The 2014 Vuelta a Asturias, which was due to take place between the 2nd to the 4th of May, has been cancelled after financial difficulties hit organizer Club Ciclista Aramo.

The team presentation was supposed to happen on Thursday but the organizer sent out a pres release saying that it was "not possible to announce the full details of the race due to unexpected problems arisen lately".

Newspaper La Nueva Espana released a story today saying that the aforementioned problems were economic. Local businesses "had committed to hand a sum of money, but haven't confirmed it yet", which left the race short of funds so close to its start. Another newspaper, El Comercio, said that the organizers still needed 40,000 euros to make the race happen. 

Nairo Quintana, although he or his team never confirmed it, was expected to be the race’s star and this is a severe blow to his preparation for an assault on the Giro d’Italia as he will have fewer races in his legs than his opponents.

The Colombian is currently in Colombia with teammate Jonathan Castroviejo training for the first Grand Tour of the season so was unavailable for comment but his DS Jose Luis Arrieta said about the event’s cancellation: "it wouldn't be a drama for Quintana performance-wise" and that a last-minute call for Romandie in order to test his condition before the Giro "hasn't been considered".

This cancellation is a further dent in Spanish cycling, which has lost several races due to financial difficulty and only just manged to save the GP Miguel Indurain. In the space of just seven years, Spain has lost 67 of the 96 UCI Europe Tour race days it had. This puts events such as the Tour of the Basque Country, the Vuelta a Espana and the Clasica San Sebastian under more threat for the future. Despite the success of current riders like Alberto Contador, Joaquim Rodriguez and Alejandro Valverde, it seems that Spanish cycling’s decline is going further down the slippery slope to demise.