Continuing the theme of misfortune that’s befallen women’s cycling in recent times, the cobbled Flemish one-day race Women’s E3 Saxo Classic has been cancelled by the organisers after just two years of hosting, citing rising organisational costs and low confidence from the sponsors, as well as scheduling conflicts with other races.
The men’s edition of the classic, previously known as E3 Harelbeke, with treacherous cobbles, steep climbs and narrow roads, first began in 1958 and taking place in the week preceding the famed monument Tour of Flanders, it soon went on to become a sought-after race as riders began using it as a testing ground for their legs, the most recent winner being Belgium’s Wout van Aert.
Women’s E3 Saxo Bank, also known as Leiedal Koerse, meanwhile, kicked off in 2022 as a UCI 1.2 event, with pro cycling’s governing body set to promote the race to a 1.1 from 2024. But organisers Velovrienden have decided to pull the plug on the race.
The race’s press officer Jacques Coussens told Sporza: “”The economic model for women’s competitions is sputtering… Organizational costs continue to rise, while the attractiveness for sponsors remains below growth expectations.
“The board of the Nieuwe Velovrienden, the organiser of the women’s race, had examined whether a final edition in 2024 in Bavikhove, together with the juniors, was feasible, but the negative economic model is also at play for this edition.
“The organizer fears that the last edition would be too loss-making and did not want to end up with a mountain of debt. That is why the board of the Nieuwe Velovrienden decided to pull the plug on the Leiedal Koerse women’s race due to a lack of long-term perspective on the calendar and a lack of healthy financial prospects.”
> Women’s Tour cancelled for 2023, organisers cite lack of financial backing
The cancellation of Women’s E3 Saxo means that of all the main spring Classics, only Milan-San Remo, Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne and now the E3 Saxo Classic lack a race for women.
However, unlike the other spring Classics, which includes the fortnight of prestigious cycle racing in Flanders to take place in late March and early April, the Leiedal Koerse was held at the end of April alongside a junior men’s version of the race and not near the date of the men’s WorldTour race.
According to Coussens, the scheduling issues, information of which were obtained by the board of organisers through “various contacts” also played a big part in the decision to take the race off the calendar, as sponsors didn’t find it lucrative enough.
He said: “The intention was to have the women’s race run on the classic Friday of the WorldTour race E3 Saxo Classic for men from 2025 with a start and finish at the Forestiers Stadium in Harelbeke.
“There are calendar problems for moving the women’s race. On the Thursday preceding the E3 Saxo Classic for men, there is the WorldTour race for women in De Panne and on the following Sunday in Gent-Wevelgem. Both are sticking to their statutes and date.”
This continues a worrying trend as race organisers cite financial woes and struggle to stay afloat. In March last year, the Women’s Tour, the biggest women’s race hosted in Britain, was on the chopping block.
The organiser SweetSpot, also responsible for organising the men’s edition of the Tour of Britain, had said that the landmark race will go on a hiatus owing to high running costs and a lack of sponsors and commercial support — reasons quite similar to the cancellation of E3 as well.
In fact, just a couple of weeks before the cancellation, Sweetspot had issued an urgent appeal for sponsorship for the 2023 edition of the race, with reports suggesting the organisers were facing a £500,000 shortfall.
And just earlier this week, it was reported SweetSpot was entering voluntary liquidation, with liabilities likely to extend significantly past £1 million. Chief executive Hugh Roberts, said: “It’s the end of an era. It’s 20 years of hard work that have come to this.
“We have been fighting so many headwinds for the last three or four years, that it’s come to the point where we really can’t carry on in the current climate and the current business environment that we find ourselves in.
“The conditions that were set for us to extract ourselves from the position with British Cycling were too onerous. British Cycling wanted to still receive the full licence fee that they felt they were due in 2022. Despite the Queen dying in the middle of the race and all our other partners showing a little bit of financial sympathy to us they were insisting that the fee they felt they were owed should be paid in full.
“That, along with Covid, with not having a race from September 2019 to September 2021, the debt taken on board to keep the whole thing afloat. Local council bankruptcies, belt-tightening all over the place – that does not augur well for events that rely on government support.
“British Cycling say they have a plan [for the men’s Tour of Britain] but I don’t know what it is. There was no room to negotiate. We were not even given the grounds to appeal.”
British Cycling said it is “making every possible effort to ensure that the Tour of Britain and a UCI Women’s World Tour stage race take place in 2024 and beyond, and will be in a position to provide further details in the coming weeks”.
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53 thoughts on ““The economic model for women’s competitions is sputtering”: Women’s E3 Saxo Classic cancelled after just two years”
Put the women in the men’s
Put the women in the men’s race, U23s race against Elite. I can see no reason not to have the women mixing it up with the men.
don simon fbpe wrote:
Because for the short time the men and women were together it would be a dangerous mess as the much larger, heavier and faster male riders barged to the front, then the women would swiftly be dropped* and you’d end up with two separate races on course at the same time, which would be a logistical nightmare in terms of team cars, ambulances, TV coverage etc. The comparison with U23s is absurd, male U23 pros are often on a par with their senior colleagues (e.g. Bernal winning the Tour aged 22, Pogacar winning two Tours starting aged 21). Ridiculous suggestion.
*See for example last year’s Paris Roubaix, male race average speed 46km/h, female race average speed 39 km/h and that when the women were only racing 145km and the men were racing 256km.
That’s very disrespectful to
That’s very disrespectful to women, mate.
don simon fbpe wrote:
I knew you would come back with some such accusation, “mate”, which is of course every bit as absurd as your original suggestion. It is a simple fact that elite female racers would simply not be able to hold their own in a race with elite male racers, as you can see from the average speeds I quoted above even before you factor in the bigger size and heavier weight of male racers. It’s disrespectful to women to suggest they should be forced to race in an environment where they wouldn’t have a hope of winning, or even coming in the top 100, and where they would quite likely be placed in unnecessary danger, rather than having their own races. I’ve never seen a single female pro suggest or request that they should compete in the same road races as men – are they all disrespectful to women as well?
I never said that women would
I never said that women would be competing against the men, but don’t let that get in the way. I said mixing it with the men, which you have interpreted how you have interpreted it.
Suggesting that females are too fragile to take the rufty tufty of a men’s peloton is a little insulting, isn’t it?
A woman would still win the womens’ race (within a race, or follow on race, or whatever the structure is of sharing race days).
But hey…
don simon fbpe wrote:
No, it isn’t, any more than it would be insulting to a flyweight to suggest they would lose to a heavyweight. It’s a simple matter of size, weight and power, male riders have a lot more of all three and in the close contact bumping and boring of a peleton at the start of a race women are inevitably going to come off second best. That’s not saying they’re fragile, it’s a simple fact that if Lizzie Deignan (5’6″, 57kg) is jousting for the same space with Wout van Aert (6’3″, 78kg) she is going to come off worse. Would it be insulting to women, and accusing them of being “fragile” to say it would be foolish for the England women’s rugby team to take on their male counterparts in a full-contact match? Of course it wouldn’t. Stop being silly.
But 1.75m and 60kg Jonas
But 1.75m and 60kg Jonas Vingegaard can? Stop pulling silly comparisons to justify your putting women in their place with your telling them what they can’t/shouldn’t do and come back with a positive solution to the problem. No wonder so few women post here. Chao!
don simon fbpe wrote:
You’re the person telling women they can give up their own races and race with men, not me. If women want to do that, fine, let them. Can you show me a single female pro who’s ever asked for that? No, you can’t, so it’s you who is telling women what they should want/do even though it’s quite clear they have no wish to do that, for the obvious reasons I have stated, not me.
Wow!
Wow!
Rendel Harris wrote:
What would be dangerous about it? Since when has riders getting dropped been a problem? Since when has big, heavy riders racing with smaller, lighter ones been a problem? It’s certainly not unheard of for women to compete against men in UCI road races.
john_smith wrote:
It would be dangerous because the height, weight and strength differential between the biggest men and the smallest women is much greater than that between the biggest men and the smallest men, the women would be left with a choice of getting barged out the way or just not competing at all and letting the men go through. It would be a problem when all the women were dropped, as they would inevitably be, because you would then have effectively two races, a man’s and a women’s, racing on the same road at the same time, with all the logistical problems that would create.
I can’t believe that anybody would genuinely defend such a ludicrous idea, if it was workable, you think it wouldn’t have been tried already? It’s not, it wouldn’t work, neither male nor female racers would be in favour of it, it’s a complete nonstarter.
I’ve never heard of women competing against men in UCI road races, I assume you have examples? I mean of course in a professional road race, not something like the Grand Fondo series which is entirely different.
With respect, you sound as
With respect, you sound as though you have no idea what you’re talking about. Riders don’t just crash into each other because one is taller or heavier or stronger than another. In any race riders get dropped, and unless they are taken out of the race they can finish a long time behind the fastess riders. It really doesn’t have to be a problem.
Why do you bother saying
Why do you bother saying “with respect” when your following clause shows you have none? I fear it’s you who has very little understanding: in the opening stages of a classics race there is massive bumping and boring to gain position and smaller, lighter, less powerful women would inevitably be pushed out. Despite the person who started this nonsensical debate trying to frame me as a sexist for saying women shouldn’t be racing with men, it is anyone who supports it who is actually being sexist (I don’t know of anyone involved in professional cycling of either sex who actually does), saying to women no you’re not important enough to have your own race but we’ll be generous and let you race with the men. Yes of course they will push you out of the way, you will end up dozens of kilometres behind and all the TV and fan focus will be on the men’s race, but aren’t we nice for letting you race at all?
Still waiting for your examples of unisex UCI road races? Alternatively, can you find any example of a female professional racer saying that she would like to race on the road with men?
Marianne Vos raced against
Marianne Vos raced against men at Edmond-Pier-Egmondon quite few times. If I remember rightly Laurens Ten Dam was riding on one occasion too, and I think Vos might have been faster then he was. She certainly beat a lot of the men.
As for road races, I have seen them on the continent with Elite, women and U19s all starting together.
john_smith wrote:
EPE is a mass start mixed-sex beach mountain bike race, it’s not a UCI race nor is it a road race. What were these races on the continent you saw, you must be able to remember what they were?
The person who started this
The person who started this debate didn’t cancel the race, so is not demanding that women do anything. The person that started this debate did not claim that Lizzie Deignan should not race with men while accepting that similar sized Vingegaard, or more similar Adam Yates can. The person that started this hasn’t made outrageous statements to support their misogyny by claiming that women are not demanding to race with men. The person that started this knows that women are hard as fuck and can take the knocks and get back up. The person that started this is not scared of women. I’ll let you keep on digging though, chao!
don simon fbpe wrote:
Are women demanding to race with men? Presumably you have examples? This would be a more sensible debate if you would stop posturing and accusing people of misogyny simply because they reject your idiotic and, ironically, deeply sexist idea that women should have their races taken away from them and merged with those of men.
Rendel Harris wrote:
You can, of course, illustrate where I have said this, can’t you? Half term seems to come around earlier each year.
They are not demanding to do
They are not demanding to do it. They are doing it. Mixed racing is not a problem. You are trying to make a problem out of it.
john_smith wrote:
Once again, a single example please of a professional UCI road race where men and women race together. Just one.
Where did I say anything
Where did I say anything about “professional”?
john_smith wrote:
This discussion was about the possibility of women being placed in the men’s Saxo Bank Classic, a professional race. But go on then, have you got examples of a UCI-sanctioned amateur road race in which men and women compete together?
I’m sure we can all remember
I’m sure we can all remember what it was about. Are you now saying it is only “professional” women who aren’t capable of not getting knocked off their bikes?
john_smith wrote:
So in other words, in answer to the question where are these UCI road races, amateur or professional, which you have claimed take place in which men and women race together, you don’t have an answer.
Not wanting to play silly
Not wanting to play silly games with you and not having an answer are not the same thing. You’ll have to take my word for it, I have seen races with women, Elite and U19 starting together. Or don’t take my word for it. It’s up to you.
john_smith wrote:
You said, and I quote, “It’s certainly not unheard of for women to compete against men in UCI road races.” I’ve simply asked you to name me a single UCI road race where this has happened. The fact that you have resorted to saying I’ve seen it and you’ll have to take my word for it but I’m not going to say what the race was rather speaks volumes, don’t you think?
Yeah, it says I’m not going
Yeah, it says I’m not going to play silly games with you, which is what I wrote in my last comment. I have no interest in petty point scoring.
john_smith wrote:
You claimed that there are UCI road races where men and women race together. I asked you for a single example and you have proved unable to provide one. Don’t make statements if you can’t support them, and when you can’t support them be honest enough to admit it rather than saying “I know the answer but I’m not telling you.”
I’ll make any statement I
I’ll make any statement I like. And as I said, I’m not going to play your games. You’re going round and round in circles, and you’re not achieving anything.
john_smith wrote:
Well obviously, it’s rather difficult to make any headway in an argument if one’s antagonist makes a claim that they think undermines one’s argument (in this case that there are already UCI road races in which men and women race together) but refuses to provide any substantive evidence for said claim other than “I’ve seen it but I’m not telling you where or what the race was.” All one can conclude is that the refusal to provide any evidence for the claim proves that the claim, and therefore the argument it purports to support, is invalid.
Martin73 ?
Martin73 ?
No, too much interest in
No, too much interest in cycling (though very limited knowledge about it). Quite a few shared characteristics though!
Is this a self proclamation
Is this a self proclamation that you are knowledgeable?
don simon fbpe wrote:
More so than somebody who thinks that it would be a good idea to have men and women racing together in the classics, certainly. But to be fair you don’t have to be that knowledgeable about cycling to realise that that’s an entirely stupid suggestion, you just have to have a bit of basic common sense. If you lack that quality, try asking female racers whether they think it’s a good idea.
Your arrogance is admirable,
Your arrogance is admirable, only matched by your ignorance. Well done.
EDIT: It could be worse, I could be claiming that 58kg riders shouldn’t be in the same race as 78kg riders and expecting to be taken seriously. I could be claiming that someone has demanded that women’s races should be cancelled when they clearly didn’t. I could be someone who hurls insults then cries when it comes back at them. I could be someone that thinks responding to Spanish with Italian is smart.
Not so much whether they
Not so much whether they thinks it’s a good idea as whether they think it’s a less bad idea than not riding them at all, surely? And, for the sake of completeness, whether they would be scared of getting knocked off by other riders.
Why does there have to be a
Why does there have to be a previous example of a new concept? There are examples of UCI races where women have run the same course on the same day, something mentioned as being logistacally impossible. And why haven’t you responded to Lizzie being too light and fragile to compete against bigger stronger males, like Adam Yates? While we’re here, you’ll be happy to quote the bit where I demanded that women have their races taken away. And if you want an example of a long distance stage race where fragile women mix it up with big strong hard men, have a look at the Titan Desert. Or you could just go quiet. Chao.
Sorry “mate”, your decision
Sorry “mate”, your decision to sink to the level of playground insults makes it rather pointless to give you any reply, you’ve made both yourself and your arguments look very stupid at the same time. I’ll leave the relative number of likes on our comments to speak for itself regarding what others think regarding your sexist suggestions. Ciao.
Hello rendel, do you ever get
Hello rendel, do you ever get dizzy running around in circles (when you aren’t digging holes for yourself)?
Left_is_for_Losers wrote:
I wondered when you would be along, sniffing out the opportunity of forming another little bully group along the lines of the one you had with Martin and Nigel before you were banned for racism, bullying, harassment and libel.
Rendel Harris wrote:
Haha – and your best retort is to throw your blatant lies back again! Real men don’t make stuff up.
Everyone knows you’re the protagonist – there’s only one common denominator in these arguments – you.
Again, where’s the insults?
Again, where’s the insults? It would appear that you’re the one with the snidey insults and just don’t like it when the compliment is returned. Nice touch with the Italian, not sure why you’d do that (I know exactly why you’d do that). 😉
Another reason, which
Another reason, which occurred to me as I was out riding this morning, why men and women racing together is a really, really stupid idea: imagine a scenario where men and women are racing together in the Ronde van Vlaanderen and Team A and Team B have entered both men’s and women’s teams. Team A have a rider who has a good chance of taking the male race and a rider who has a good chance of taking the female race. Team B doesn’t have any riders with a realistic chance in the male race but has a female rider with about the same chance as Team A’s female rider. So the race starts and Team A’s male cohort disappears into the distance looking after their male rider; Team B instructs all their male riders to stick with their female favourite, who thereby gets an armchair ride being towed by a full men’s team and destroying Team A’s female rider’s chances. Would that be fair?
Still, I expect wanting women to be allowed to race equally and without let or hindrance and/or without unfair assistance from male riders makes me a misogynist who is scared of women.
Rendel Harris wrote:
Quite. They changed the definition of the women’s marathon record after Paula Radcliffe was paced by a group of men, and drafting is rather more important in cycling.
Female athletes don’t want to race against men. They know that, even pound for pound, a male elite athlete is stronger and faster than they are because that’s how the sexes’ physiology goes. Lizzie Deignan knows she can’t compete with Adam Yates, just like Serena Williams knew she couldn’t compete with similarly-sized male players. And that’s no slight on them, women’s athletic capacity just is below men’s.
These guys (and it is all guys, isn’t it) are just working on a new angle to get what they really want, which is women’s sport to be put back in its box. They know what they’re doing, and they know what they are.
Rendel Harris wrote:
Great to see you inventing scenarios that no one has suggested, again.
don simon fbpe wrote:
It’s naughty to lie, to lie when the evidence of you saying what you now deny is right here on this page for everyone to see is just plain stupid. Or are you now going to claim that by “Put the women in the men’s race” and “women mixing it up with the men” you didn’t mean racing together? Nothing would surprise me where you’re concerned now.
Great to see you having to
Great to see you having to insert yourr own words to justify your fantasy response too. You making stuff up is not me lying. For the third time, I request that you show evidence (you have been unable on the previous two attempts for obvious, and demonstrable, reasons)of me saying that men would be racing with the women on the same team, helping each other. I’m fucking bored of this stupidity now, really fucking bored. You’re boring, repetitive and failing to offer anything constructive. You came in here stating that women were too weak to match the men’s pace and shouldn’t be able to mix it with men, in spite of evidence to the contrary, you made stuff up there too. You stated, from your high horse, that women shouldn’t be allowed to mix it with the men. I can’t think of anything more misogynistic. A fella telling women what they can and can’t do! You then tried to claim that I was a race organiser, as I was responsible for the cancelling of this particular race and therefore a misogynist… I made a suggestion and have not told anyone what to do (until now).
You cried that the bullies were coming for you as others expressed their opinions.
You have sat in the thread demanding that others produce evidence, without supplying your own, no surprise there. You have no interest in adding to the topic, just making a tit of yourself in trying to prove me wrong (that’s why I do the chao thing 😉 and it always works). I recall a childish “let’s see who gets the most likes” comment in there somewhere. It’s the internet dude, likes mean nothing!
If I wanted someone or something to follow me around dry humping my leg, I’d get a puppy. At least it’d provide intellectual input.
Given your dry humping, snowflake tendencies and inability to contribute positively (or even realistically), I suggest you leave the thread and stop boring the shit out of everyone.
¡Chao capullo!
Aw, feel better now? I know
Aw, feel better now? I know it’s hard to accept that you’ve made a fool of yourself, if that vomit of whining impotent rage helps you, that’s fine.
Your suggestion was idiotic, unworkable and demeaning to women racers. Enough of your nonense, your ranting proves you know you’ve lost, give it up.
I wanted also to organize a
I wanted also to organize a tree looking race but unfortunately sponsors were a bit hesitant.
This is the problem in many
This is the problem in many many womens sports when it comes to professional levels. Unfortunately its often a chicken or the egg scenario. They will never be profitable…unless people are prepared for them to be unprofitable while their support base is grown and the profile of the sport is increased.
Womens football is a good example. Its growing all the time but for most teams, the mens side is still propping them up. Eventually they will stand on their own but for now, the historic lack of interest and investment means many sports are starting from a low position.
Unfortunately the time of free money is at an end for now so advertisers/organisers want to see returns on their money now. Not it 5 years.
Look at the MTB & CX World
Look at the MTB & CX World Cups; women’s race, followed by the men. Organisers are obliged to host a women’s race – it’s part of the deal. Should be the same for road races – if they can’t afford a women’s race, then they can’t have the men’s race either……
Nice idea but I suspect you
Nice idea but I suspect you’re totally unaware of the massive headache that organising a road race is, even a local league or 1/2/3/4 handicap race on a small circuit.
If they can’t do it in Belgium, where closing roads for a bike race is normal, then there’s zero chance of doing it in cyclist-hating Britain. I’ll not be surprised if the Women’s Tour and ToB don’t resurface for several years.
Wasn’t that what led to the
Wasn’t that what led to the demise of the Tour of California? If I remember correctly there was a new rule that if you did the men’s race the women’s one would have to be the same length (7 or 9 stages or whatever it was). That was the end of the race.
Women’s cycling has got away with goodwill from sponsors who knew that being seen to sponsor female cycling was likely good for their brands. However, at a time of economic turmoil any sponsor is ultimately looking at return on investment. If they can’t get that they will look elsewhere. That is likely part of the reason why male domestic cycling is in such a dire state with only Saint Piran propping it up now.