Road Race Archives

Ian Stannard, Mark Cavendish, Chris Froome, David Millar, and Bradley Wiggins have been named as the five-man squad that will take on the Road Race at the London 2012 Olympics. Millar�s inclusion is of course controversial as he served a two-year ban for the use of performance-enhancer EPO in the run-up to the Athens Olympics and was initially given a life-time Olympic ban, a decision overturned by the Court of Arbitration for Sport. Since his initial ban a penitent Millar has worked closely with anti-doping organisations and also wrote a warts-and-all book �Racing Through the Dark: The Fall and Rise of David Millar� (Cyclo review here). The Men�s Road Race takes place on the first day of Olympic competition, July 28.

Something of a celebration for cycling fans with news that one of the key viewing points for the 2012 Road Race will now be able to accommodate significantly more people than had at first been indicated. After initial concerns that the area around Box Hill, a significant hill and scenic to boot, was to be limited, LOCOG (The London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games) have confirmed that numbers � which are ticketed � on the �Donkey Green� area and �Zig-Zag Road� sections are to be increased by 3,500. London 2012 Director of Sport Debbie Jevans has issued a statement in which she says, “We are delighted to welcome people to watch the Olympic Road Race from the Zig-Zag Road and Donkey Green at Box Hill�We will give people the chance to see a generous amount of Road Race competition at one of the best stretches of road which we are able to do following the test event and our learnings (sic).�

LOCOG will now work with the National Trust (who own and maintain Box Hill) to remove, in an ecologically sound way, invasive scrub to accommodate the additional spectators.