The London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (LOCOG) has confirmed, that despite the unrest in the Capital, the London-Surrey Cycle Classic, the road test event for London 2012, will still go ahead this coming Sunday, August 14. With other sporting fixtures cancelled (tonight’s international between England and the Netherlands for example) and with this being considered one of toughest Olympic events to stage and effectively police, the announcement has been met with more than a little surprise. The 140km course, which starts on The Mall, heads through Westminster then crosses the Thames to Putney and on through Surrey will be one of the few free-to-view Olympic events and this Sunday’s test run will see what is probably the greatest field of cyclists to peddle the UK’s roads since the Tour de France held the prologue here on July 7, 2007.
This Sunday’s event has already attracted a degree of controversy following the “warning” advert taken out in the Evening Standard on August 8 by the Mayor of London’s Office and Transport for London (TFL) that declared: “The cyclists are coming. Travel will be severely affected.” Hardly the kind of pro-cycling message with which Boris Johnson usually associates himself…
