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Tour Down Under organisers are adamant Australia’s top cycling race must retain its January holiday timeslot.
Two years of lobbying is likely to come to a head this year, with cycling’s world governing body the UCI likely to announce an overhaul of the event calendar.
There has been speculation that the international road season might start in February.
But Mike Turtur, who has been Tour race director since it started in 1999, said they have a strong case for no change to its annual date.
The six-day race is always held in the last week of the summer school holidays.
The Tour is coming off one of its most successful editions and was blessed by unusually-mild weather.
There were none of the 40 degree-plus days that have made the Tour in the past a brutal early-season test.
“We’ve done everything right on this race in terms of staging, management, what we do for the teams, our understanding of the sport and what the teams require at this time of year,” Turtur said.
“That’s been acknowledged by the UCI and all the professional teams.
“We believe we have a really good product, a very strong product, that we’ve produced and developed over 17 years.
“That would need to be respected in terms of any considerations for the reform.”
Turtur added that when the race started, it was pitched to the teams as an option for their early-season preparations.
“It worked in 1999 and it hasn’t failed us since,” he said.
The Tour is also state government funded.
“It just so happens to be a bike race, but it is a tourism event,” Turtur said.
“The Tour de France is the biggest race in the world, but the principles that surround the Tour de France, surround us.
“The time of year when they stage the race is July, which is the summer holidays in Europe.
“We stage our race in the summer holidays in Australia – that factor alone is really important to this race as a tourism event and also a bike race.”
Turtur hailed race winner Rohan Dennis, who was the third SA rider and seventh Australian to take the Tour title.
“What he did in this race, I think he came of age,” Turtur said.
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