Anna van der Breggen (Boels Dolmans) was surprised by the cancellation of the Amgen Tour of California and said it was a huge loss for women's racing; the two-time champion said that if the Women's World Tour did not take place, it would be difficult for European She said it would be difficult for top-level European teams to justify a trip to the U.S. if the women's World Tour would not take place.

"When you come from Europe, as I do, there is not much racing in the US," van der Breggen told Cycling News. The Tour of California is the only reason we came to the US."

"When we were racing, there were a lot of fans, especially women's cycling, and it seemed like the support was really big.

In October, AEG, organizer of the Tour of California, announced that both the World Tour and Women's World Tour events would be suspended until 2020.

Christine Klein, president of the Amgen Tour of California and executive vice president of AEG Sports, said they were forced to reconsider their options. She also said they are actively evaluating all aspects of the event to determine if there is a business model that will make the race successful in 2021.

"I was really surprised," Van der Breggen said when she learned that next year's men's and women's races had been canceled.

"I was there in May and the organizers were very enthusiastic. They had planned a lot for the race and were trying to make everything better. I was very surprised."

The Tour of California first held a men's stage race in 2006 and a women's one-day event in 2008. While the men's race is a week-long event, the women's started with a one-day criterium; in 2015, it became a multi-day stage race. Both events joined the World Tour in 2016.

The Tour of California was the only women's World Tour race held in the United States after the Philadelphia Cycling Classic was cancelled in 2017.

Van der Breggen's first experience racing in the United States was at the 2015 UCI Road World Championships in Richmond. She then competed in the 2017 and 2019 Tour of California women's races with her Boels Dolmans team, winning both events overall.

"It was a great race and a big loss for the women's calendar because everything was so well organized," van der Breggen said. "It's especially sad because that race was very special for us [European athletes]. For those of us from Europe, that race was a really valuable experience. It was a race at a high altitude, which we don't usually do in Europe. All of this made the race really special."

The UCI announced the 2020 Women's World Tour in June. It was noted that the Prudential RideLondon Classic was missed due to a schedule conflict with the Ladies Tour of Norway. In addition, organizers of the Spanish stage race Emakumeen Bira announced

that they would cancel this long-run event, traditionally held in May.

The loss of both Emakumeen Bira and the Tour of California created an unexpected void in the women's World Tour calendar for next May. Van der Breggen said that top-level teams will likely hold training camps during that time.

"This year I went to California and stayed in the U.S. for a high-altitude training camp," she said. 'We don't do that anymore. But there are always things we can do, like training camps in other places."