[Baltimore Sun] Maryland Cycling Classic postponed for 2024, but officials expect race to return
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The Maryland Cycling Classic will be postponed this year but is expected to return in 2025, officials announced Tuesday.
The top-ranked road cycling race in the United States cited the capacities of both Baltimore City and Baltimore County, “the strain on existing resources and personnel” after the Key Bridge collapse, subsequent changes to the race course and the upcoming Summer Olympics in Paris among the reasons for the postponement.
The Grand Prix Cycliste de Montréal, an international cycling event in Canada that is traditionally held the week after the race in Maryland each summer, is taking place two weeks after the original Sept. 1 date of the Maryland Cycling Classic. Officials said the 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.”
“This brief pause in 2024 will allow the event to return in 2025 with even more vigor and momentum,” Terry Hasseltine, executive director of the Maryland Sports Commission and president of the Sport & Entertainment Corporation of Maryland, said in a statement. “The Maryland Cycling Classic is a premier cycling event on a global stage. We have delivered a product that continues to grow and are excited about the path forward.”
The Maryland Cycling Classic last took place Sept. 3 in the Baltimore area and drew an estimated 80,000 fans and nearly 800,000 viewers via livestream, an increase of 200% from 2022. The race started at noon at Kelly Benefits, traveled north of Butler, skirted the Maryland-Pennsylvania state line, circled Prettyboy Reservoir twice, moved southward down the eastern edges of Upperco, Boring and Glyndon and climbed a total elevation of about 7,500 feet before entering Baltimore City.
In the city, the cyclists made 4 1/2 laps of a 7.5-mile circuit that included 19 turns and short climbs through neighborhoods such as Fells Point, Washington Hill, Old Town and Mount Vernon. The route was generally contained by St. Paul Street to the west, Pratt Street to the south, South Broadway to the east, and East Lafayette Avenue to the north.
Baltimore was awarded a three-year bid to host the race in 2019 by Union Cycliste Internationale, the sport’s world governing body. But the coronavirus pandemic canceled the event in 2020 and 2021.
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