This year's Tour of Cambridgeshire, one of the biggest challenge ride events in the UK, will be the final one, its organisers have announced.
Organised by Golazo Cycling, the event is still relatively young having only been inaugurated in 2015. But its status as part of the UCI Gran Fondo World Series and the closed roads parcours it boasts have quickly established it as a firm favourite.
After missing two editions due to covid, this year's final event will be the seventh.
Golazo Cycling will this year also be hosting the Gran Fondo World Championship in Scotland, which it cites as its primary objective when it began the Tour of Cambridgeshire. With that achieved, the time is right to bring the 'ToC' to an end, it says.
“...This year we have the honour of hosting that event as part of the 2023 Cycling World Championships in Glasgow & Scotland,” said Malcolm Smith of Golazo on the ToC website.
“With our primary goal accomplished we feel now is the right time to close the door on the Tour of Cambridgeshire."
More than 7,000 riders from 54 countries took part in last year's ToC, which is essentially a cycling festival comprising a number of events. These include closed-road sportives of varying distances, a 66-mile closed-road road race, and a time trial with a sumptuous indoor start, complete with start ramp.
Golazo Cycling's announcement of the event's closure on the ToC Facebook page was met with many messages of gratitude for an enjoyable event and regret that it could not continue longer.
"Genuinely saddened about this. Loved this event and met loads of great people over the years," said Gareth Cooper, while Steve Copeland commented: "Oh no, this one or my favourite events. I come back from Spain every year to ride it."
Not all the comments were so complimentary though, with Neil Morrans saying, "I think it’s fair to say that everyone who lives on, adjacent to the route will be delighted… Sadly, there are endless examples of local access concerns being ignored and dismissed."
Others pointed to the development of the event's home at the East of England Showground as another challenge to overcome.
