Cycling: Tour of Southland loses status

Photo / Bay of Plenty Times

New Zealand's most prestigious cycling race - the Tour of Southland - has lost its international status.

The International Cycling Union (UCI), the sport's world governing body, will not register the six-day race as a 2.2-category event because of issues such as the lack of foreign teams, the use of composite sponsor teams and the charging of an entry fee.

The Southland Times newspaper today reported that the status change surprised Cycling Southland, which had been seeking clarification since the middle of last year on how UCI regulations would be applied to the tour.

The commissaire's report from the 2009 race and news of the status change arrived only this week, eight months after last year's race.

Cycling Southland chief executive Nick Jeffrey said New Zealand's geographic isolation was one of the reasons why it was difficult to adhere to the UCI regulations.

"These (regulations) would be fine if we were in the middle of Europe with 20 countries within three hours. We aren't.

"To run a financially viable event is challenging enough in the current environment let alone having to fund extra teams from offshore and not be able to seek any form of even minor contribution from the riders and/or teams."

Jeffrey said the UCI's rules had become "suffocating financially and logistically", including the querying of a lack of open-roofed cars used on the Tour of Southland.

He said the loss of UCI status had benefits in that Cycling Southland would not have to pay a fee to the UCI or pay for an international official to oversee the race, and professional riders such as Hayden Roulston, Julian Dean and Greg Henderson were now free to ride the tour, after sponsorship restrictions previously made them ineligible.

The Tour of Southland was first raced in 1956 and gained UCI status in 2002.

- NZPA