London-Surrey cycle classic

London–Surrey Cycle Classic

Sprint finish on the Mall, as winner Mark Cavendish launches his bid to win.
Date	14 August 2011
Region	London, England
Discipline	Road
Competition	UCI Europe Tour (2010-11)
Type	One-day classic
Organiser	London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games & Union Cycliste Internationale

The London–Surrey Cycle Classic was a one-off, one-day bicycle race that served as one of three U.K. events in the year-long 2010–11 UCI Europe Tour and acted as the test event for the 2012 Summer Olympic Games. The race was part of the London Prepares series of events. The race was run over most of the Olympic course, starting in the Mall and heading into Surrey, where the riders completed two laps of the Box Hill loop before making their way back to the Mall. The course took the riders through or beside four Royal Parks and six London Boroughs. Most of the riders represented countries instead of trade teams; however, there were several, mainly British, trade teams in the race with England being classified as one of them. The race was won by 2011 Tour de France Green Jersey winner Mark Cavendish.

The race started on The Mall then headed out of London, using the King's Road via Putney Bridge, part of Roehampton, Richmond Park, Richmond Hill, Twickenham and Teddington running towards Hampton Court (on the Greater London border). From Hampton Court the race continued southwest, passing the towns of Walton on Thames and the outskirts of Weybridge, then turned south, however unlike the Olympic course, took the town centres of West Byfleet, Woking and Guildford, before heading east on the A25 to Dorking. From Dorking the race headed north around the Box Hill loop, twice instead of the nine for the Olympics, taking in The Zig Zag road climb twice. From there the race headed north through Leatherhead and Esher on its return to London via Hampton Court before going through Richmond Park from the south (Kingston upon Thames) and then heading along the same roads the race used on its outbound journey back to the Mall.