Organisers of the Vélo South closed road sportive have cancelled the event because of anticipated high winds and heavy rain on Sunday (23 September).

The sportive, which 15,000 riders have signed up for, was based at the Goodwood Motor CIrcuit and the route is through West Sussex. It was one of the largest new events in the cycling calendar. Riders will be entitled to a full refund of their entry fees and car parking fees.

In a statement on the event website, the organisers CSM Events said:  "Due to the continued worsening of this weekend's weather forecast, we have taken the difficult decision to cancel Vélo South. The Met Office Yellow Weather Warning for strong winds in the area during the hours of the event remains in place as more storms cross the UK this weekend. In addition to the Met Office, we consult several other weather platforms and the following summarises Sunday's outlook across those sources:

- Constant wind speeds as high as 38mph
- Wind gusts as high as 53mph
- Heavy rain throughout the event

"All these sources agree that the wind will be gusting to at least 40mph across several hours during the event - this is 'gale force' and at these wind levels, the following is possible:

- Gusts blowing cyclists over or causing collisions
- Trees/branches/infrastructure damaged or falling
- Key event infrastructure (eg, safety barriers, feed stations, etc) compromised or unable to be constructed
- Increased pressure on medical and blue light services supporting the event
- Greatly increased risk of participants not being able to complete the event
- Exposure of stewards/volunteers/event staff to adverse conditions for long periods

"Many of these risks are further exacerbated by the heavy rain forecast throughout the day.

"Based on the advice of our third party health & safety company and our medical team, we have concluded that it would be unsafe for us to attempt to deliver an event of this scale in the forecasted conditions. We would be unable to guarantee the safety of our participants, spectators, volunteers, contractors and event staff across the 100 mile route and that is not a risk we are prepared to take.

"All the advice tells us that with less than 60 hours to go until the event starts, the forecast is unlikely to change significantly and so we have opted to make the decision to cancel the event now in order to prevent cyclists travelling to West Sussex and incurring further costs, and to start the process of informing the vast number of people affected by this decision.

"We are determined to re-schedule the event for 2019 and we will work with our local authority and agency partners to try and identify an alternative date as quickly as we can. In the meantime, all participants will be entitled to a full refund of their event entry fees & car-parking fees. Please bear with us and we will be in touch very soon to communicate the exact process for this."

The only people cheering the abandonment will be a small number of grumpy locals who had threatened the local council with legal action for allowing the event, due to the disruption to local businesses and the inability for people to drive on local roads. An action group called Stop Velo South claimed to have 3,000 members and was planning a 'walking protest' which could have disrupted the sportive. They have said they will also be working to make sure that Velo South 2019 does not go ahead in anything close to the format planned this year.

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