69����

Westphal and Murphy said they asked others on the Gran Prix committee to be the new co-chairs, but no one expressed interest.

The Tour of America’s Dairyland is a series of bicycle races throughout Wisconsin every summer over the course of 11 days. In recent years, the Gran Prix had been the first race on the tour.

The event also suffered from “donor fatigue” Westphal said.

“It is a naturally occurring phenomenon in the nonprofit world. It’s certainly not bad in any way because if a donor lose passion about one philanthropic opportunity, they get passionate about something else and financially support the new thing,” Westphal said. “Everybody wins because the money just kind of gets spread around more.”

The number of sponsors went from 54 in 2022, to 52 in 2023, to 48 in 2024 and down to 42 in 2025.

The cost of having the event has ranged from $22,000 to $60,000. In 2025, the cost was the lowest it had been at $22,000, but that came at a price. In the first year of the event, there were $11,600 worth of primes, or prizes, given out. That eventually rose to as high as $25,000. In 2025, only $12,500 was given out.

The number of volunteers has gone down as well. There were initially 110 to 125 volunteers, Westphal said. There were 110 to 120 in 2023, 90 to 100 in 2024 and 80 to 90 in 2025.

“We need a little over 100 on race day, and that became a real challenge,” Westphal said.

Westphal said the desired effect of helping downtown businesses didn’t totally pan out, either. The event was started as a way to “activate the new Town Square and bring thousands of people downtown to experience what downtown has to offer.”

“While some downtown businesses and organizations loved the event and took advantage of the large number of potential customers, the event never received widespread enthusiastic support from downtown businesses and organizations,” Westphal said. “Many businesses told us that the event was an inconvenience to them, and some even closed shop on race day. We thought that support would broaden and increase over time, but it did not.”

“We are incredibly grateful to our sponsors, volunteers, partners, racers, the Tour of America’s Dairyland, and the community who showed up year after year,” Murphy said. “In short, thank you to everyone who helped make these seven years so special.”

Bill Koch of America’s Tour of America’s Dairyland said the Gran Prix going away is a “huge loss” and a “significant letdown.”

“It’s been one of our favorite races. It was always a great way to kick off our series. We had a great relationship with John Westphal and Paul Murphy,” Koch said.

“Everyone down there was super inviting. People would stop and you’d get used to people honking. The chamber would put welcome bags in your hotel room. The outreach from the community was great,” Koch continued.

The tour announced on Wednesday that it had added a race in Suamico, Wis.