"We had a very hard, bucket-list, stage": Organizer of the cancelled Tour of Norway reveals the exciting route they had prepared

The news is already out since Tuesday. Cycling in Scandinavia will have to recover from another blow to its domestic scene with the cancellation of 2026 Tour of Norway while future return of the race is not in the organizers' hands for the time being. After all the financial side of the race was mostly taken care of by the Norwegian government who have suddenly pulled the plug on the flow of money.

The information was handed to the organizers only the previous weekend. "We had a meeting at the office on Monday morning and we started to discuss, 'what do we do, what can we do' and quite fast we realised together with the board that there was no room to try to make a pro race in 2026," race director Roy Hegreberg told Domestique.

The organizer then had to contact all the invited teams to break the news, and inform UCI that the event shall be removed from the 2026 calendar. Heart-breaking for Hegreberg was that all the local volunteers who have helped the race take its shape over the previous 13 editions will see the legacy of their efforts gradually disappear.

But there is still hope for a grand return in 2027.

If the financial struggle was to be overcome next year, Hegreberg believes the 2027 race could be built on 2026 foundations. As he affirms, the 2026 route was already set in stone before the call from above changed everything. But it shouldn't be impossible to reacquire the same permissions again for 2027.

"We will now use 2026 to build a solid foundation for the 2027 edition. I'm going to Oslo to have a meeting with some politicians, as they have contacted us because they see the stupid decision that was made here. I'm convinced that we will bring back the Tour of Norway, and I hope we can bring it back as an even better race, better foundation, better finances, and build for the future."

"We had a very hard stage with two really high mountains, something that was on the bucket list for many years. We will try to bring it back for 2027," said Hegreberg. The likes of Mads Pedersen were already pre-confirmed to appear at the start next year, he reveals.

Hegreberg insists that the organisation was left in the dark the entire time. And was given no clarification regarding the reason for their loss of funding afterwards either. "They never said anything to us; they didn't say anything before, but through the media, some of the politicians said that this was a special contribution to the Tour of Norway and not common for annual contributions."