The Tour of Britain, billed as ‘the UK’s biggest annual sporting event’, by its organiser SweetSpot is facing some uncertainty over its future.
The Tour of Britain was revived in 2004. Since then, SweetSpot has been its organiser and promoter. Although, national governing body British Cycling owns the rights to the week-long pro cycling race.
In recent days, British Cycling has a issued a statement confirming it has now terminated its agreement with SweetSpot. (In 2019, SweetSpot secured a 10-year agreement with British Cycling to run ‘the UK’s most prestigious cycle race’ until 2029.)
British Cycling’s statement noted…
‘We can confirm that we have terminated our agreement with Sweetspot Group Limited to deliver the Tour of Britain. British Cycling remains fully committed to the delivery of the Tour of Britain in 2024, and will share further details in due course.’
According to a report in The Guardian… ‘British Cycling claims SweetSpot owes £700,000 in unpaid instalments, dating back to 2022.’
With the national governing body facing some challenges to its finances, and with it recently making redundancies, British Cycling will be certainly be in need of any funds owing to it.
Neither British Cycling nor SweetSpot gave any further comment and the matter is understood to be in the hands of lawyers.
www.britishcycling.org.uk
www.thetour.co.uk
