The 2013 RideLondon–Surrey Classic (also known as the 2013 Prudential RideLondon–Surrey Classic for sponsorship reasons) was the inaugural running of the RideLondon–Surrey Classic one-day cycling race. It was held on 4 August 2013 as a 1.1 category event within the 2013 UCI Europe Tour.
The 221 km (137.3 mi) route chosen for the 2013 edition of the RideLondon–Surrey Classic was a variation of the course used for the 2012 Summer Olympics.[2] The route featured five categorised climbs and three intermediate sprint points.
In Surrey the route passed through Weybridge and Ripley on the way to the first categorised climb of Newlands Corner near Guildford before heading along the A25 to Abinger Hammer. The route then featured three 27.3 km (17.0 mi) laps of a hilly section routed through Holmbury St Mary, Forest Green and Ockley which included the climb of Leith Hill - the highest point in South-East England.
Each of the 25 teams were due to enter six riders to the race, making up a starting peloton of 150 riders. Belkin Pro Cycling and MTN–Qhubeka both entered teams of five riders, and Vegard Breen of Joker–Merida did not start, making a starting field of 147 riders.
A breakaway of eight riders formed after 44 km, although their advantage did not increase beyond five minutes. The breakaway contained Ramon Sinkeldam of Argos–Shimano who would subsequently amass enough points at the intermediate sprints and on the categorised climbs to win both the Sprints Classification and the King of the Mountains Classification.
With the peloton approaching Yoann Offredo and Zico Waeytens (Topsport Vlaanderen–Baloise) attacked the remnants of the breakaway on the approach to Kingston upon Thames and built a lead of over a minute with 20 km left to race, however on the approach to London (within the final 6 km) they too were caught by the peloton — resulting in the widely expected bunch sprint on The Mall.
David Millar led the peloton through Westminster, but as the teams passed under the flamme rouge with 1 km to go it was FDJ.fr who were the better organised, delivering Arnaud Démare to the line to win by a bike length from Sacha Modolo.[8]
Results
General classification
Of the 147 starters 131 completed the course within the time limit and 96 riders finished on the same time. The top 10 finishers were:[9]