Cycling: Nothing will come of the two-day cycling festival planned for July in Stuttgart for the time being: today the team of organizers of the Velothon Stuttgart announced that the event has been postponed to 2017.
On July 23rd and 24th, 2016, the automotive capital of Stuttgart was supposed to be entirely dedicated to cycling : closed streets for e-bikes and urban bikes, a criterium for licensed racers, a large amateur race, and a UCI professional race of category 1.1, rounded off by a cycling festival with a bicycle expo at the Cannstatter Wasen. These ambitious plans have now been shelved.
“At present, we cannot hold the event according to the usual organizational guidelines and standards,” states the Velothon Stuttgart website . “Nevertheless, we are very confident that we will be able to successfully implement the event in 2017 and are already working towards it.” A date in mid-July is planned.
Nothing should change in the event concept. "The talks held so far with officials and government representatives, partners, media representatives and participants and their consistently positive reactions are still extremely promising," said the organizers.
The background to the cancellation may also be the recently announced restructuring in the Velothon series: The event agency Lagardère Unlimited, which was responsible for the Velothon races in Berlin, Wales, Stuttgart and Stockholm as well as the Cyclassics and the triathlon in Hamburg sold its entire "endurance sports" division to the "Ironman" organizer from Florida. This, in turn, recently belonged to Wanda Sports Holding owned by Chinese billionaire Wang Jianlin.
Nothing should change for the participants, as Lagardère press spokesman Reinald Achilles announced when asked by Velomotion. "Everything is going as usual with the registrations for the events." The aim of the new owners is to gain a foothold in the running and cycling sectors in addition to the already very successful triathlon events. The local organizational teams and dates should remain largely unchanged. Lagardère is already “extremely excited about the new opportunities that are opening up around the world as part of the Ironman company.”
In the short term, however, this year's cancellation of the Velothon Stuttgart means a disappointment for the cyclists, who would have liked to have been at the starting line in the automobile capital.