no Classic Loire-Atlantique this year, the event ready to move to 2026

Bad news for cycling enthusiasts. The Classic Loire-Atlantique, the only professional race in the department, will not take place this year.

The organizers preferred to cancel the event counting towards the Coupe de France for financial reasons.

Elle was to take place on Saturday March 22 in La Haye-Fouassière and cross, as usual for around twenty years, four other communes of the Nantes vineyards (Saint-Fiacre-sur-Maine, Château-Thébaud, Vertou and Maisdon-sur-Sèvre).

Loss of grants

The loss of new subsidies major communities is fatal to them. With a budget which has been decreasing in recent years and which was still announced to be lower for this 25^e edition (around €110,000), impossible to maintain the proof.

It was no longer possible to continue given the context and we did not want to waste all our money.

No aid from the Pays de la Loire Region

In detail: the Classic was to receive “20% less from the Department (equivalent to €4,000, editor's note)” and no aid from the Pays de la Loire Region, in the grip of large-scale economies. ladder. That’s €15,000 less.

To this must be added the elimination of the €8,000 subsidy since last year from the Clisson Sèvre et Maine agglomeration community and the 50% reduction in aid from private partners in two years.

The commune of La Haye-Fouassière, too, was going reduce the sail by half for the 2025 edition. Until now, this has paid for services (podium, meals for the marshals) and made available the Sévria room then around ten agents ahead of the event, for an overall investment of more of €10,000.

Mayor Vincent Magré, joined by The Weekly of Sèvre et Maineregrets the cancellation of the Classic and justifies this reduction by the fact that Jean-Luc Chaillot planned to make a departure from Clisson and only the arrival at La Haye-Fouassière.

“We would have had a hole of €40,000 behind”

The question no longer arises. But, in any case, for the president of the Classic, “it is becoming more and more difficult” to organize cycling events which mainly depend on subsidies.

“Many races are in the same situation as us. If we had maintained the Classic, we would have had a hole of €40,000 behind,” says Jean-Luc Chaillot, who despite his 80 years, has been fishing for sponsors since his partner Marcel Cousin had to take a break due to health concerns 2-3 years ago.

The Classic will be held elsewhere in 2026 according to Jean-Luc Chaillot

More no question of burying the Classic Loire-Atlantique.

Jean-Luc Chaillot, helped by his team of volunteers, is “hopeful” to find another city in 2026.

Since in his mind, it will no longer be in La Haye-Fouassière nor in the Nantes vineyard. The president wants to breathe new life into this flagship race of the department, which served as support for the French championship in 2019.

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