A national cycling event will seek funding from the City of Launceston to ensure a stage is held in the city.
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The Spirit of Tasmania Tour, formerly known as the Tour of Tasmania, is seeking $10,000 in funds from the City of Launceston to assist it to host the event in November.
The event is run by GTR Events and the council will consider the host’s application for funding at its council meeting on Monday. A report in the council’s agenda notes GTR events made a late submission for funding under the council’s round 1 event sponsorship on May 9 2017 after discussions with council officers.
“Council officers had advised GTR events of the opening round on January 17 and in a follow up email on February 28, reminding them of the closing round on March 15,” the report reads.
As the funding request was not made until May the panel has not assessed the application for funding and the matter has been referred to the council for decision.
GTR Events’ and Spirit of Tasmania Tour race director John Trevorrow said the events team did take responsibility for the late request.
“We did put some documentation in late and we have to wear that,” he said.
However, he said he hoped the council would consider the funding request to ensure Launceston got the maximum benefit.
“We are keen to race the stage...we want to have the stage in Launceston,” he said.
Mr Trevorrow said he had been working with the other councils to move the date around for the tour to allow cyclists to also participate in the Stan Siejka cycling event.
He would not address whether the stage would be pulled from Launceston if the funds were not forthcoming. However that issue was raised by aldermen at the last strategic planning and policy (SPPC) meeting on June 19.
Tour of Tasmania is a historic cycling event that has been run since 1930 and has been operating in its current form since 1996.
Last year the Tour held a last-minute prologue event in Brisbane Street and also held a state of the event in Launceston. The complete course for this year, to be held in November, has not been finalised.
However, it’s believed George Town and West Tamar, Devonport and Central Coast will host stages.
The City of Launceston council will host its council meeting on June 26 at 1pm.
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