The Pro Cycling Tour, the promoter of the Pennsylvania Triple Crown of Cycling, earlier this year cancelled the professional races that have been held in Allentown and Reading in recent years, and now the main event - the Philadelphia Cycling Championship race - is threatened.
Race co-founder Jerry Casale is quoted in a Philadelphia Inquirer article today that the June 7 race is $500,000 short of funding. Organizers say they need $1.7 million to hold the one-day event.
The annual race, called the TD Bank Philadelphia Cycling Championship this year, may fall victim to the global economic crisis sapping sponsors and money woes closer to home. The cash-strapped administration of Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter is charging race organizers for the city’s costs related to the event, estimated at $250,000.
Casale said that if money is not found by Monday, organizers will pull the plug on the long-running event. This year’s race was supposed to be its 25th year.
“It is not the city’s fault,” said Jerry Casale, a co-founder of the race. “The city has been a great partner for 24 years. Everybody is facing an economic crisis.”
As a cycling competition, it is the premier single-day professional bike race in the United States. Among its past winners are seven-time Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong and former Olympic speed-skating gold medalist Eric Heiden.
The race draws hundreds of thousands of fans each year.
“This is such a great event, it would be terrible to lose it,” said PCT President and race co-founder David Chauner told the Inquirer. “Jerry and I are not going to give up. We are not going down without a fight.”
