Yet another French race steeped in history is cancelled

The French race Cholet-Pays-de-la-Loire will not go ahead the year because of an apparent dispute between the race organisation and councillors.

(Image credit: Yuzuru SUNADA)
Chris Marshall-Bell
By Chris Marshall-Bell
published

After the announcements that the Critérium International and La Méditerranéenne would not go ahead in 2017, another French race has been pulled from the cycling calendar.

Organisers of the Cholet-Pays-de-la-Loire, held in the west of France, were expecting to run the 40th edition of the one-day race this March, but conflict between them and the local councillors of Cholet has remained unsettled and the race has therefore been scrapped.

>>> How the loss of smaller races could save French cycling

It is reported by DirectVelo that Marc Madiot, FDJ's manager and president of the French National Cycling League (LNC), met with both parties, along with Alain Clouet, the general secretary of the LNC and race director of Tour du Poitou-Charentes, but no settlement to the dispute was found. It has not been revealed what the conflict is about.

The removal of Cholet-Pays-de-la-Loire, a UCI 1.1 event that attracted French WorldTour teams and a number of Pro-Continental outfits, reduces the number of Coupe de France races from 16 to 15.

Rudy Barbier (Roubaix–Métropole Européenne de Lille) won the 2016 event, adding his name to a list of victors that also includes Arnaud Démare, Thomas Voeckler, Chris Sutton, Jens Voigt and Madiot.

 

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Chris Marshall-Bell
Chris Marshall-Bell

Chris first started writing for Cycling Weekly in 2013 on work experience and has since become a regular name in the magazine and on the website. Reporting from races, long interviews with riders from the peloton and riding features drive his love of writing about all things two wheels.


Probably a bit too obsessed with mountains, he was previously found playing and guiding in the Canadian Rockies, and now mostly lives in the Val d’Aran in the Spanish Pyrenees where he’s a ski instructor in the winter and cycling guide in the summer. He almost certainly holds the record for the most number of interviews conducted from snowy mountains.

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