Luca Paolini, Rigoberto Uran and Gorka Verdugo on the podium(Image credit: Bettini Photo)
The Gran Piemonte peloton rolls out from the start(Image credit: Fotoreporter Sirotti)
Rigoberto Uran (Team Sky) wins Gran Piemonte(Image credit: Bettini Photo)
Race organiser RCS Sport announced today that it had cancelled this year's edition of the Giro del Piemonte, scheduled to take place on Friday, October 4. The venerable one-day Italian classic, first contested in 1906, fell victim to financial issues affecting much of Europe.
"The international economic situation and, in particular the Italian one, has put many sporting events, including the Gran Piemonte, in serious difficulty," read a statement from RCS Sport. "Added in the UCI Europe Tour calendar, the Gran Piemonte, which in 2012 saw the victory of the Colombian Rigoberto Uran, suffered economic hardship that has led the organisers to the decision to cancel the event."
Coupled with the Milano-Torino one-day race, held two days earlier and also organised by RCS Sport, the Giro del Piemonte served as an invaluable tune-up to the season's final Monument, Il Lombardia, this year contested two days later on Sunday, October 6. Part of the UCI European Tour since 2005, the 1.HC-rated event had previously been cancelled due to financial difficulties in 2007, but had been successfully contested from 2008 through 2012 afterwards.
Since the world championship shifted to a fall date in the mid-1990s, the Giro del Piemonte was typically contested only a handful of days after the elite men's road race world championship, providing the newly crowned world champion an opportunity to show off the rainbow-striped jersey in competition.
