January 7, 2010 (Houffalize, Belgium) – The Belgian town of Houffalize will host the UCI MTB World Cup on May 1-2 as originally scheduled, according to a press release in French on the cycling website Velo Wallon. Pedal reported on December 26 that the town was pulling the plug on the 2010 edition because of cost overruns of some 80,000 euros ($118,000 CDN) in 2009.

Yesterday’s release from the Houffalize Mayor, Marc Caprasse, announced that an agreement has been reached between the town and event organizers. As part of this agreement, the town’s financial contribution will be capped at 27,000 euros ($40,000 CDN) in 2010. Caprasse also mentioned a large amount of correspondence has been received in favour of continuing the event.

The Houffalize Mountain Bike World Cup combines cross-country and four cross events and is one of the most popular stops on the Nissan UCI MTB World Cup circuit.

Click here to read the Velo Wallon release (in French).