Billed as Ireland’s best and safest mass participation sportive, the ‘Etape Hibernia Sky Ride’ is on the brink of collapsing after the international promotions company that organised it said it was pulling out.
IMG Challenger World, the UK company that organised the closed roads event in Co Clare in cooperation with Irish agencies, said the sportive had incurred losses in the two years since it was launched.
The company has been disappointed that more people did not enter, with projected revenues from entry fees not being met.
IMG managing director James Robinson said he was “truly sad” the company was unable to continue.
“Our team has really enjoyed working on the event over the past two years and have put a lot of hard work into trying to make the project a success."
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"Although the event attracted a significant number of cyclists and their families to Co Clare on the stunning west coast of Ireland, the number of participants was disappointing and didn't reach projected levels. This, unfortunately, makes the event not commercially viable for IMG."
The UK company’s key Irish partner for the event has been Shannon Development. Its tourism marketing manager Paul Ryan said his organisation was “disappointed” at IMG’s withdrawal.
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“However, Shannon Development and Clare County Council will work with the Shannon Region Conference and Sports Bureau to secure a similar cycle event for the county,” he said in a statement issued to stickybottle.
Despite its withdrawal from the Irish event, IMG will continue to run its other sportives in Britain and is a major player in hosting international events across all sports.
Etape Hibernia was sponsored by Sky and was part of the ‘Sky Ride’ series which has been very popular and successful in Britain. It attracted more than 8,000 participants to its event in Dublin last year.
While the Co Clare 134km sportive attracted a field of over 1,000 last year, numbers fell well short of the 2,000+ the organisers had been expecting for what was the second running of the ride.
This year’s Etape was to be held on August 26th and many cyclists had already entered and paid their €54 entry fee.
It appears anyone who entered will be automatically refunded by April 1st. For full details on refunds and other options relating to any entry fees already paid please read the message on http://www.etapehibernia.com/
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