Lotto Belgium Tour, a 2.1 Belgian race with a respectable starlist confirmed, had to be called off last minute as local municipality was not able to fulfill their safety and organization commitments. This comes as a shock to many fans as well as competitors, especially those who've travelled from far.
"Some unforeseen challenges came our way that had a major impact in terms of budget and safety," the Lotto Belgium Tour race organiser Tom Thienpont told Het Nieuwsblad.
"Last Friday we were told by a municipality that they could not guarantee the signage of parking bans, one-way traffic and the placement of diversions," Thienpont explained.
"With death in our hearts, but the safety of riders, followers and public has always been our main priority and due to circumstances beyond our control we could no longer guarantee it for this edition," Thienpont said in a official statement. "Too bad, because we had the strongest field of participants in years for a five-day event with something for everyone and a nice TV coverage."
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- Both are overdoing things. Having been at many races of all levels, it’s a miracle things don’t happen more often, spectators, riders, bikers, drivers, ALL guilty of naivety and ignoring all others at times. Too many seem to consider every space is reserved for them once they feel they have a purpose there.Mistermaumau19-07-2025
- Rebuilding would mean they must evaluate their budget.awp19-07-2025
- A 50+ million budget team not even in the top 5 GC of any GTs is not success especially when they have won a lot of GTs in the past their recruitment also tends to be for helper riders like Tobias Foss which is a waste of money when they donot have a leader to win GCabstractengineer19-07-2025
- Regardless of what they were, they are very different now.awp19-07-2025
- Part of being a dumbass...bobo19-07-2025
- That doesn’t work the same way for everyone, a small team with no expectations and nothing to lose obviously has more chance of looking successful than a big team with history going downhill.Mistermaumau19-07-2025
- There are lots of ways to reap the rewards of a GT without being on the podium. EF has made a successful venture of doing this. Their sponsors receive a lot of value without having to spend very much in relation to UAE or Visma. I understand what your saying though, if they rebuild in the next few years with a quality rider like a Lipowitz, they could do something. Tadej has about four to five more years before he is done, in fact his contract ends in 2030 and he has said that might be it for him. Jonas is two years older than Tadej so I give him about the same time if not less.awp19-07-2025
- The spectator though is watching cyclists up a mountain in a bike race, and isn’t impeaching in the slightest on the cyclists’ safety. Is it really necessary for the car to be coming up on the opposite side of the road so close to the action? I know spectators can be a nuisance, to put it mildly, but after making the effort to support and enjoy the race up these mountains, here I think the driver seems more the one being inconsiderate and reckless.AndrewK19-07-2025
- He will come back, finding form after your shoulder is destroyed is tough.awp19-07-2025
- The spectator isnt watching the road, they are watching the riders and too far into the roadabstractengineer19-07-2025