The heavy snowfall in northern Europe forced the cancellation of the GP Oetingen in Belgium on Wednesday. Organisers waited until the last possible moment, just a couple of hours before the scheduled start, before deciding to pull the plug on the event.

The course for the Belgian one-day women's race, which takes place west of Brussels, was heavily impacted by the overnight snowfall.

The 1.1-categorised race had been set to feature eight Women's WorldTour teams: Team DSM, Jumbo-Visma, Human Powered Health, Movistar, Jayco-AlUla, Uno-X, UAE Team ADQ, and Fenix-Deceuninck.

This year's edition was set to be the third, with Elisa Balsamo winning the inaugural race in 2021 on her final year at Valcar-Travel & Service and Lorena Wiebes (Team DSM) triumphing last year.

Read more

O Gran Camiño opener called off amid heavy snow

Elisa Balsamo wins first GP Oetingen

Women's WorldTour – The definitive guide for 2023

There was another cancellation on the women's calendar on Wednesday, as the second stage of the Trofeo Ponente in Rosa was called off - as the first stage was - due to a dispute with local authorities over securing the route.

On the men's calendar, Paris-Nice and Tirreno-Adriatico both continued as normal this week.

This isn't the first time snow has disrupted racing this season, with a stage of the recent Gran Camiño called off with just 20km remaining due to a blizzard.

The women's peloton will now turn to this weekend's Ronde van Drenthe in the Netherlands, one of the main early WorldTour one-day races of the spring.

See more

See more