Ford RideLondon-Essex
Cycling event returns to the county for its third year
RideLondon, the world’s greatest festival of cycling, is a legacy event from the London 2012 Olympic Games and was first held in Essex in May 2022, and returned to the county for a third time in May 2024. In partnership between Essex County Council and RideLondon, the mass participation event saw over 21,500 cyclists take to the streets for the 60 and 100 mile event.
Essex was chosen for its close links with London and its rural landscape, as well as previously holding historic cycling events such as a Stage of the Tour de France in 2014 and Hadleigh Park Olympic Cycling in 2012. To build upon aspirations set out in the Fit for the Future strategy, it was Active Essex’s hope that the return of the major mass participation event, alongside two stages of the UCI Women’s World Tour; RideLondon Classique, would help inspire more Essex residents to get active.
Working collaboratively with London Marathon Events (LME); organisers of RideLondon and Essex County Council, Active Essex helped to deliver, ignite and maximise opportunities for communities across the route, encouraging residents to support riders, engage schools and inspire activity.
In addition to inspiring activity, the Ford RideLondon-Essex event brought many benefits to the county. The world-renowned event helped put Essex on the map, encouraging tourism and showcasing the rural and urban areas the county has to offer through various media outlets. The Sunday 100 mile ride can be seen as a big challenge for some, and therefore many riders took part to raise money for charity; one of which was The Active Essex Foundation.
As a result of Ford RideLondon-Essex coming to the county for a third year, it’s charity arm; The London Marathon Foundation (LMF), has injected a significant amount into Essex since the partnership began in 2022.
Active Essex supported LME to deliver drop-in sessions across the county, in the lead up to the event weekend. These sessions were vital to ensure Essex communities felt engaged and informed about all impactful decisions made regarding the event, and to understand ways in which they may become more involved, in order to capitalise on the benefits. Working closely with local engagement officers, Active Essex produced a community toolkit, highlighting access to community funding grants and ideas on how to amplify and take part in local activation. As a result, businesses were supported in providing services to participants through funding and infrastructure across the route, and local charities had cheer zones in Epping and Ongar, to help raise funds and awareness.
Collaborative working from the start and changing the ways of working with ECC comms, Essex Highways, the Economic Growth Team etc, all accounted to a successful Ford RideLondon-Essex event. A Members Group was set up for Essex County Councillors, whereby an Active Essex team member was present. These meetings fully informed members of the event planning process and they were able to answer questions posed by peers or constituents alike. As a result of these meetings, there were less member enquiries coming through for responses, fewer resident complaints, and more local businesses were engaged due to improved advocacy of the event from County and District members.
Active Essex took on the role to activate communities, as well as engage schools either on or near the route across the three days, and in the lead up to the event. Local school cycling champions were enlisted to inspire and engage their pupils in the event and also to highlight the benefits that cycling can bring.
They curated cycling-themed activities and events at their schools, held Bikeability workshops and one school even received a visit from Olympic Cyclist Katie Archibald to inspire young people.
It was important to ensure that all impacted businesses, residents, communities and partners were informed of the activation taking place across the Ford RideLondon-Essex weekend.
For both communities and schools, there were a plethora of activities available across the week including skate jams, banner competitions, family rides, FAN zones and festivals. These activations created a positive atmosphere, where residents were inspired to get involved, and it was great to see local businesses engaged too, with Ongar and Dunmow directly engaging more businesses than in previous years.
The Active Essex website became a hub of information detailing community activation areas. From sharing news stories of route announcements and spots to watch within activation zones, to blog stories on those participating and local cycling clubs and initiatives.
It was important for Active Essex to ensure content appealed to everyone throughout the county, whether they were interested in cycling or not. The hope was that this would encourage residents to come out and support across the weekend, and through highlighting local activation, it helped to showcase local initiatives, inspiring individuals to find something new to try or simply just increase their activity levels.
Key Learnings
Engagement
More engagement is needed with local residents when developing access plans.
Communication
Strengthen comms between partners, to avoid confusion for residents/ businesses.
Collaboration
Collaborative working led to higher levels of engagement with communities across Essex.
Schools
More Essex schools were engaged along the Friday route than in previous years.
Through improved engagement and communication campaigns, community experiences have enhanced through the expansion of local activation opportunities to promote physical activity, support local businesses and meet local need.
In 2025, Ford RideLondon-Essex will be taking a hiatus, as LME work on a new concept for the mass cycling event. However, Essex will harness the legacy of RideLondon in promoting inclusive cycling opportunities at events and festivals, which are already taking place, for everyone to engage with in their local community.
