The Maryland Cycling Classic will be postponed until 2025, race officials confirmed to Velo today.
The postponement of the 2024 edition set for September 1 on Labor Day Weekend is due primarily to the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore in March that killed six people and removed a major thoroughfare for the city, causing traffic problems.
Though the Maryland Cycling Classic route does not use the bridge, the race finishes in downtown Baltimore that’s been heavily impacted by traffic re-routed from Interstate-695, which crossed over the bridge.
Like any professional road race, the MCC impacts the surrounding region, in this case with 200km of road closures, and that’s only compounded by Labor Day Weekend, one of the busiest travel periods of the year.
“[The postponement] is out of respect to what our community needs,” Terry Hasseltine, executive director of the Maryland Sports Commission and president of the Sport & Entertainment Corporation of Maryland, told Velo.
Hasseltine said that while the race could feasibly be run in 2024, the Baltimore area is under strain and there are a lot of unknowns about traffic and congestion patterns, especially heading into the summer. Postponing a year will give organizers time to observe these changes and adapt the race in a way that works with the community.
Officials stressed that the event otherwise is in good health, both financially and in terms of state and local government support, and will return.
“This is not a sponsorship issue,” said Steve Brunner, president of KOM Sports, a sports marketing firm that helped develop the race. “We’ve got good state support and city and county support, as well as a strong sponsor roster that we procured over the last two years.”
“I’ve been on 19 calls with sponsors and I can say 100 percent they’ve all been behind the event,” Brunner said.
Organizers also expressed that the postponement is to some extent because of changes in the international professional race schedule due to the Paris Olympic Games.
“The Grand Prix Cycliste de Montréal, an international cycling event in Montreal and Quebec, Canada that is traditionally held the week after the race in Maryland each summer is taking place two weeks after the date of the Maryland Cycling Classic,” race officials said in a press release. “This schedule change could impact the number of teams who will come to North America this summer to race, and consequently, the number of international cyclists that will participate this year in the Maryland Cycling Classic.”
Organizers confident in 2025 return, hint at women’s race
In light of pro cycling’s recent troubles in the US, cycling fans might understandably be concerned about the MCC’s future. The race is currently the only UCI-level road race in the US, and started shortly after the folding of prominent stage races in the US in the 2010s, including the Tour of California, the Tour of Utah, and the USA Pro Cycling Challenge.
The challenges facing the MCC are different, however, and crucially it has strong support from sponsors and local governing bodies.
“All of our calls [with race stakeholders] have been nothing but understanding and positive,” said Hasseltine. “That’s why I feel so confident that these races are going to come back at a higher standard. We’re not going away.”
That higher standard might include a women’s race, something that Brunner said is being considered for 2025. Women’s cycling has been one of the brighter areas in pro racing in the US, and continues to grow in popularity at the WorldTour level.
Other areas of improvement include more community outreach events, including bike rides and donating bikes and helmets to underserved communities, said Hasseltine.
The Race’s second postponement in its short history.
The Maryland Cycling Classic has been postponed by a major event outside of its control before.
The race had a difficult time even getting off the ground as the inaugural edition was originally scheduled for 2020, but was delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
It ultimately debuted two years later, in 2022, and held its second edition in 2023. 2024 would have been the third edition of the race, which has taken place over Labor Day Weekend each year.
The race has attracted top WorldTour athletes, giving smaller Continental level teams and up and coming athletes an opportunity to go toe to toe with the world’s best riders.
Spring classics heavyweight Sep Vanmarcke won the inaugural edition, followed by Danish national champion Mattias Skjelmose in 2023. American favorite Neilson Powless has podiumed in both editions.
That first setback has provided Brunner with confidence that the race will be back even stronger than before.
“We hung in there during covid as you know,” Brunner said. “We all hung together as a team and got it done. It’s a really resilient state and a really resilient community.”