No sponsor for Ronde Van Het Groene Hart for second successive season
Ronde van het Groene Hart has been called off for the second consecutive season. The race started in 2007 and was ranked as 1.1 events on the UCI Europe Tour. The race was initiated to promote the “Green Heart” agricultural region.
The Organisers could not hold the race because of financial reasons in 2011 and it has been stated that the next edition of the race will be seen in 2013.
Ronde Van is a 203 kilometre race that takes the cyclists through Rotterdam, Amsterdam and Utrecht.
Belgian cyclist Wouter Weylandt won the first version of the race, in 2007, as Tomas Vaitkus dominated it in 2008. Geert Omloop managed to secure the first spot in 2009 while the most recent winner of the event is Jens Mouris of Netherlands, who won the
race in 2010.
The Organisers took the difficult step of cancelling the race as they failed to find a sponsor for the 2012 event.
Last week the organisers made the announcement on the website, “The main reasons are that no new title sponsor for the event has been found, and that government grants have been dropped. This is a major setback for the organisation, which has held four successful
editions of the professional cycling race”.
Ronde Van Het Groene Hart was cancelled in 2011 because of financial reasons, along with the cancellation of Vuelta a Cuba.
Head of the national federation announced earlier this year that the Cuban race will not be organised in the current season either.
Groene Hart was cancelled in 2011 because of the same reason as the Race Director, Herman Brinkhoff, told AFP news, ”We will continue to seek a new sponsor, so that the race can resume in 2012”.
Unfortunate for the organizers, as they fail to attract any sponsors for the second successive year, but they are positive to have it initiated in 2013.
“[The organisation] will continue its efforts to continue the Ronde in 2013 and is also investigating the possibility of continuing it using a new concept”.
Only time will tell if Dutch race organisers are successful in finding a sponsor for the race in the 2013 season.
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