The European Broadcasting Union, the consortium of public-service broadcasters, renewed its deal with the Lagardère-owned event management company Upsolut Event to distribute the worldwide media rights to the Vattenfall Cyclassics for four years from 2012-2015. The race is part of the UCI World Tour.
The EBU’s director of sports and business, Stefan Kuerten, said: “This agreement demonstrates the commitment of the EBU and its members to the sport of cycling, while reflecting the importance of wide-reaching, free-to-air exposure of this event.”
The Vattenfall Cyclassics, which started life as the HEW-Cyclassics in 1996, markets itself as Europe’s largest cycle race. Before the 18 professional cycling teams compete in the UCI World Tour, 22,000 amateur cyclists will cycle the city course. This year’s race takes place on August 19.
Upsolut Event managing director, Franck Bertling, added: “The renewal for another four years reflects the firm mutual trust between the EBU and its members and the Vattenfall Cyclassics. It is also indicative of the high TV and media interest in our event, as well as the appreciation of EBU members for our high quality TV product, which we have been delivering for many years.”