FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — The 47th Joe Martin State Race has been postponed until 2025, according to a press release from All Sports Productions.
"After 46 years of amateur stage racing, 21 years on the USA Cycling professional calendar and 9 years on the UCI international calendar we’ve had to make the very difficult decision to cancel the 2024 event," said Race Director, Bruce Dunn.
Dunn said the decision was due to "rising costs of producing a multi-day stage race" along with "limited corporate and stakeholder sponsorship funding" and that this year, they'll focus on looking for sponsors for the professional UCI stage race to make a "bigger and better" comeback next year.
"With 14 months to plan for 2025, we will be working tirelessly to secure a top-tier line-up of sponsors," Dunn said.
Steve Clark, President and CEO of the Fayetteville Chamber of Commerce, said the event draws in lots of visitors to Fayetteville from many different countries every year.
"The Ozarks are an incredibly great place to cycle so we attract people from around the world," Clark said. "Cycling is very, very good for Fayetteville both for revenue and the people who come to cycle here and to be a part of the cycling community."
Clark said he feels confident the races will return to Fayetteville in 2025.
"We're gonna miss it this year severely and significantly, but we're planning on having it back next year," Clark said. "This is not one of those things that we hope that comes back. This is one of these things that will be back."
Even though the race is held in Fayetteville every year, the whole region sees lots of visitors, including Magnolia Cycles bike shop in Rogers.
"Racers are staying all over, and so we had quite a few racers who needed some last-minute repairs and things," said Michael Crum, the owner of Magnolia Cycles.
Crum said visitors get to see the "hidden gem" that is cycling in Arkansas.
"When they think Arkansas, they don't think of those types of things," Crum said. "We have some really interesting pockets that people are surprised by and then they come back to visit. Some of them come back and move here."
Until 2025, Crum recommended attending the biking events that are set to go on.
"We don't want to see it go away," Crum said. "Keep on supporting all the events that are still going on this year, we've got a whole bunch of them coming up, including Gravel Mountain and the Bentonville Bike Fest."
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