in the bunch – particularly looking at his likely rivals in London.

The climbs will hold no fears for Greipel, either, so a lot will come down to his tactics on The Mall – if the race comes to its expected conclusion.

He too often started his sprints at the wrong time at the Tour but if he corrects that in London he can end a difficult month on a high point.

Elia Viviani (Team Sky)

Having missed out on the Giro d’Italia earlier in the year, Italian sprinter Elia Viviani has been in great form since.

He helped Team Sky win the inaugural Hammer Series at the start of June, before bagging a stage win at the Route du Sud and claiming two more in the Tour of Austria early this month.

A four-time Tour of Britain stage winner, Viviani knows what it takes to race and win on these shores too, and will have Luke Rowe – the Tour de France’s lanterne rouge among his supporting cast.

Viviani is capable of beating Greipel and co in a bunch kick, especially if he is canny with his tactics.

Sep Vanmarcke (Cannondale-Drapac)

If Cannondale-Drapac team-mate Rigoberto Uran was becoming the forgotten man of the Grand Tours, then Sep Vanmarcke is the forgotten man of the Classics.

As Tom Boonen and Fabian Cancellara have retired, and world champion Peter Sagan and Olympic champion Greg van Avermaet have taken up the mantle, Vanmarcke has slipped under the radar.

But just as Uran proved himself at the Tour de France, so you should never write off Vanmarcke either.

His Classics pedigree makes him one to watch, while he was in superb form at the Tour of Austria earlier this month, claiming five top-five finishes out of seven stages, on the back of second place in the Belgian national road race.

If he can carry that form to London, his rivals will be well advised to keep the Belgian at close quarters.

Adam Blythe (Aqua Blue Sport)

A former winner of the RideLondon Classic back in 2014, while riding with UCI Continental team NFTO, Adam Blythe is still searching for his first victory with Aqua Blue Sport.

But, having started the year in the British champion’s jersey, he could not have come much closer – a second place on stage four of this week’s Tour de Wallonie was his third of the season, all by the smallest margins.

Aqua Blue Sport’s roster is yet to be confirmed at the time of writing, but Blythe will be among those to watch if he is among those selected.

Capable of mixing it up in the sprint, he also proved with his 2014 win that he has an eye for the breakaway – winning that year after breaking clear with fellow Yorkshireman Ben Swift and team-mate and good friend Philippe Gilbert.