A bicycle race up Mt. Lemmon, which was scheduled for late in April, is now being postponed until 2015.

Organizers of the Mt. Lemmon Gran Fondo announced today on their website and Facebook page that the event had been canceled for this year and moved back to April 2015.

Here’s an excerpt from the announcement.

It is with a heavy heart and positive outlook towards the future that we announce the Inaugural Mt Lemmon Gran Fondo will be rescheduled to take place in April of 2015.

The decision to postpone and reschedule the event was not an easy one to make. After many hours of deliberation, the organization, along with it’s many supporters, voted unanimously to postpone the Inaugural event. This will allow for a greater time frame for delivering a high caliber world class event worthy of such an iconic mountain and the greater community of users that reside and recreate on Mt Lemmon.

This will act as the first of many updates and announcements we plan to make in the coming days and weeks to keep everyone informed of the various changes taking place. As you can imagine there are many moving pieces to putting on an event of this magnitude, and we want to be absolutely sure that this is a sustained world class event for everyone to enjoy for many years to come.

We are deeply grateful for the support and understanding we have received through this process as we continue to look positively and work productively towards the future.

The event, which would have closed Catalina Highway to traffic would have been the first time a sanctioned bicycle race has occurred on Mt. Lemmon in several decades.

Riders who already registered for the event will be given a refund.

The spokesperson for the race was away on business, but said he would provide more details when he returns.