BAD NEWS for all

Michigan Tour de Leelanau canceled, other Michigan races imperiled by sponsor pullout.

By Steve Frothingham
Posted Jan. 30, 2009

"Current economic realities" have caused Michigan-based health insurance company Priority Health to pull its sponsorship of three major midwestern races, and at least one of the events has cancelled its 2009 edition.

The Tour de Leelanau race director Steven Brown informed the Union Cyclist Internationale (UCI) on Friday that it was canceling the UCI category 1.2 event, which had been scheduled for May 24.

“This development certainly is disappointing but not completely unexpected," Brown said in a letter to the UCI. "All of our planning was on track until everything fell apart in October and the last quarter of the year. It is like losing a good friend,” he said.

Beside Leelanau, Priority Health sponsored September's Priority Health Grand Classic, in Grand Rapids, and Priority Health Ann Arbor Classic. The insurance company announced last fall that it was ending sponsorship of all three events, which were all on USA Cycling's National Racing Calendar.

"Unfortunately, current economic realities simply prohibit our continued investment in these races,” Priority Health’s Amy Miller said in a statement at the time.

It was not clear Friday whether the September events would continue with different sponsors.

The news comes on the same week that the inaugural Oregon Pro Cycling Classic was postponed