The Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) has confirmed that the both men’s and women’s editions of the Philadelphia International Cycling Classic have been cancelled for 2017 due to "difficulty attracting sponsor financial support”.
The women’s race was part of the WorldTour calendar for 2017, while the men’s race was one of the last remaining one-day road races on the US racing calendar. The race dates back to 1985, and served as the men's professional national championships until 2006. The women's race was added in 1994, and was part of the UCI Women's World Cup until 2001.
The race was taken over by new management following the 2012 edition, and its formula changed from a finish on Benjamin Franklin Parkway to an uphill finish on the notorious Manayunk Wall.
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Evelyn Stevens and Kiel Reijnen won the first two editions with the new format before it was added to the UCI Women's WorldTour in 2015. Lizzie Deignan (neé Armitstead) won the first WorldTour edition, while last season Megan Guarnier (Boels Dolmans) followed up her Tour of California and US Pro Road Race victories with an astounding bottom-to-top attack up the Manayunk Wall. Eduard Prades gave Caja Rural Seguros-RGA their second consecutive victory in the 2016 men's race.
In a brief message on the race website, race organises said the city of Philadelphia has not ruled out "pursuing opportunities for a potential return in 2018.”
"Regrettably, even after extensive fundraising efforts, we were not able to find enough sponsors interested in covering the $1 million cost of the bike race to host it this year,” said City of Philadelphia Managing Director Michael Di Berardinis in a statement.
You can read more at Cyclingnews.com
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