Rumours of the end of the Tour de l'Aude have been floating around for almost since this year's race finished, but the people behind the Petitesreines website seem to have got a more definite confirmation today when they interviewed Jean Dousse, one of the organisers, while he was visiting at the Tour de l'Ardeche. The relevant bit is at about two minutes in and he seems pretty definite that the race is over.
Now if I'm not misunderstanding, that would be a pretty big blow for the women's calendar, since l'Aude is the women's equivalent of the Giro d'Italia on the men's calendar, one of the big highlights of the year and one of only two ten-day races. Losing it would be a real blow, yet M. Dousse doesn't seem to speak in any sort of code, "I can confirm that it's finished. I can't say more but I confirm that it's finished."