Granfondo Giro d'Italia Vienna 2017 cancelled - No approval for Granfondo Vienna

The cycling marathon has already been organised three times in the Austrian capital - but there will be no 2017 edition. Registered participants had been waiting for weeks for a decision - the organiser of the cycling marathon had stopped communicating in the meantime. One of the main reasons for the cancellation was a clash of dates with the Wings for Life World Run. According to the organisers, they waited in vain for a permit and were left in the lurch by the City of Vienna:

"At the beginning of May 2016, we submitted the application for approval to hold the fourth Gran Fondo Vienna on 7 May 2017 to the competent authority of the City of Vienna (Municipal Department 46). However, this application was not processed by the authority until the beginning of 2017, although the relevant legal regulation states that a decision must be issued after 6 months. As organisers, we do not understand why the authority allowed this deadline to pass without taking action. Despite repeated requests on our part, no one at MA46 was prepared to make a statement in this regard."

You can find the complete text of the press release here

The City of Vienna advertised the cycling marathon at the first edition: "The 1st Vienna Cycling Marathon is a strong signal that the increase in cycling in Vienna is progressing rapidly. I am therefore delighted that a cycling marathon can also take place in Vienna after Berlin and Hamburg," explained Vienna's Deputy Mayor and City Councillor for Transport Maria Vassilakou at the time.

Now the authority is no longer prepared to comment on the issue. Andreas Baur, press spokesman for the deputy mayor, did not want to give any answers to TOUR about the authorisation granted or refused.

According to Tom Kropiwnicki from organiser Mideasports, the application to host the event in June 2018 has already been submitted. He expects to receive approval this summer. He also promised that the 400 or so registered cyclists would receive an email by tomorrow. This will initiate the reimbursement of the entry fees already paid. The comments from cyclists who did not receive any responses to enquiries for weeks can be found on the Facebook page of the cycle marathon partly very critical.