Setmana Catalana Cancelled

Race organisers hoped that they'd be back with better funding and sponsorship for 2007 - they felt they just didn't have enough money to keep up the usually excellent standard of the race.

Paris-Nice fell foul of this a while ago, before the P-T but managed to sort itself out.

I imagine they'll appeal to Unipublic (or whoever owns the Vuelta now) - Paris-Nice got their back up from ASO.

Really hope we'll see it back on the calendar - usually really good value racing

SC is a very good race and I'm disappointed to see it being cancelled for 2006.

This illustrates how hard it is for races to retain sponsorship.

Indurain used to race this as part of his season buildup.
Perhaps SC need to attract the bigger names to race so as to ensure funding?

limerickman said:

SC is a very good race and I'm disappointed to see it being cancelled for 2006.

This illustrates how hard it is for races to retain sponsorship.

Indurain used to race this as part of his season buildup.
Perhaps SC need to attract the bigger names to race so as to ensure funding?

To get the sponsorship you need the big names... to get the big names you need Pro Tour status... I think we'll see a lot of these races that are not quite as big as the ProTour races (but almost as expensive to run) disappear.

DiabloScott said:

To get the sponsorship you need the big names... to get the big names you need Pro Tour status... I think we'll see a lot of these races that are not quite as big as the ProTour races (but almost as expensive to run) disappear.

In belgium they have big problems too. In a the comin year (2007) a few sponsor contracts are running out and quite a few races have big problems to get new contracts..

cyclingheroes said:

In belgium they have big problems too. In a the comin year (2007) a few sponsor contracts are running out and quite a few races have big problems to get new contracts..

Well its hard to say how the sport will evolve.
A lot of these smaller races are cool and used to be lower profile races where the bug names can hang out and be relatively anonymous...and one wonders how much cash passes hands for Big Mig to have done Setmana Catalana or Lance Cirque de la Sarthe, but at any rate, the ProTour Season cant be ALL big races ALL the time.
I mean thats the prob with the Protour schedule, you have to show up at so many that riders like Lance and the big guys tuning for the big races cant even sit in and train because the races are sooo fast sooo early, like Paris Nice last year.

So in a weird way it actually has the reverse effect of discouraging the big guys from showing up. I mean a lot of riders are using this approach now for good or for ill--Tyler was, Levi, Floyd etc etc.
How many races did Jan do last year? I mean a bit of a different issue v Lance. But these are the guys that draw the biggest audiences...

The Spring Classics are their own thing with the Belgians and all but still, a Jan or a Lance did a lot for those races as well.

cyclingheroes said:

In belgium they have big problems too. In a the comin year (2007) a few sponsor contracts are running out and quite a few races have big problems to get new contracts..

Well its hard to say how the sport will evolve.
A lot of these smaller races are cool and used to be lower profile races where the bug names can hang out and be relatively anonymous...and one wonders how much cash passes hands for Big Mig to have done Setmana Catalana or Lance Cirque de la Sarthe, but at any rate, the ProTour Season cant be ALL big races ALL the time.
I mean thats the prob with the Protour schedule, you have to show up at so many that riders like Lance and the big guys tuning for the big races cant even sit in and train because the races are sooo fast sooo early, like Paris Nice last year.

So in a weird way it actually has the reverse effect of discouraging the big guys from showing up. I mean a lot of riders are using this approach now for good or for ill--Tyler was, Levi, Floyd etc etc.
How many races did Jan do last year? I mean a bit of a different issue v Lance. But these are the guys that draw the biggest audiences...

The Spring Classics are their own thing with the Belgians and all but still, a Jan or a Lance did a lot for those races as well.