Date set for Britain's first men's WorldTour cycling event

The UCI announced an expanded WorldTour calendar last August, with a total of 10 new events awarded three-year licences to join the series in 2017, taking the peloton to 15 countries over a nine-month period.

Britain joined fellow first-timers Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Turkey and the United States on the list of countries when the RideLondon-Surrey Classic was made a WorldTour event in its fifth year of operation.

The women's race, which will be held a day earlier, became a top-tier event last year.

"The Prudential RideLondon Classic is one of the highlights of the greatest cycling festival in the world," Mayor of London Sadiq Khan said in a statement.

"As mayor, I'm delighted that this year the race will have its first ever UCI WorldTour status."

The one-day race begins from the Horse Guards Parade in St James' Park and continues through London and into the Surrey countryside for climbs at Leith Hill and Box Hill, before riders head back to the finish on The Mall in front of Buckingham Palace.

(Reporting by Simon Jennings in Bengaluru; Editing by Alison Williams)