GP Llodio also at risk

The Gran Premio Llodio - Clásica de Álava has today joined an ever-expanding list of Basque races whose futures are threatened. ABC.es reports that the 1.1-ranked UCI race, originally slated for the 21st of April, might not go ahead this season.

The only professional bike race to be staged in the region of Álava is struggling to come up with the 70 000 euros required to hold the race. Both private and public sponsors are reportedly cutting back on their funding amid the tough economic climate currently plaguing Spain, leaving the GP Llodio on the brink of extinction. The organizing committee is likely to rule on the race's future in mid to late next week.

If the race does indeed disappear, it'll join a growing list of casualties in Basque cycling. The Bira, Subida a Urkiola and Euskal Bizikleta have all gone off the map in recent years, and might be followed by the GP Induráin and the two cornerstones in the region: the Vuelta al País Vasco and the Clásica San Sebastián. Coupled with Igorre being removed as a stop on the UCI's cyclo-cross world cup calendar and Euskaltel's future still being the subject of conjecture, the word 'crisis' might just be, for once, a warranted description of the state Basque cycling finds itself in at the moment.