The Tour Colombia will not take place in 2023, meaning one of South America’s most prestigious stage races will be missing from the calendar for a third year running.
The six-day, 2.1 event, had been provisionally slated as taking place in early February, as has been the case for the race since it began in 2018 under the name Colombia Oro y Paz. According to multiple reports, the Tour Colombia has had to be cancelled due to a lack of funding.
In its three editions, the Tour Colombia has had winners as well-known as Egan Bernal, Miguel Angel López and Sergio Higuita. Bernal had been expected to ride the Tour Colombia as he starts his first full season after his dramatic training accident last January.
High-profile stage winners have included Julian Alaphilippe, Dani Martínez Rigoberto Uran, Fernando Gaviria and Nairo Quintana.
According to DiarioASColombia, Colombian Federation president Mauricio Vargas has said the considerably weakening value of the local currency, the peso, against the US dollar - losing 30 percent of its previous value over the autumn and going into free fall at one point - had led to an excessive increase in costs.
According to the website, Vargas said that the original budget estimate of 10 million pesos had risen to 13 million as a result.
Support had been offered by the Colombian government’s Ministry of Sport, but DiarioASColombia said it was apparently insufficient to save the race, which already was cancelled in 2022 as a result of the pandemic and lack of funds. In 2021 it was also cancelled because of COVID-19.
Scheduled to run from February 7th-12th and preceded by the Colombian national championships, the Tour Colombia was an opportunity on the calendar for local Continental teams to measure up against WorldTour squads in a stage race.
As the second high-level early season event for South America after the Vuelta a San Juan in Argentina, which is held in late January, the Tour Colombia sometimes saw a number of WorldTour teams combine the two races for a month-long spell in the southern hemisphere.
Now teams and riders will have to plan a different race calendar, probably racing more and earlier in Europe and the Middle East.
