Plans for the Tour Series to return to Colchester, where last year’s race attracted 18,500 spectators according to the organisers, have been thrown into doubt following a row over funding.
Last June, Tom Southam of Rapha-Condor beat Russ Downing, then with Candi TV-Marshalls Pasta and now at Team Sky, to take the individual win, while Halfords BikeHut took the team prize.
Colchester Council, which hailed last year’s event a success, planned to bring the race back this year, but local newspaper the Daily Gazzette claims that according to cabinet member Paul Smith, delays in obtaining promises from Essex County Council to help meet the expense of staff and security have led to it diverting money that would have gone towards the race to reversing proposed cuts to arts funding in the town.
As a result, money originally earmarked for this year’s race have instead been allocated to the Mercury Theatre, which receives an additional £25,000, and Colchester Arts Centre, which will get an extra £5,000 to restore its funding up to last year’s level.
The newspaper added that Anne Turrell, leader of Colchester Council, was hopeful that the race could still go ahead, quoting her as saying, “The council is trying as hard as it can to get it to come back to Colchester.”
Tour Series spokesperson Craig Brophy told Road.cc: "The Tour Series are in negotiations with a number of venues, including Colchester, with regard to the 2010 race programme, and will begin to make announcements regarding the 2010 Series very soon.
He added: “We cannot comment on the funding situation of any of our potential stakeholders, but have been extremely pleased with the level of interest in our event from potential venues, following the successful establishment of The Tour Series in 2009."
Here in Southampton we just get long lines of cars queuing for cruise ships. ...
Whilst EV cars are an improvement over ICE cars, I think they're a distraction from the possibilities of e-bikes, e-scooters and e-cargo-bikes etc....
I like how drivers make the case for making monitoring covert, not overt.
She seemed a bit upset about a minor misjudgement that could have killed someone and is going to cause months of stress and inconvenience.
No we don't agree, personally I would take primary, even if only for a short period although I can understand why some riders might not want to...
And which looks very like the bag produced by indy bag manufacturer Wizard Works…...
If it was a 'no vehicles' sign (all white circle centre), it would mean cyclists could ride in the hours that HGVs and disabled drivers are allowed...
The bit at the start and end looks like a cycle lane, but the bit they drive on looks just like a patched filter lane for traffic lights.
Hey, you 4 execs helped run a company into the ground and have no jobs anymore... Come work for us because you have great experience in the...
£11.5k for a bike weighing over 8kg that's 2 fingers to customers let alone UCI