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In a sudden turn of events, the 2.1 Lotto Belgium Tour, scheduled to begin in just over a week, has been cancelled. The race was set to kick off with a 5.1 km prologue in Mettet on June 14.
Organizers made the unexpected announcement on Tuesday, leaving both cyclists and fans disappointed.
More bad news for women’s races, the Lotto Belgium Tour won’t happen this year.
It was due to start on the 14th, apparently been making a loss for four years and it’s uncertain it will return in the near future.
It’s a great little race so this is not good at all.— Owen Rogers (@OwenRogers) June 5, 2023
“Some unforeseen challenges came our way that had a major impact in terms of budget and safety,” race organizer Tom Thienpont said in Het Nieuwsblad. “It was from a local municipality where the mayor is very much a fan of road races, no less. So, outsourcing to an external company was not feasible for us in terms of budget and it could not be realized in the short term. We were told last Friday by a municipality that they could not guarantee the signage of parking bans or one-way traffic.”
This would have been the 11th edition of the race. The start list had a mix of WorldTour teams like Trek Segafredo, SD Worx, Fenix-Deceuninck and Human Powered Health, UCI teams, and national teams.
The race organizer released an official statement about the cancellation on Tuesday.
“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 year. It is too bad, because we had the strongest field of participants in years for a five-day event with something for everyone and were expecting good TV coverage.”
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at Canadian Cycling Magazine…
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