The 4 day National Road Series cycling event, The Tour of Toowoomba, scheduled for April 2016, will take a 12-month holiday with the view of returning in 2017.

An economic downturn in Toowoomba, Queensland’s largest regional inland city and failure to generate adequate sponsorship, are the main reasons cited by the organisers. According to Mac Stirling, President of Toowoomba Cycling Development, “there’s been a drop-off in sponsorship dollars.”
“We didn’t want to cancel and we apologise to the young riders and teams who won’t be given an opportunity to race on our roads and in our area,” Stirling said. “Rather than put on a half-baked race, we felt it’s best to wait until next year when we plan to invite a host of international teams (from Asia).”

The plan for 2017 is to organise a women’s stage race to coincide with the men’s. No women’s and men’s events are currently held in unison on the NRS circuit.

The four-day race is the only event on the NRS calendar held in Queensland and is considered one of the best in the country. Plans are in place to employ an events co-ordinator as opposed to an organising committee which has been operating on a voluntary basis.

By: Mike Tomalaris
Cycling Central

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