'We're not at all giving up the ghost, we will be back' - Organiser of major British race vows event will return after brief hiatus

Brian Cookson explains decision to pause Lancaster Grand Prix for a year as organising committee eye 2026 return

Ben Granger
(Image credit: SWPix.com)

The Lancaster Grand Prix will return in 2026, despite it being cancelled this season, the chair of its organising committee has said.

Speaking on Wednesday, Brian Cookson said that there is nobody to blame for the decision to cancel the race this summer and place the event on temporary hiatus.

Local authority uncertainty

Cookson also explained that a series of uncertainties regarding the structure of local authorities in the race’s home county of Lancashire meant that funding for the event was also unclear.

"Lancashire is in a particularly peculiar position, because there's a kind of restructuring in place, or about to be in place, that's still subject to a fair amount of debate and decisions," he said. "We don't know yet whether there's going to be one county authority with a mayor, or whether there's going to be some sort of three way split of three different local authorities, unitaries, or two level authorities. So that's all making the funding environment very, very complicated."

Cookson acknowledged that the decision to cancel the race would be frustrating for a number of stakeholders, but reiterated that it will come back stronger and in a position to thrive.

"The ambition and the intention is that we come back in 2026, on or about the same dates in July," he said. "We would then have a sportive on the Saturday with a start and finish in the park, and then the main two races on the Sunday. If we can do that then there's a better offer to the sponsors and there's a better outcome for the local authorities.

"We just ask people to understand and be patient and thank them for their support. We missed a year with the pandemic, but that's about it, and we've been going since the first one in 2019. We have found a pretty good permanent place in the calendar and stuck with that, so we will be back."

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Tom Thewlis
News and Features Writer

After previously working in higher education, Tom joined Cycling Weekly in 2022 and hasn't looked back. He's been covering professional cycling ever since; reporting on the ground from some of the sport's biggest races and events, including the Tour de France, Paris-Roubaix and the World Championships. His earliest memory of a bike race is watching the Tour on holiday in the early 2000's in the south of France - he even made it on to the podium in Pau afterwards. His favourite place that cycling has taken him is Montréal in Canada.

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