The Maryland Cycling Classic hit the brakes again and has been officially cancelled for 2026. The Baltimore, Maryland UCI event was held three times for men since its creation in 2021, while the women's race only made a debut last year.
This season the men's race was sanctioned by the UCI as the only ProTour race on the US calendar. Both events had been scheduled for early September as three-day contests, though organisers called this a "miscommunication" with plans to continue as one-day races.
"The one-day race, scheduled for September 6 on Labor Day Weekend, has been cancelled," read part of a press release distributed late Thursday.
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One of the red flags was raised in the winter when both men's and women's races were listed on the UCI calendar as three-day events. Members of event leadership, hired by ownership group Sport and Entertainment Corporation of Maryland (Sport Corp), said both races were supposed to be just one-day events with three days of ancillary activities. Teams contacted by Cyclingnews all said they expected to race for three days.
The cancellation is an especially difficult blow to women's racing in North America, which also saw the Tour de Bloom downgrade from a UCI 2.2-level, leaving just one internationally-sactioned event for the first half of the season.
Meanwhile, the Philadelphia Cycling Classic makes a return for men and women as a UCI-ranked race on August 30. With the disappearance of the Maryland race the next week, there is now a multi-week gap to the two WorldTour events for men in Canada - the Grand Prix Cycliste de Québec and Montréal - on September 11 and 13, as well as Chrono Féminin de Gatineau and Tour de Gatineau for women, Sept 16 and 17. The 2026 UCI Road World Championships then return to Canada at the end of September.
While other indicators of the race's demise arose in January related to funding, long-time supporters of Maryland Cycling Classic have vowed to "pick up the charge" and reboot the event for 2027.
Maryland businessman John Kelly, who served as the event chairman from 2022-2025, and KOM Sports Marketing president Steve Brunner, who was the race executive director, are leading an independent group to rejuvenate the races, and are "currently working with city and state leaders to secure funding and sponsorship".
"Steve Brunner and I have been working for the past several months with key stakeholders, including existing sponsors, state and Baltimore city leaders, to pave a positive path forward," Kelly, president of Kelly Benefits Strategies, told Cyclingnews on Friday.
"World-class events like the Maryland Cycling Classic are complicated and expensive endeavours, but worth the effort to showcase cycling and this beautiful state and city to the world."
Bumpy road
In January uncertainty of the race's status surfaced when the Baltimore Banner reported that all six staff members for Sport Corp, had vacated positions. This included Terry Hasseltine, who had served as the president of the non-profit since its creation in 2019.
State leaders approved a bill that provided emergency funding, more than $94,000, to cover missed payroll for Sport Corp employees, according to The Baltimore Sun in January. Though not directly affiliated with Sport Corp, the Maryland Stadium Authority was actively identifying vendors that were eligible for missed payments for two of the non-profit's managed events, the global equestrian event Maryland 5 Star and Maryland Cycling Classic.
Cyclingnews reached out to Sport Corp by telephone and email in January, but no response was provided. The corporation, which was not affiliated with the Maryland Stadium Authority, was still listed by the Internal Revenue Service this year as a public charity.
The Maryland Cycling Classic men's one-day race was initially announced for 2021 but event owners Sport Corp, postponed the debut until the next year. After back-to-back seasons, the men's race was cancelled in 2024 due to the fatal collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge crossing the outer Baltimore Harbor.
Agnieszka Skalniak-Sójka (Canyon-SRAM zondacrypto) won the inaugural women's title in a photo finish against Alison Jackson (EF Education-Oatly). Sandy Dujardin (Team TotalEnergies) took the last edition of the men's race in 2025.
