'A stupid decision' - Funding cut forces Tour of Norway to pause in 2026, reboot planned for 2027

The 2026 Norwegian national budget was passed just last week after long negotiations between the political parties.

Roy Hegreberg found out on a Saturday evening that the Tour of Norway was missing from the list of events receiving funding. Speaking to Domestique, he stated "We had a meeting at the office on Monday morning and we started to discuss, 'what do we do, what can we do' and quite fast we realised together with the board that there was no room to try to make a pro race in 2026." 

A process followed shortly after, as the event organisers had to inform the teams and the UCI that the stage race would not take place in 2026, with the local volunteers being informed and were truly devastated. 

What will the organisers of the race work on in 2026? The job is to make the Tour of Norway in 2027 come back stronger than ever before. Along with that, there is the focus on running the Norwegian continental team, Drali-Repsol, and a sportive event called the North Sea Race.

On the matter, Hegreberg stated, "We have a little bit of money to pay the bills here, but we need a couple of extra projects also for next year because we, of course, lose a lot of big partnership money from different municipalities and money from television."

Regarding bringing the Tour of Norway back stronger, Hegreberg clarified, "We will now use 2026 to build a solid foundation for the 2027 edition. I'm going to Oslo to have a meeting with some politicians, as they have contacted us because they see the stupid decision that was made here. I'm convinced that we will bring back the Tour of Norway, and I hope we can bring it back as an even better race, better foundation, better finances, and build for the future."

It's safe to say the race organisers, Fjords Cycling were left in the dark by the Norwegian government, with Hegreberg stating that the organisation had no clarification regarding the reason for their loss of funding.  "They never said anything to us; they didn't say anything before, but through the media, some of the politicians said that this was a special contribution to the Tour of Norway and not common for annual contributions."

The 2026 edition was actually set and 100% confirmed, according to Hegreberg, with the last municipality coming on board a week prior to the government taking away the funds. "We had a very hard stage with two really high mountains, something that was on the bucket list for many years. We will try to bring it back for 2027, said Hegreberg."

Several top UCI WorldTour teams on the men’s and women’s side were set to line up for the race in May 2026, with riders including Mads Pedersen keen to compete.