Nat Bromhead
Organisers of both the Tour Down Under and Cadel Evan’s Great Ocean Road Race have officially announced the January 2021 events will not go ahead.
The virtually simultaneous announcements come after months of speculation centering on whether European-based teams could travel to Australia and couple strict quarantine conditions with training schedules.
First time TDU Race Director Stuart O’Grady said he was always up for a challenge, but 2020 had been the most extraordinary year.
“Of course I am disappointed, but given the challenges, our priority needs to be the health and safety of South Australians, our communities, and the international cycling fraternity,” he said.
“I believe that for one year we can put delivering an international event aside, and keep our South Australian heart beating by delivering a new, reimagined event for cyclists and for communities across the nation”.
Cycling Festival Instead
TDU organisers said an enormous amount of work and scenario planning undertaken to deliver an event in January 2021, which will ensure cycling will still have a strong presence in South Australia.
“In the end it was the international component, with over 400 people that make up the international teams, that proved to be the most difficult to overcome” said the Executive Director of Events South Australia, Hitaf Rasheed.
“We are so devastated that we cannot deliver the Santos Tour Down Under in January, but equally the team has been working on a domestic cycling festival.
“We are excited about the opportunity to deliver a domestic cycling festival. An incredible amount of work has already been undertaken with key stakeholders and we will now go about finalising what that will look like and will look forward to sharing that with everyone later this month,” said Ms Rasheed.
Kimberly Conte, Race Director, Women’s Santos Tour Down Under said she is disappointed that the race will not be staged in January, however a smaller scale event will feature some of SA’s most beautiful regions.
“The Santos Tour Down Under has historically acted as a springboard for some of our most promising young athletes and this new event will offer a unique opportunity to showcase our young talented riders,” she said.
Cadel’s And Ancillary Events Cancelled
Visit Victoria today announced the unfortunate decision not to stage the event in 2021. This includes the full program:
- UCI WorldTour Elite Men’s Road Race
- UCI Women’s WorldTour Deakin University Elite Women’s Road Race
- TAC Race Torquay
- Swisse People’s Ride
- VEGEMITE® Family Ride
Plans are underway for a bigger and better 2022 – including a reunion party to celebrate 10 years since Cadel’s Tour de France victory.
Details of the new TDU event will be released in due course, with a program that will be designed to bring visitors from intrastate and interstate to the City of Adelaide and regional communities during a period in January.
