Eddie Dunbar is the only Irishman so far to win the U23 Tour of Flanders and it looks like that's how it's going to stay as the event has been withdrawn from the international calendar.
The race's organisers, Flanders Classics, said a number of factors had contributed to the event being halted. One of those was the increasing number of juniors bypassing more U23 events in favour of pro racing.
The U23 edition of the race was part of the UCI Nations Cup and while Flanders Classics had initially decided to take it out of that competition and run it as a lower level 1.2U race, they have abandoned that plan.
Instead the U23 Flanders has now been scrapped, it appears for good. The last edition was run in 2019 - won by Danish rider Andreas Stokbro - as Covid-19 forced the race's cancellation in 2020 and this year.
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The fact U23 Flanders was held the weekend after the elite Flanders race meant roads had to be closed twice within seven days in the same area from the Oudenaarde base. It was also usually run on the same day as Paris-Roubaix, which negatively impacted the publicity the U23 race garnered.
Wim Van Herreweghe of Flanders Classics also cited the growing trend of junior riders skipping the U23 category in favour of turning pro, or riding more pro races and fewer U23 races in their espoir years.
"It's a bad date. It fell at the same time as the Paris-Roubaix weekend. For the city of Oudenaarde, it was also difficult to organise two big events in two weeks," Van Herreweghe said of the decision to discontinue U23 Flanders.
"We are not oblivious to the fact that we are seeing more and more Juniors skipping the U23 category, but we are keeping the Kattekoers (U23 Gent Wevelgem - Ed) in the Nations Cup and the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad in the U23 Road Series."
The U23 Tour of Flanders was first run in 1996, when it replaced what had previously been the amateur edition of the race. As well as Eddie Dunbar taking victory for the Irish team back in 2017, previous winners include: Nick Nuyens, Giovanni Visconti, Salvatore Puccio, Rick Zabel and Dylan Groenewegen.
