Cycling criterion Draai van de Kaai in Roosendaal stops after 44 years. This was announced on Monday evening. According to the organization, which took the decision ‘with pain in the heart’, the significantly increased costs play an important role in the decision to stop. Interest in cycling criteria in general is also declining.
The Draai van de Kaai is one of the oldest and most famous (professional) cycling criteriums that are held in Brabant after the Tour de France. On the eve of the 44th and, as it turns out, last edition, chairman Cor Verbogt expressed the hope that cycling and partying would be possible again in Roosendaal in 2026. The reality is different.
“Although we have had very much appreciated support from our sponsors in recent years, the organization of this top event is becoming increasingly expensive and complex. The sharply rising costs are putting a heavy burden on our budget and can hardly be fully covered,” he writes in the press release, which is also signed by secretary Joep van Rijswijk.
According to the two board members, it is becoming increasingly difficult to sign Tour riders. They would rather be home shortly after the Tour de France and if they want to be contracted, the organization is confronted with increasingly higher wages. Another problem lies with women’s cycling. Due to the relocation of the Tour de Femmes after the men’s, it is hardly possible to get top female athletes at the start. Women have been competing in the Draai van de Kaai since 2001.
But there are also local problems: the music event, an important pillar and cost bearer of the event for years, is difficult to sustain. It was already clear that the current combination of top sports and parties on the event site will disappear due to the plans for parking spaces in the quay and port area.
“The organization of a large-scale event like the Draai is becoming increasingly logistically complicated.”
Verbogt and Van Rijswijk: “No matter how positive these developments are for the city and its residents, they make the organization of a large-scale event like the Draai increasingly logistically complicated,” Verbogt and Van Rijswijk report. They are grateful to everyone, including the municipality, who has put their heart and soul into the Draai van de Kaai over all these years.
Bert Oosterbosch from Eindhoven won the first edition in 1980; Belgian Tim Merlier will go down as the very last winner.
