Daily Times

SYDNEY: Australia’s Tour Down Under was on Thursday cancelled for a second year running due to the pandemic, with uncertainty around border closures and quarantine requirements taking their toll. It is usually the season-opening event, in January, on the men’s UCI World Tour and women’s UCI ProTour calendar. “We have fully explored all avenues,” Events South Australia executive director Hitaf Rasheed said on the event website. “But unfortunately in the end it was the border closures and quarantine requirements for more than 400 people that make up the international teams that proved to still be too difficult to overcome.” The World Tour’s Cadel Evans Great Ocean race in Victoria state was also cancelled as international teams from the Tour Down Under usually head there afterwards. “Of course we are disappointed but we will continue to work on a bigger and better event in the future,” said Evans.