MP's $100,000 push to secure Melbourne to Warrnambool cycling race

Member for South West Coast Roma Britnell made the plea, imploring the government to kick in the funds from its new $170 million regional tourism package which was announced in the wake of the cancelled Commonwealth Games.

When contacted by The Standard about Ms Britnell's funding push, event organiser Shane Wilson said the committee had been in discussions with the state government and the city council for some time and was quietly optimistic of securing a strong future for the event.

"The financial obligation of running such events has become very significant in recent times, and therefore we need to lock in a longer term sustainable deal," he said. Mr Wilson said last year they had "just scraped in".

"It got across the line, but what it did prove was that we as a committee need to make sure that we take early positive steps to protect the event for now and well into the future," he said. "We can really make this event a significant and major event."

Mr Wilson said many major events were falling away. "We've had The Bay Crits fall by the wayside, the Herald Sun tour hasn't run for about four or five years and our event is the second oldest in the world in terms of a cycling classic," he said.

"The event's been running 128 years and it's important that Warrnambool maintains this proud tradition."

The event was not immune from inflation pressures with traffic management "far and away" the biggest cost. "Traffic management is an enormous figure and dwarfs everything else," he said.

Ms Britnell said the iconic event needed a sustainable funding model.

"The Melbourne to Warrnambool cycling festival is the longest cycling festival in the Southern Hemisphere, yet the volunteers who organise the event must work to secure funding every year in an environment of ever-increasing costs of running events," she said.

"$100,000 from this new regional tourism package will ensure this iconic sporting event continues to bring more and more tourism to south-west coast and further cement our status as Victoria's tourism hub."

Ms Britnell said if the government wanted international events to thrive in Victoria, this was a world-class event asking for support.

She said it would be the third year of female participation in the event, and the government had an opportunity to demonstrate its commitment to both supporting women in sports and to regional tourism.

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