The Criterium International will not be held in 2017 after ASO announced on Friday that it will no longer organise the two-day event, which traditionally takes place on the weekend following Milan-San Remo.
For the past seven years, the Criterium International has been hosted in Corsica. The event has been held every year since 1932.
In a statement issued on Friday morning, the Tour de France organiser ASO said that it had “taken the decision to end the organisation of the event. While the winners have been of the highest quality, the peloton has seen a drop in density, due to the number of events taking place at this time of the season.”
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In recent seasons, Criterium International has often been overshadowed by the WorldTour events taking place on the same weekend, namely Gent-Wevelgem, E3 Harelbeke and the Volta a Catalunya.
The race began as the Criterium National de la Route one-day race in 1932 and initially only French riders could compete. The race continued even through World War II: between 1941 and 1943, one version of the race took place in Occupied France and another in the Free Zone.
The Criterium National subsequently became a stage race and opened to foreign riders on French teams, with Joop Zoetemelk becoming the first non-French winner in 1979.
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