The exact date for the next L’Etape cycling event is yet to be decided on, following extreme weather forecasts forcing its cancellation two days before it was due to be held on 20 March.

“We want to hold it at the end of the year, but we are still doing our due diligence on what would be the best date,” says Florent Malézieux, Head of Sport at Lateral Events and organiser of L’Etape Australia, noting that the process could take a few weeks.

“We have to take already organised events and trackworks into account, factor in the information that the community has told us leading up to the March event and engage with the local business chambers and councils.

“We are even looking at the possibility of holding it on a Sunday, given that many businesses have been telling us that Saturday is their busiest day.”

The latest the new date would be confirmed is during the Tour de France (26 June – 18 July), as it is a crucial marketing opportunity for the Australian event.

Mr Malézieux has no regrets about cancelling the event, despite the costs involved in refunding participants. Just how much of this will be covered is still being discussed with the insurers.

“We drove the course on the morning it was held, and it was even scary to be in a car,” he says.

“The visibility was terrible, and the rain was insane. Later in the day a tree fell on Jamberoo Mountain Road and flooding closed Macquarie Pass.

“There is no way we could have exposed our participants to that danger.”

The regret he does have is that the community still hasn’t seen what L’Etape Australia looks like when it comes to town.

“I think people got a sense of what it could be, because we cancelled very late. The Event Village was taking shape and we had taken Tour de France champion Simon Gerrans to meet some local school children just an hour before the cancellation - they were very excited Kiama had been chosen to host the event.

Cycling legend Simon Gerrans with St Peters and Pauls' Charlie Edwards and Poppy Nelson (School Captains), and Lily George (Vice Captain)

While the December event will hopefully be a case of third time lucky (with last year’s November event postponed due to COVID), Mr Malézieux says that the area has already enjoyed an economic benefit from the false starts.

“Many cyclists still came down despite the cancellation, as they had accommodation booked.

“They were evident around town on the weekend, and made the most of their stay.

“I’ve heard from them that they were really appreciative of the efforts to yellow-up the town for the event. It created a lot of goodwill from the riders.

“Locals would have noticed there have been many more cyclists around generally in the lead up to this event, and this will continue on in the lead up to December.”

Mr Malézieux believes there will be time to overcome the criticism, in the lead-up to the March event, about lack of community consultation.

“Thankfully with COVID almost a thing of the past, we are going to be able to deliver the usual community engagement plan we do for L’Etape, which we weren’t able to do last year,” he says.

“We will be down there more often, have face-to-face meetings, and be able to share information in a more accessible way.

“In the last few months we have had the chance to receive a lot of feedback from the local community and we accommodated a lot of the requests, and also learnt a lot about the impact on the local community of the event that wasn’t flagged by councils or chambers.

“We now we have a record of that and can amend our plans to limit the impact of the event.”