In little more than a week the 2.1 ranked Lotto Belgium Tour was set to get underway, starting with a prologue in Mettet and finishing five days later in Geraardsbergen, but on Tuesday organisers made the late announcement that the race wouldn't be going ahead.
The race, which started in 2012, was to run from June 14 to June 18 with a start list that included WorldTour teams SD Worx, Trek Segafredo, Human Powered Health and Fenix-Deceuninck and other UCI teams including AG Insurance-Soudal-QuickStep, Lotto Dstny Ladies and Australia's Team BridgeLane, along with a selection of national and club teams.
"Some unforeseen challenges came our way that had a major impact in terms of budget and safety," the Lotto Belgium Tour race organiser Tom Thienpont told Het Nieuwsblad.
“Last Friday we were told by a municipality that they could not guarantee the signage of parking bans, one-way traffic and the placement of diversions,” Thienpont explained.
"From a local municipality/town where the mayor is a fan of road races, no less. Outsourcing to an external company was not feasible for us in terms of budget and could not be realized in the short term.”
The race is not the only women's event which has faced a battle for survival. The Women's Tour, which was meant to kick off this weekend, was the latest casualty. Race organisers SweetSpot cancelled the Women's WorldTour race in 2023 as costs rose and commercial support reduced.
"With death in our hearts, but the safety of riders, followers and public has always been our main priority and due to circumstances beyond our control we could no longer guarantee it for this edition," Thienpont said in a official statement. "Too bad, because we had the strongest field of participants in years for a five-day event with something for everyone and a nice TV coverage."
Organisers had flagged that they had been facing considerable financial difficulties in the introductory note to this year's edition of the race book, pointing out that many of those organisers who had helped pave the way for the increasing professionalisation of women's cycling were in danger of being squeezed.
This has been exacerbated by challenges starting with COVID-19 and moving on to rising costs and economic uncertainty.
“We could have thrown in the towel then, but we refused to do so, convinced as we are of the value our race has for Belgian women's cycling," organiser Tom Thienpont said in the introductory note.
The plan had not been to cancel, but to in fact expand with an increase from three days of racing to five and a livestream added as well.
Riders were already starting to gather, when the decision was communicated to them and while it may have meant a change of race plans for the professionals on the start list it became a huge, and costly, lost opportunity for other talented riders.
"Absolutely devastated to hear the Belgium Tour has been cancelled. It starts next week," said Matilda Raynolds on Twitter. "That is why I’m here, all the way from Aus, with a local team to race this event, to race a tour where I can show something."
