Like many UCI 1.1 races in Belgium, the GP Pino Cerami has lost its former glory in recent seasons. After trying to change its race date in 2014 from Thursday to Saturday before Paris-Roubaix to attract bigger names, the Walloon test will now change the date completely.

The race will no longer be held in the spring between the monuments. Instead, it will take place in the summer. The race between Saint-Ghislain and Frameries will be held on Wednesday, July 22. The change seems to be a good decision because the race has already received numerous requests to participate from WorldTour teams.

"We have already received requests from teams like Etixx-Quick Step, Lotto-Soudal, Trek, FDJ, AG2R, Team LottoNL, Europcar, among others, and many pro continental team," event secretary Laurent Haegeman tells La Derniere Heure. "We are still very far from our race, but with the change of date it is already certain that we have a better spot than we had this year when we did not get much attention. We only had two WorldTour teams, Lotto and Quick Step. And again, we had to fight financially to attract the latter and Petacchi who luckily won the sprint. But it was time to change the date, to revive our race, to give it a second life."

The new impetus will be made more symbolic by the fact that it comes just after the death of Pino Cerami whose name is attached to the event.

"Yes, it's true, and it is also the right time to revive our race which will be held for the 49th time as we want to organize a party for the fiftieth edition of Cerami," Haegeman says. "In recent years, we have worked hard to have a good budget, good sponsorship. Now, we really need to have a better platform and this involved a change of date. Especially since we noticed that there were new events in Spain in April at the time of our former date. On the other, there's really nothing except the Tour de France in the period of July 22. There is no other race. It is hoped that this will pay off. But it looks good, given the requests and positive feedback we have received."

Regarding the course, the GP Cerami will again connect Saint-Ghislain and Frameries. "Our race should retain 80% of the route from 2014," says Laurent Haegeman. "We should add the Mur de Grammont. We already wanted to add it this year, but this was not possible on a Saturday. On weekdays, I hope it will be possible." What about  Tienne du Dragon which has often played an important role in the race. "No, that was not possible. We can't go there and we will not look for trouble. We enjoyed the course of this year. We have received positive feedback from the UCI commissaires. We will try to keep it while trying to add the Mur de Grammont." In 2014 the race was won by Alessandro Petacchi while Jonas Vangenechten and Gaëtan Bille won the race in 2013 and 2012 respectively.

The organizers of Cerami opted for a date just before the Tour de Wallonie to attract teams taking part in the stage race. "We analyzed the timing and wished to be close to the date of the Tour de Wallonie with which we have good contacts," explains Laurent Haegeman. "There will be a great week of racing in Wallonia because there will be the kermesse in Isières (Sunday, July 19, ed.) , Cerami on July 22 and the Tour de Wallonie on Saturday, July 25. In the region, the announcement of our date change has not pleased everyone. The tradition has been to hold the race in the spring, during the classics. But in the current cycling world, I think it will only be good for cycling and our race to have more big names at the start."