Lithuania is on the global road cycling map. 27th-31st May the multi-day cycling race “Tour of Lithuania” will be held for the fourth year in a row, gaining interest not only among the Baltic teams. 27 teams are expected to compete in the vicinity of five cities – Tauragė, Kėdainiai, Utena, Kaunas and Vilnius gathering approximately 500 cyclists and support staff traveling around Lithuania.
In 2023, the idea of a multi-day cycling race in Lithuania was revived by Darijus Džervus. “Tour of Lithuania” is the only competition for professionals of this level in the Baltics.
“Tour of Lithuania” is becoming the main event in the Lithuanian cycling season
“For a long time I’ve been trying to convince other local organisers that we need to do races like this, that the country needs them. No one was particularly interested in this quest, so we decided to do it ourselves. In my opinion, such races should be on the world cycling map, as a business card for the country. Our first competition was of local importance: a group of enthusiastic friends – we did it, it wasn’t very hard,” recalled D. Džervus.
The “Tour of Lithuania” race is assigned the 2.2 category of the International Cycling Union (UCI), so cyclists can earn ranking points in it, allowing them to compete for tickets to the world, European championships and even the Olympic Games.
Darius Levickis, president of the Lithuanian Cycling Federation, hopes that next year the event will manage to get an even higher category – 2.1 – and that even more known teams will be a part of the race.
“Tour of Lithuania” is becoming our central event, bringing together the largest number of participants. About 500 athletes and support staff come from all over to Lithuania. This event was revived a few years ago and is gaining more and more attention. Our goal is to raise the level of this competition: next year we’ll try to organise a competition one category higher, and then we’ll be able to invite more well known teams,” said D. Levickis.
The head of the country’s cycling federation compares the “Tour of Lithuania” to the Lithuanian version of the “Tour de France”. According to him, road cycling is the main face of all cycling gaining the most interest.
“Cyclist achieve the highest level on the open road, so from a commercial, mass and well-known point of view, the largest funds are generated in this discipline. The “Tour of Lithuania” competition is important because our young generation of athletes can see the most capable cyclists live and support Lithuanians. This is our jewel in the crown, which we must continue to polish and grow. The “Tour de France” has 21 stages, in our case we can grow to 6-7 stages. We can raise the level and we must do so,” said D. Levickis.
Currently, 22 teams from 4 continents have confirmed their participation in the “Tour of Lithuania”. Event organiser Arnoldas Valiauga is pleased with the growing interest of the teams: as soon as the registration for the race was announced, almost all the places allocated for participants were filled.
Great conditions for the best results
“Now we have 22 teams registered, and there are almost 3 months left until the competition: the remaining five places should be filled – a maximum of 27 teams can participate. Speaking of countries, we have teams from Estonia, Norway, Switzerland, China, USA, Denmark, Finland, Latvia, Great Britain, Egypt, Czech Republic and Germany. According to our category – 2.2 – only professionals and guest clubs can be part of the race,” said A. Valiauga.
According to the organiser, the stages taking place in Lithuania are not very difficult compared to countries with more mountainous terrain. One of the organisers’ goals is to show the country’s nature to the arriving athletes.
“This race is special because it’s the only such race in Lithuania and the only one of this size in the Baltic States. As the name “Tour of Lithuania” indicates, we want the participants to see as much of Lithuania as possible. We have 5 cities: Tauragė, Kėdainiai, Utena, Kaunas, Vilnius. The stages are not especially hard, because there’re not a lot of mountains or other strenuous terrain in Lithuania. There’re some hills in all stages, but otherwise they are fast, if the weather conditions don’t affect them like last year – it was more difficult that time because of the wind and rain,” said A. Valiauga.
The “Tour of Lithuania” race is partially financed by state funds, which are administered by the National Sports Agency as well as by the municipalities of Tauragė, Kėdainiai, Utena, Kaunas and Vilnius.
