Tour de France green jersey winner Peter Sagan (Cannondale Pro Cycling) spearheads the start list for the inaugural RideLondon-Surrey Classic on Sunday August 4.
The Slovak topped the Tour’s points classification by a commanding 97 points, ahead of Mark Cavendish (Omega Pharma-QuickStep), to earn a second successive green jersey.
Sagan will start the 140-mile RideLondon-Surrey Classic as part of a sprint line-up which also includes Milan-San Remo winners Matt Goss (Orica-GreenEDGE) and Gerald Ciolek (Team MTN-Qhubeka), as well as Team Sky’s Ben Swift.
British neo-pro Josh Edmonson is also included in Team Sky’s squad, with Chris Sutton, Mathew Hayman, Salvatore Puccio and Gabriel Rasch completing the six-man line-up.
Goss will be backed by a strong supporting cast which includes Daryl Impey, who became the first African rider to lead the Tour de France on stage six of this year’s race, Stuart O’Grady, a veteran of 17 Tours, Michael Albasini, Luke Durbridge and Allan Davis.
Albasini is one of two Tour of Britain winners on the provisional start list with Vacansoleil-DCM’s Romain Feillu. Alongside Feillu will be 19-year-old Danny Van Poppel, who this year became the youngest rider to ride the Tour de France since 1945 and finished third on the opening stage.
Meanwhile, David Millar has been named in Garmin-Sharp’s squad, alongside Jack Bauer, Caleb Fairly, Raymond Kreder, Ramunas Navardauskas and Jacob Rathe.
French squads FDJ.fr and Sojasun, and the Dutch Belkin Pro Cycling team will also arrive in London having ridden the Tour de France. In total 13 of the 150 riders due to start the Prudential RideLondon-Surrey Classic will have taken part in this year’s Tour.
The race, which will be covered live by the BBC and broadcast internationally by Eurosport, starts in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park before following a route which heads out to Leith Hill and Box Hill in Surrey before finishing back in the capital on The Mall.
Race director Mick Bennett said: “This star-studded field, headed by Peter Sagan, in the first year of the Prudential RideLondon-Surrey Classic is testimony to the international standing of the event and our ambitions for the future.
“The field has a great line-up of top sprinters, Classics-style riders and the very best domestic and rising stars from Great Britain. It is surely the best field ever assembled for the first year of a new one-day race and we are set for an exciting and action-packed race and a thrilling finish on The Mall.”
See the full provisional start list on the RideLondon-Surrey Classic website.
