LYR News

• Free event on 15 and 16 August gives people chance to celebrate cycling and raise crucial funds for charity
• My Prudential RideLondon enables cyclists to take part in world’s greatest festival of cycling wherever they are

The first ever virtual edition of Prudential RideLondon – the world’s greatest festival of cycling – will take place on 15 and 16 August (the event weekend) to celebrate cycling and raise funds to help save the UK’s charities.

London Youth Rowing (LYR), like many other charities, has been hugely impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic as fundraising events such as Prudential RideLondon have been either postponed or cancelled.

My Prudential RideLondon offers LYR supporters, of all ages and abilities, the opportunity to take part in a fantastic challenge and raise crucial funds for our charity.

It is an exciting, free event that can be done anywhere in the world. It offers people the chance to tackle a range of distances based on the events included in the traditional Prudential RideLondon weekend.

Hugh Brasher, Event Director of Prudential RideLondon, said:

"After the disappointment of the cancellation of Prudential RideLondon, we were determined to create something special for our riders, partners and the hundreds of charities that rely on the event for vital income.

My Prudential RideLondon is completely free and offers a fundraising challenge for everyone, whether that’s an amateur rider doing 100 miles or a family enjoying a 1km bike ride together. It can be done wherever you are and at any time on 15 or 16 August. Whatever you do, we urge you to raise funds for a charity of your choice – and have fun!"

How it works

My Prudential RideLondon includes four challenges for all ages and abilities that participants can do on a route of their choice, wherever they are in the world, on either 15 or 16 August:

• My Prudential RideLondon-Surrey 100: 100-mile ride
• My Prudential RideLondon-Surrey 46: 46-mile ride
• My Prudential RideLondon-Surrey 19: 19-mile ride
• My Prudential RideLondon FreeCycle: An event that allows you to set your own challenge (starting from 1km) on the wheels of your choice: bikes, push scooters, skateboards, trikes, balance bikes, roller skates, wheelchairs or anything that is self-propelled (e-bikes are fine too).

Participants who wish to ride for LYR need to register in advance and select their challenge at www.myridelondon.co.uk. The site will also provide a link to Virgin Money Giving where they can set up their fundraising page.

Once signed up, participants will be able to download the new My Prudential RideLondon app in event week. This will give every participant and supporter a unique ride day experience, including:

• A GPS function that enables friends and family to follow a rider’s progress on the virtual Prudential RideLondon route
• Creation of a personalised Prudential RideLondon certificate that shows the rider’s completed route and ride time
• Selfie frames to give riders personalised Prudential RideLondon finisher photographs
• Direct donation button through to each rider’s Virgin Money Giving fundraising page

In addition, every rider aged over 18 who registers will have the option of being entered into a fantastic competition that has 25 top-quality prizes available including a brand new Brompton Bicycle valued at more than £1,000, a HIGH5 nutrition bundle worth £250 and top-of-the-range cycling equipment including a SRAM groupset and Zipp wheels.

Participants are asked to follow current Government guidelines on cycling. For more information, click here.

Prudential RideLondon first took place in 2013 as a legacy event from the London 2012 Olympics. In its first seven editions, it has become the world’s greatest festival of cycling, with 100,000 riders of all ages and abilities participating in seven different events on traffic-free roads in London and Surrey. It has inspired hundreds of thousands of people to take up cycling or cycle more often and a total of more than £77 million has been raised for thousands of charities.

NOTES TO EDITORS

Prudential RideLondon

• The 2020 Prudential RideLondon was scheduled to take place on 15-16 August but was cancelled on 20 May 2020. The decision was taken by London authorities after engagement with partners involved in the planning of the event.
• Prudential RideLondon is the world’s greatest festival of cycling, developed by the Mayor of London and his agencies in partnership with Surrey County Council and is sponsored by Prudential. Staged for the first time in August 2013, it is the largest festival of cycling in the world with more than 100,000 participants cycling more than three million miles in seven different events over the event weekend: Prudential RideLondon FreeCycle, Prudential RideLondon Classique, Brompton World Championship, Prudential RideLondon-Surrey 100, Prudential RideLondon-Surrey 46, Prudential RideLondon-Surrey 19 and Prudential RideLondon-Surrey Classic. It also includes the three-day Prudential RideLondon Cycling Show.
• The festival features the two richest one-day races on the professional cycling calendar: the UCI WorldTour Prudential RideLondon-Surrey Classic for men and the Prudential RideLondon Classique for women.
• Participants in the 2019 Prudential RideLondon events raised £11.5 million for charity, bringing the total raised for good causes to more than £77 million in the first seven years of the world’s greatest festival of cycling
• My Prudential RideLondon builds on the success of The 2.6 Challenge campaign - created to support charities following the postponement of the London Marathon - which raised more than £11 million for nearly 4,000 charities in April 2020.

For further information, please contact:

My Prudential RideLondon

Ryan Goad | Press Officer | London Marathon Events Ltd

e. ryan.goad@londonmarathonevents.co.uk | m. +44 (0) 7950 708574

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