THE MELBOURNE to Warrnambool Cycling Classic will temporarily return to its one-day format for its 105th edition following the cancellation of the Sunday criteriums due to lack of entries.
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Melbourne to Warrnambool Road Race Cycling Committee chairman Shane Wilson confirmed the criteriums, which were introduced last year, will return in 2022.
Wilson said the committee's focus was on the 'Warrny' and the Port Campbell to Warrnambool Handicap, which are set to take place on February 13.
"Basically in a COVID year the uptake and entries are slower so we don't at this moment have the support at the greater level of racing," he said.
"We did have enough in the elite levels but the lower level numbers aren't there to justify the event. We see it as being just this year.
"We think COVID has driven entries off so we are putting all our resources into the Warrny and Port Campbell to Warrnambool and also to having a quality live stream of the Warrny, which people can watch for three to four hours."
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Wilson said the committee monitored entries before making a decision.
"We'd been looking closely at the numbers over the last couple of weeks and they haven't come up," he said.
"Typically they come up in the last week and for the amount of planning and local convenience we need to run it we had to make a calculated decision at some stage.
"We thought it was more efficient for us to keep the Port Campbell to Warrnambool and the Warrny to put our resources behind.
"We think the Port Campbell to Warrnambool has a huge future and the Warrny is an icon of the Australian racing calendar. In this COVID year we've done extremely well to keep them running."
Wilson said early entries for the Warrny and the Port Campbell to Warrnambool had been strong.
He expects close to 200 for the main event and over 100 for the handicap. Entries close on February 3 for both events.
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