No Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race for 2022 as organiser rules out September date
Finding a new spot in the calendar has proven too difficult for the one day race - so it won't take place at all
The Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race has confirmed that it will not be taking place in September of 2022, as a build-up race for the Wollongong UCI Road World Championships.
Race director of the Eurométropole Tour Louis Cousaert recently said he heard "noises" about the postponed Tour Down Under and Great Ocean taking place before the Worlds, but the latter has denied any such race.
Both Great Ocean and Tour Down Under decided to postpone the 2022 events that were due to take place at the start of the year. Now, they won't take place at all.
"It’s not going to happen," said Scott Sunderland, who has been announced as the race director for the events at Wollongong and is also race director of the Ocean Race.
"We talked about it and looked at the details because when you have to cancel or postpone an event, you look at the alternatives. We looked at the calendar for opportunities but it was just too difficult.”
This year due to international lockdowns the Tour Down Under organisers held a Festival of Cycling which covered much of the same roads as the WorldTour stage race but only had riders who live in Australia taking part.
Get The Leadout Newsletter
The latest race content, interviews, features, reviews and expert buying guides, direct to your inbox!
This was both for elite men and women with only a handful of European-based riders making it back to spend the Australian summer with their families.
The Tour Down Under recently said that they will not be holding an event this year either and are looking forward to welcoming everyone back in January of 2023.
Both of these races took place at the start of 2020 before the pandemic took place with Richie Porte and Ruth Winder winning the Tour Down Under as well as Dries Devenyns and Liane Lippert winning the Ocean Race.
This news comes at the same time as the announcement of the routes for the 2022 Worlds road races and time trials in Wollongong with a very punchy race looking to be set up for the road races.
Thank you for reading 20 articles this month* Join now for unlimited access
Enjoy your first month for just £1 / $1 / €1
*Read 5 free articles per month without a subscription
Join now for unlimited access
Try first month for just £1 / $1 / €1
Hi, I'm one of Cycling Weekly's content writers for the web team responsible for writing stories on racing, tech, updating evergreen pages as well as the weekly email newsletter. Proud Yorkshireman from the UK's answer to Flanders, Calderdale, go check out the cobbled climbs!
I started watching cycling back in 2010, before all the hype around London 2012 and Bradley Wiggins at the Tour de France. In fact, it was Alberto Contador and Andy Schleck's battle in the fog up the Tourmalet on stage 17 of the Tour de France.
It took me a few more years to get into the journalism side of things, but I had a good idea I wanted to get into cycling journalism by the end of year nine at school and started doing voluntary work soon after. This got me a chance to go to the London Six Days, Tour de Yorkshire and the Tour of Britain to name a few before eventually joining Eurosport's online team while I was at uni, where I studied journalism. Eurosport gave me the opportunity to work at the world championships in Harrogate back in the awful weather.
After various bar jobs, I managed to get my way into Cycling Weekly in late February of 2020 where I mostly write about racing and everything around that as it's what I specialise in but don't be surprised to see my name on other news stories.
When not writing stories for the site, I don't really switch off my cycling side as I watch every race that is televised as well as being a rider myself and a regular user of the game Pro Cycling Manager. Maybe too regular.
My bike is a well used Specialized Tarmac SL4 when out on my local roads back in West Yorkshire as well as in northern Hampshire with the hills and mountains being my preferred terrain.
-
‘There's no point to race for 50th place’: Peter Sagan explains why he’s a cycling esports ambassador but won’t compete
As a MyWhoosh ambassador, Sagan admires the sport’s evolution, but does he have the watts to compete with today’s virtual cycling stars?
By Christopher Schwenker Published
-
Rapha's loss, your gain: prices slashed sitewide amid profitability concerns
The British clothing brand unveils an almost unheard-of 25% discount across its entire product range
By Hannah Bussey Published