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The absence of the Vuelta a Colombia from the UCI America Tour headlines a number of changes to the series for 2012. The UCI released the western hemisphere’s international schedule Tuesday and among the nine events cut are four Venezuelan races.
The America Tour is the regional calendar for international road events and provides a season-long points competition for races below the WorldTour level. The calendar shrinks from 31 scheduled races to 26, kicking off with new addition Tobago Cycling Classic (1.2) on October 2.
The tour rides north in May and the U.S. schedule includes the Amgen Tour of California (2.HC), TD Bank International Cycling Championship (1.HC), Tours of Elk Grove and Utah (2.1) and USA Pro Cycling Challenge (2.HC). Canada hosts two events on the America Tour, May’s Coupe des nations Ville Saguenay (2.Ncup) and June’s Tour de Beauce (2.2).
This year Venezuela saw 26 days of racing over four events — the Vuelta al Tachira en Bicicleta, Vuelta Ciclista a Venezuela and a pair of federation-backed one-day races — and will see no UCI racing in 2012.
The Vuelta a Colombia, one of Latin America’s strongest events, will also miss out on the international calendar after failing to meet UCI team invitation standards.
Colombian website nuestrociclismo.com quoted national federation manager Ruben Dario Galeano as saying, “We are unable to meet the standard enacted in recent years indicating that foreign teams must have five guests with all payments
“The race last year invited eight teams in Europe and America, but in the end they decided not to come to Colombia, stating that they were not interested to come around (an event) as hard as ours.”
New to the tour are the Tobago Classic, and Brazil’s Copa América de Ciclismo (1.2), Tour de Santa Catarina (2.2) and Volta Ciclistica internacional do Paraná (2.2).
2012 America Tour
02.10.2011 02.10.2011 Tobago Cycling Classic TRI 1.2
16.10.2011 23.10.2011 Tour do Brasil Volta Ciclística de São Paulo-Internacional BRA 2.2
23.10.2011 01.11.2011 Vuelta a Guatemala GUA 2.2
06.11.2011 13.11.2011 Vuelta a Bolivia BOL 2.2
16.12.2011 28.12.2011 Vuelta Internacional a Costa Rica CRC 2.2
05.01.2012 15.01.2012 Vuelta ciclista de chile CHI 2.2
08.01.2012 08.01.2012 Copa América de Ciclismo BRA 1.2
23.01.2012 29.01.2012 Tour de San Luis ARG 2.1
20.02.2012 27.02.2012 Vuelta Independencia Nacional DOM 2.2
21.02.2012 26.02.2012 Rutas de América URU 2.2
13.03.2012 17.03.2012 Giro do Interior de Sao Paulo BRA 2.2
30.03.2012 08.04.2012 Vuelta Ciclista al Uruguay URU 2.2
11.04.2012 15.04.2012 Volta Ciclistica Internacional de Gravatai BRA 2.2
18.04.2012 22.04.2012 Tour de Santa Catarina BRA 2.2
03.05.2012 03.05.2012 Panamerican Championships ITT ARG CC
06.05.2012 06.05.2012 Panamerican Championships RR ARG CC
13.05.2012 20.05.2012 Amgen Tour of California USA 2.HC
30.05.2012 03.06.2012 Volta Ciclistica internacional do Paraná BRA 2.2
31.05.2012 03.06.2012 Coupe des nations Ville Saguenay CAN 2.Ncup
03.06.2012 03.06.2012 TD Bank International Cycling Championship USA 1.HC
12.06.2012 17.06.2012 Tour de Beauce CAN 2.2
25.07.2012 29.07.2012 Tour do Rio BRA 2.2
03.08.2012 05.08.2012 Tour of Elk Grove USA 2.1
07.08.2012 12.08.2012 Tour of Utah USA 2.1
20.08.2012 26.08.2012 USA Pro Cycling Challenge USA 2.HC
15.09.2012 15.09.2012 Univest Grand Prix USA 1.2