Less than 24-hours before the planned start of Campagnolo Gran Fondo Roma, the 120km gran fondo event has been cancelled by the promoter.

Over 5000 riders, many from abroad, registered to ride the largest end-of-season amateur race in Italy on Sunday, October 13, starting from the heart of Rome.   Unfortunately, the promoter did not have necessary agreements from local municipalities the route would cross.

Gran Fondo Roma commented (translated), “For a series of unresolvable criticalities emerged in the last hours linked to the refusal to cross a common object of the race route, let us know only at the last moment, we are forced, reluctantly, to review the course of the Granfondo, which will take place on a reduced distance of 65 km.  Unfortunately, the attempts made to find in every way a valid alternative, because the proposed solutions did not guarantee the safety standards, fundamental for us for the carrying out of the event, have been worthless. The late sending of this communication is due to the fact that we worked to the last to avoid all this.”

It seems the promoter fiddled around trying to secure necessary permits at the last minute and Gran Fondo Roma burned to the ground when permits were not granted.

The consolation 65km route did not appease riders who traveled far, spent significant monies and used precious vacation time to attend the international event.

Twitter users quickly commented:

@ciacolabenci “The city of Rome and the surrounding area have just strung together yet another colossal figure of shit.”

@borisgiulivi “the antics of the @granfondoroma that a day from the start halves the path with cyclists coming from all over the world is unacceptable.”

@ Luca10ottobre “The umpteenth failure of the #M5S and of @ virginiaraggi, the capital of the holes! Grand Fondo Roma, canceled the long route. Cycling in the Capital fails.

At press time, Gran Fondo Roma has not yet offered compensation (refunds, free 2020 entry, etc.) to riders registered for the 120km race.

The last minute failure of the organization and amputation of the route from 120km to 65km will likely have long lasting repercussions on any future cycling events, if any, in Rome.

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