New races in Colorado, Virginia and Idaho included in 2017 UCI America Tour calendar
The UCI published its 2017 Continental Calendars over the weekend, confirming two new men’s races in the U.S. as part of its UCI America Tour circuit.
The Tour of Colorado is set for August 10-13, and the Commonwealth Cycling Classic in Richmond, Virginia, a four-day 2.1 event, will be held two weeks later, August 24-27.
Both races are listed as elite men’s events only. While under different race management, the Tour of Colorado in effect replaces the USA Pro Challenge, the Colorado stage race which ran for five years and was also held in August. The Tour of Colorado will begin just four days after the Larry H. Miller Tour of Utah ends, providing back-to-back high-altitude stage UCI races in August.
Also new is the UCI 1.2 Gran Prix of Boise, which was added to the calendar on Friday, July 14, for both men and women, kicking off the weekend of Boise’s long-running Twilight Criterium, part of the USA Cycling Pro Road Tour. Oregon’s Cascade Classic, a UCI 2.2 stage race for women only in 2016, will be a UCI 2.2 event for men and women in 2017.
Other changes to the U.S. calendar include calendar changes for the Joe Martin Stage Race and the Tour of the Gila — both which offer men’s and women’s racing — with Joe Martin now running March 30-April 2, and Gila running April 19-23. These moves accommodate the move of the Redlands Classic, from early April to early May, as a lead-in to the Amgen Tour of California, which in 2017 will be part of both the UCI men’s and women’s WorldTour calendars.
The 2017 men’s Amgen Tour of California has been shortened, from eight days, to seven, running May 14-20.The 2017 UCI calendar also reveals a name change for the women’s Tour of California, now labeled the “Amgen Breakaway from Heart Disease Women’s Race empowered with SRAM.”
