The Tour Colombia will not take place in 2023, marking the third consecutive year that one of South America's most prestigious stage races will disappear from the calendar.

The six-day, 2.1km event had been scheduled to take place in early February as it has since it began in 2018 under the name Colombia Oro y Paz. According to several reports, the Tour Colombia was forced to cancel due to lack of funding.

The Tour Colombia has been held three times and has been won by well-known riders such as Egan Bernal, Miguel Angel Lopez, and Sergio Iguita. Bernal was expected to compete in the Tour Colombia as he begins his first full season after a dramatic training accident last January.

Notable stage winners include Julian Alaphilippe, Dani Martinez, Rigoberto Uran, Fernando Gaviria, and Nairo Quintana.

According to DiarioASColombia, Mauricio Vargas, president of the Colombian federation, said that the significant drop in the value of the local currency, the peso, against the dollar (it lost 30% of its previous value over the fall and briefly crashed) caused costs to rise excessively.

According to the website, Vargas stated that the budget, originally estimated at 10 million pesos, had increased to 13 million pesos as a result.

Support was provided by the Colombian government's Sports Ministry, but according to DiarioASColombia, it was not enough to save the race, which has already been canceled in 2022 as a result of the pandemic and lack of funding; it was also canceled in 2021 due to COVID-19.

The Tour Colombia, held February 7-12 and preceded by the Colombian national championships, was an opportunity for local Continental teams to compete against World Tour teams in a stage race.

Second only to the Vuelta a San Juan in Argentina in late January as a high-level early season event in South America, the Tour Colombia was sometimes held for a month in the southern hemisphere with many World Tour teams combining the two races.

Now, teams and riders must plan different race calendars, perhaps with more and earlier races in Europe and the Middle East.