Organizers have been compelled to cancel this 12 months’s Tour of Scandinavia, citing “inadequate funding,” however aiming to restructure and produce the race again in 2025.
The six-day race was scheduled to happen from August 27 to September 1 as a part of the Ladies’s WorldTour. The variety of occasions on the top-tier calendar will now be diminished to 27 occasions and solely 13 stage races.
In a press launch on Friday, organiser acknowledged that efforts have been underway to restructure the idea of the occasion earlier than making a return to the Ladies’s WorldTour subsequent season.
“With heavy hearts, the board, along with shareholders and administration, have concluded that it’s sadly not possible to prepare Tour of Scandinavia this 12 months,” stated managing director Marius Jørgensen.
“Intensive efforts have been made in current weeks to attempt to discover options to make sure a monetary foundation for conducting the race, however we should acknowledge that we’ve not succeeded. There’s a shortfall of roughly 3 MNOK wanted to attain monetary steadiness, and it might be irresponsible to plan for execution this 12 months.”
The Tour of Scandinavia was additionally held along with the Nordic Youth Problem, which has additionally been cancelled. Nonetheless, organisers plan to proceed internet hosting native occasions equivalent to Summer season Biking Faculty in collaboration with Inexperienced Biking and the Tour of Norway for Children.
This 12 months would mark the third version of the Tour of Scandinavia, a stage race that grew out of the Girls Tour of Norway to additionally embody Denmark and (in 2022) Sweden. Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig gained the primary version of the occasion and Annemiek van Vleuten gained the second version final 12 months.
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Organisers had not but introduced the route for the six-day race, however the earlier editions included mountaintop finishes at Norefjell. Nonetheless, they acknowledged that they now purpose to cut back the loss related to this 12 months’s occasion in hopes of offering predictability for all our companions and sustaining a spot on the Ladies’s WorldTour.
“It additionally frees up time and power to work on restructuring each the corporate and the race idea so as to develop a sustainable occasion on the WorldTour degree for 2025. The applying for WorldTour standing in 2025 is already in place, which implies that we preserve our standing as a WorldTour race and retain the best rating amongst races in Norway,” Jørgensen stated.
Jørgensen stated the organisation is already planning the route for subsequent 12 months whereas efforts are made to determine a extra strong and long-term monetary mannequin by means of its partnerships and public grants. “This endeavour encompasses each nationwide and worldwide alliances, as Tour of Scandinavia enjoys prestigious standing overseas,” he stated.
