It is with regret that we announce the cancellation of the 2018 Tour of Ayrshire. This is a great shame for the organisers, the riders and East Ayrshire Council as we had founded the basis of a terrific cycling festival with the inaugural event in 2017 and provided the platform for over 100 Scottish riders to compete in the UCI Gran Fondo World Championships in Albi this year.
The reason for the cancellation is that Golazo Cycling was unable to confirm the place of the Tour of Ayrshire on the UCI Gran Fondo World Series calendar by a deadline which last weekend was dramatically reduced. Golazo Cycling is investigating why this change occurred and why it occurred without prior notice.
Following the 2017 festival a range of changes to the fully closed route were required by East Ayrshire Council as a direct result of public pressure. The required changes were a work in progress between Golazo Cycling and the Council when, last weekend, the new deadline to confirm was imposed. The unique selling point of the festival was its quality and standing within the UCI Gran Fondo Word Series calendar. Since a place on the calendar is not possible for 2018 we had no choice but to cancel.
All entrants will be offered either a refund or the chance to transfer their entries and ride in the 2018 Tour of Cambridgeshire. We will be writing to these people in the next 14 days to confirm preferences.
Whilst very disappointed we remain hugely grateful for the unrelenting work of many officers and executives in East Ayrshire Council who worked tirelessly and under great pressure from certain quarters of the local community who were resistant to this global event being run in their locality. We’d like to note in particular the support of the ‘Ayrshire Roads Alliance’ and ‘Vibrant Communities’ as well as the support of the Provost. We appreciated the professionalism displayed and remain eternally grateful for the support and working with us to bring this event to Scotland this year.
Golazo Cycling