Tour of Estonia

Tartu Tänavasõit was a competition with long traditions that started during the Soviet time. The popularity of this springtime cycling event began to decrease and so it was decided to unite the organization of Tartu Tänavasõit with Tartu Rattaralli in the 90s. The race at first concentrated on juniors as the professional riders were busy in different foreign clubs and the level of the competition was not high enough for them to participate.

As many Estonian riders have become big names in the world of cycling the intention was to bring those names with their teams to Estonia and let them compete at home. The test competition for professional riders took place in 2001 and from there on the competition has only grown in popularity. 

The delegation of the international UCI estimated the race highly and the permission for a UCI 1.5 cl race was achieved. It was the first race in the Baltic States to have gained that category.

To motivate professional clubs to come to Estonia, Estonian Cycling Weekend, consisting of 3 races was brought alive in 2002. Pro Cycling Club organized the EOS Tallinn Grand Prix on Friday; Club Tartu Maraton’s Tartu Grand Prix took place Saturday and Tartu Rattaralli on Sunday, also organized by Club Tartu Maraton. This scheme was used until 2007.

The UCI category has only grown; Tartu Tänavasõit had a higher category of 1.3 already in 2003. In 2004 the name was changed into Tartu Grand Prix and in 2005 it gained a category of 1.0 which stayed the same in 2006.

Regarding the discords between UCI and the organizers race calendar in 2007, the race had to lower the category to 1.2 in order to maintain its traditional date on last weekend of May. That gave the bigger cycling clubs of Estonia the opportunity to compete.

In 2008 Pro Cycling Club gave up organizing the Tallinn GP. That brought Club Tartu Maraton a chance to to take on the organization of the whole weekend. The Estonian Cycling Weekend would from now on start with the Tallinn-Tartu GP.

Within the last years many famous clubs have found their way to the race in Tartu: AG2R, Europcar, Oktos, Cofidis, Landbouwcredit Colnago etc. The list of winners is as prominent including for example Jaan Kirsipuu who has won the race 4 times.

By 2013 the time was right for new challenges and club’s long-time dream of an international stage race - Tour of Estonia - took place for the first time.