Budget issues may force organizers to remove UCI status
Caleb Fairly (Holowesko Partners) wins the Tour of Battenkill. (Image credit: Barry Koblenz/basetwelvephoto.com)
The Tour of Battenkill one-day race may have to move its date and possibly hold the event without UCI sanctioning in order to meet its budget, race promoter Dieter Drake announced today.
The event is scheduled for two weekends in upstate New York, with amateurs taking to the undulating, partially unpaved 102km course on April 10 while professional men and women compete on April 16.
Drake planned to hold the men's professional event as a UCI 1.2-ranked race, while both mens and women's events would fall under the USA Cycling National Racing Calendar.
Without additional sponsorship, Drake said he is looking to combine all of the events onto one day, April 10, in order to save on costs such as police to secure the course and housing.
"I have approached USA Cycling and the UCI about changing the date, and it is possible that it won't be UCI this year," Drake told Cyclingnews.
Drake cited several factors which have made raising enough funds to hold the race to the planned standard difficult: a down economy means there are less sponsorship dollars available, while UCI rules make it so the sport's top riders are not allowed to compete, making selling the race to potential backers more challenging.
"Last year's winner, Caleb Fairly, is racing for HTC-Highroad, and under the UCI rules ProTeams can't compete in 1.2 races," he said. The rules also preclude BMC, UnitedHealthcare and Spidertech, all of which have competed in past editions, from racing.
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Drake said he would expects to make a final announcement on the date and ranking by the end of January.
