Tour of Scandinavia cancelled for 2024 amidst funding issues

The Tour of Scandinavia will not take place in 2024 due to a lack of funding, the organisers announced on Friday.

The Women’s WorldTour stage race was set to take place from the 29 August to 1 September in Norway, Denmark and Sweden, but organisers hope to “restructure the race concept” and return in 2025.

The Tour of Scandinavia first launched in 2022, as an expanded version of the long-running Ladies Tour of Norway, broadening out into neighbouring Scandinavian countries and growing to six stages, though the 2024 edition was only slated to be four.

The first two editions had been successful, though not without problems, with 2023’s Swedish stage cancelled amidst issues with hosting a race in the nation.

The 2023 race was won by Annemiek van Vleuten, her final stage race victory.

“With heavy hearts, the board, together with shareholders and management, have concluded that it is unfortunately not feasible to organize Tour of Scandinavia this year,” a statement released by the organisers on Friday read.

“Intensive efforts have been made in recent weeks to try to find solutions to ensure a financial basis for conducting the race, but we must acknowledge that we have not succeeded. There is a shortfall of approximately 3 MNOK [approximately £220,000] needed to achieve financial balance, and it would be irresponsible to plan for execution this year.”

The ras has never had a title sponsor, but has been supported by the likes of Uno-X. However, like many races, the organisers have felt the squeeze of organising women’s races, especially in smaller cycling nations like Norway.

Thanks to its history, and becoming one of the longer stage races on the calendar in recent years, the Tour of Scandinavia was amongst the most prestigious and important races of the season, offering a late-summer chance for some real climbing tests.

The organisers do hope to return in 2025, though possible in a different form, saying that “efforts are underway to restructure the race concept with the aim of returning strengthened in 2025 with a new race concept at the WorldTour level.”

“By halting this year’s World Tour race now, we reduce the loss associated with this year’s event and provide predictability for all our partners related to the race,” the statement continued. “It also frees up time and energy to work on restructuring both the company and the race concept in order to develop a sustainable event at the WorldTour level for 2025. The application for World Tour status in 2025 is already in place, which means that we maintain our status as a World Tour race and retain the highest ranking among races in Norway.

“Significant efforts are being made to establish a robust, long-term financing model through strategic partnerships, in addition to the public grants that form the foundation of our funding. This endeavour encompasses both national and international alliances, as Tour of Scandinavia enjoys prestigious status abroad.”

The Tour of Scandinavia is far from the first race to be affected by financial struggles in recent years, with the Women's Tour cancelled in 2023 before the organisers eventually folded, whilst the long-running Festival Elsy Jacobs was cut back for 2024.