The City of Ottawa cancelled permits for cyclo-cross racing in its parks Thursday. (Dave Sangster)

The sport of cyclo-cross bicycle racing is taking off in Ottawa, but Thursday the city's park department cancelled permits for riders to compete in its green space.

The city cancelled permits issued to the Eastern Canadian Cyclocross Series after a race last Sunday left muddy trails torn through Walter Baker Park in Kanata.

The cancellation comes days before another cyclo-cross race - competitions which take place on a combination of paved and off-road surfaces - was scheduled to take place at Mooney's Bay. That race will not go ahead.

"Over twenty years we never had a problem," said Bob Woods, one of the race organizers.

"We never had a cancellation and we never had an issue with the city saying 'here's damage, here's a problem, we've got to fix it.'"

Woods said the city is overreacting to the damage, and that his group is willing to work with city crews to make repairs. Dan Chenier, Ottawa's parks department manager, said he wants to prevent damage from being done to sites like Mooney's Bay, but that he is open to restarting cyclo-cross racing in the city in the future. "We will have to come to an understanding of how we protect the parks, if we allow this event to go forward," Chenier said.

While grass damage is a downside of cyclo-cross racing, the sport has been a boon to Ottawa stores who sell the specialized bikes that can cost thousands.

Vince Caceres, who runs The Cyclery bike shop, said business has "skyrocketed" as cyclo-cross has gained popularity. The sport has even manage to extend the bike and part sales well into the winter season.

"With a growing number of people doing these events you have an exponential growth in revenue," Caceras said.

The rest of this year's races will move outside city limits, Woods said.