Four more open road races due to be run by clubs when competition resumes the weekend after next have now been cancelled.
The four clubs, who are all based in Northern Ireland,
have cited the health and safety of its volunteers and cyclists and concerns
around Covid19 as the reasons for cancelling.
All of the events that are now off for 2020 were due to
form part of the Irish road racing season set to resume in just over one week’s
time having been suspended since mid March.
Cycling Ireland is continuing to work on the revised calendar
and the decision by some clubs to reflect on their upcoming events and decide
to pass for this year was not wholly unexpected.
Work is continuing on the new calendar and more changes were expected in a bid to hold as many events as possible.
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The decision by the four clubs to cancel follows news yesterday that Blarney Cycling Club in Cork had decided against holding three races it was due to promote this year.
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The latest races cancelled, in the North, are:
- July 25th, Saturday: East Tyrone GP – East Tyrone Cycling Club
- August 8th, Saturday: Wallace Caldwell Memorial Road Race – Ballymena Road Club
- August 15th, Saturday: Madigan Cycles Grand Prix – Team Madigan
- August 16th, Sunday: Haldane Fisher North Down GP – North Down CC
East Tyrone Cycling Club said: “With the current government guidelines and the health risk involved in organising an open race, we made the difficult decision not to run the event.”
Ballymena Road Club said: “Officials carried out a comprehensive risk assessment, and it became clear that it would have impossible to run a Covid19 compliant event. This decision has been made in the best interests of riders, volunteers, and staff in line with recent government advice.”
North Down CC said of its decisions to cancel: “Logistically, we feel that the health and safety of our volunteers, officials, and race participants are of the utmost importance.”
Furthermore, Cycling Ireland’s BMX Commission said the
remainder of the BMX National Series 2020 races had been cancelled.
“After much deliberation and discussions we feel under
the current circumstances that this was the right thing to do,” the commission
said.
“We appreciate and understand that there will some
disappointed riders around the country but there were so many factors involved
to which this decision was made.”
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