Vuelta a San Juan Among Several Early Season Events to be Cancelled
The Vuelta a San Juan has been cancelled for a second successive year after race organisers in Argentina deemed the threat to health caused by the pandemic in the region as reason enough to postpone.
The event was scheduled to take place at the end of this month, starting on the 30th January and running through to the 6th February. As well as the Vuelta a San Juan, early season events such as the Tour Down Under, Cadel Evans Great Ocean Race in Australia and the 2022 Tour Colombia have also been cancelled due to rising cases and financial difficulties stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic.
It was slated to be the competitive opener for several key names including Filippo Ganna and Elia Viviani of the Ineos Grenadiers, as well as TotalEnergies debutant Peter Sagan and 2020 winner of this event Remco Evenepoel. With the usual season opener Tour Down Under being cancelled again, a record nine WorldTour teams including QuickStep-AlphaVinyl, Israel Start-Up Nation and Trek-Segafredo were set to have featured riders to kickstart their seasons, but the unfortunate news of the race’s cancellation was confirmed on Monday.
In a statement released by the organisers, it read: “The organisation of the Vuelta a San Juan announces that, in light of the health situation in the world, the region, the country and the province due to COVID-19, and considering the various statistics that are known from the official entities, it has been decided to suspend the Vuelta a San Juan as an international event.”
The organisation added that it was continuing to assess the possibility of holding the 2022 Vuelta a San Juan as a strictly domestic event, absent of international teams and made up exclusively of local cycling clubs.
At a press conference in San Juan on Monday, the region’s Sports Secretary Jorge Chica announced that the sharp increase in coronavirus cases in recent weeks as a result of the Omicron variant meant that the event would not go ahead for a second year.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=16cqXniPOL4
“Throughout the health situation, the governor and government of the province have always had in mind that the priority is the health of the people of San Juan.
“It saddens those of us who love sport, but also because of the positive economic impact that these events have.”
