Organizers of the Amstel Gold Race and Amstel Gold Race Ladies Edition announced Wednesday that they will not hold the race on October 10 due to the recently introduced COVID-19 coronavirus regulation in the Netherlands.

The three municipalities involved (Eijsden-Margraten, Maastricht, and Valkenburg) and the province of South Limburg have concluded that it is not possible to hold the event within the framework of newly announced national regulations that ban the public from attending sporting events

"This is a very important issue.

"The past few months have been very intensive; the COVID-19 epidemic has made the organization of the Amstel Gold Race very complicated," said race director Leo van Fleet. [We have long worked on the Amstel Gold Race to prevent coronas and keep the course intact.

"In recent weeks it has become increasingly clear that a course through South Limburg visiting 10 municipalities was not feasible. For this reason, we have carefully planned a new, smaller circuit of 16.9 km. To avoid crowding and to maintain a distance of 1.5 meters, the course and its surroundings will be closed to the public.

"On Monday, we were all set to announce this, but due to new measures announced by the cabinet that evening, we had to revise our plans again."

"This became an almost impossible task under the condition that it not be "made public." Since Tuesday morning, we consulted with representatives of the security areas and municipalities. In their final assessment, the mayors found it impossible to guarantee non-disclosure. Of course, we cannot help but respect this assessment, no matter how much we dislike it. Of course, it does not prevent us from coming back next year with another great race"

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Following the statement of the organizers regarding the cancellation of the men's and women's events of the Amstel Gold Race, the UCI also confirmed that they were cancelled following action by the Dutch authorities.

"Due to the current health situation related to Covid 19 and the actions taken by the Dutch authorities, the International Cycling Union (UCI) regrets to announce that the 2020 Amstel Gold Race and the 2020 Amstel Gold Race Ladies have been cancelled at the request of the organizers The UCI regrets to announce that the 2020 Amstel Gold Race and 2020 Amstel Gold Race Ladies have been cancelled at the request of the organizers. The two events, listed on the UCI World Tour and UCI Women's World Tour calendars respectively, were scheduled to take place on October 10."

The cancellation follows the cancellation of Wednesday's stage of the Bink Bank Tour, which was scheduled to take place in Vlissingen. The race's organizers moved Thursday's start to Artel, Belgium, and changed Friday's stage to an 8 km timed trail around the Belgian town of Riemst.