Two serious accidents at the RideLondon-Surrey cycling event have forced organisers to dramatically shorten the course after a “backlog” of riders caused delays of more than an hour.
Hundreds of cyclists were held between Pyrford and Ripley yesterday morning because of one incident, which was attended by air and road ambulances.
An injured cyclist was taken to a hospital in south London by the air ambulance and is said to be in a serious condition.
Reports came in via Twitter shortly after 9.30am of a “bad crash” and an “enormous backlog of cyclists”.
A spokeswoman for the South East Coast ambulance service said a man had hit a tree.
“It is not known whether he hit the tree on his bike or whether he came off his bike prior to hitting the tree. He was airlifted to St George’s hospital and is in a serious condition,” she said.
One witness, Katie Meadway, an editorial assistant at Capital FM, tweeted to say there had been a big accident in Ripley attended by “three air ambulances and countless ambulances”.
She wrote: “Just been told by stewards that those involved in accident are OK but it is considered serious.”
RideLondon said: “Due to an incident that required an air ambulance to attend, riders in the Prudential RideLondon-Surrey 100 have been held on the route in Surrey. A planned contingency route from West Byfleet to Ripley is now being opened and the riders will now be directed down that route.”
A map of the alternative route was posted on RideLondon’s Twitter account.
There was a second accident at the event later yesterday morning, when a cyclist came off his bike in Thames Ditton, the South East Coast ambulance service said.
He was treated for a head injury by the air ambulance paramedics.
He was also taken to St George’s hospital.
Some riders tweeted to complain about long delays, and RideLondon later closed a vast section of the route, diverting riders from mile 44 to mile 70 and removing the famous Box Hill climb.
Hugh Brasher, the RideLondon director, who also organises the London Marathon, said the second diversion was caused by hold-ups begun by the first crash.
The initial diversion to route riders around the crash site was devised there and then, while the new one, from mile 44, was a planned diversion to be used in case of delays.
“It is what we practice,” he said.
“We practice diversions where we don’t have a planned diversion. You go through so many contingencies, but invariably, whatever you go through, you will find something else.”
A RideLondon spokeswoman initially said that as far as organisers knew, all participants had been able to get through via the diversion.
The race organisers later tweeted a picture of the revised route.
The sheer number of people taking part in the event means even relatively minor crashes can cause long holdups on narrower parts of the route, such as at Leith Hill in Surrey.
One of the event’s participants, Jim Smith, stuck at Leith Hill told the Guardian he had not been told the reason and there were no stewards around to help.
He said he believed the problems were caused by “too many bikes, and a mix of real experts and lots of newbies”. Despite the delays, most cyclists seemed to be staying upbeat.
He said: “Everyone is being very good spirited and people are acknowledging hazards of the ride. (There is) good camaraderie. Although some are shouting about re-directing the route, I think.”
He said he had not experienced problems like this at other big sporting events he had taken part in.
The 100-mile RideLondon event had 27,000 registered starters this year, the same as in 2015.
There were also up to 3,000 more riders on the roads, taking part in a new 46-mile event.
It is part of a weekend of closed-roads cycling events in the capital which began in 2013 as one of the legacies of the London Olympics.
The RideLondon 100 follows much of the same route as the Olympic road race. On Saturday, about 70,000 people took part in the family-oriented Freecycle event, in which an eight-mile circuit around central London was closed off to motor traffic.
The weekend culminates in men’s and women’s professional races.
The chief attraction in the men’s race is Chris Froome, taking part among the Team Sky contingent.