Obtaining UCI sanctioning for a 'cross race
Dec 2000
So you want to run a race? OK, promoters. So you've already read all the other articles here about running a race. You started your own 'cross event and now it's one of the most popular races in the region. Maybe noe you're asking yourself: What's the next step? For many races, the next level in 'cross (other than becoming a SuperCup event) is to be awarded UCI sanctioning for your event. A few events in the US have begun to offer UCI sanctioning. The UCI stamp of approval signals to the world that your event is really something special. But how do you do it, and when should you do it?
I found myself asking these questions recently when I noticed that VeloNews was focusing its coverage on local races in the East, apparently for the primary reason that these were UCI races, but also (not coincidentally) that they attracted a national caliber field. So, I asked the promoters of two UCI events for a few tips.
The following is the discussion that resulted, between myself, Adam Myerson (promoter of the Amherst International in Massachusetts) and Andrew Albright, promoter of the Monkey Hill Cross in Delaware.
Why UCI? Subject: UCI cross
Date: Tue, 28 Nov 2000
From: Dave Carr <davidlcarr@aol.com>
To: amyerson@aol.comAdam,
Talk has been flying around the West about trying to up the profile of some of our cross races. The question is, how does one obtain UCI points status for an event? Can't seem to find info on the UCI site.
Give me the capsule summary.
Cheers
Dave Carr-----------------------
Subj: Re: UCI cross
From: AMyerson
To: DavidLCarr, albrigh@mail.med.upenn.eduDave,
One thing you should do right off the bat is request a Season Guide from the UCI. They have it up on the site as a PDF, but they'll mail you one, too.
Andrew, what do you think about starting a listserve for UCI promoters? I think it should be private and by invitation only, but it might be helpful for the group we already have. I could get it rolling at egroups if we want?
Adam
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Subj: Re: UCI cross
From: albrigh@mail.med.upenn.edu (Andrew Vernon Albright)I am Andrew Albright and this was my second year hosting a UCI event (1999 we were a Cat 1.3--lowest, and this year we were Cat 1.2). Event name: Monkey Hill Cross
I tried to find an old email where I outlined this info for others, but I can't so I will have to do it off the top of my head. Adam can add to it; and if you have any other Q's let me know. Feel free to pass this around. [We should probably use this as a rough draft for a good, well-spoke document for future use.]
I will list what you need to do in how hard it has been for me (and I should note, in the past two people have been extremely helpful teaching me what needs to be done. Chris Grealish and Lyle Fulkerson so they deserve credit for helping me find out how to put on a UCI-cross race:
1. Getting the info, contact people, dealing with UCI/USCF to get on the calendar. This is actually somewhat easy, and you are already one-step up by finding Adam and myself. The deadline is in February. Basically you have to get the USCF (Tara Morris) to sign off on your calendar submission sent to the UCI. The USCF seems to not always know what is going on, so I cc all the promoters and the UCI cyclo-cross coord (Christophe Burri), to double and triple check that I am getting on the calendar. (I got left off in 1998)
2. The money. I think the minimum for the men's race is $1800. I think you probably will find that not too many races will be able to raise this on entry fees alone. You need to pay a $100-150 calendar fee directly to the UCI (also a pain for wiring money overseas). You will probably need to pay more to the USCF for your permit. Also you will need a UCI-registered official, which may add $$$
3. You will need to talk to all the other promoters about your date and try and work out the best arrangement. We are getting to the point where there will be overlapping dates for UCI races in the US. This is really a good thing, but if the calendar doesn't make sense then you may not get the talent you expected and riders will bitch and moan to you about it.
4. UCI licenses. They are now 100% strict about all ELITE MEN having UCI licenses. These aren't terrible expensive to get for a top-level rider when they renew their license in the winter, but are expensive if they want to get one before the cross season. And as we know most people (bike riders especially don't think ahead that far).
5. Course. You really should have a course that meets their guidelines. This may or may not be a problem.
There are a lot of little things, but most of the other things I can think of fall under the category of 'Putting on a Good Race' and aren't specific to putting on a UCI-sanctioned cross race.
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Subj: Re: UCI cross
From: DavidLCarr
To: albrigh@mail.med.upenn.edu, AMyersonThanks Andrew. Now the inevitable question. Why do UCI?
I see the following arguments.
Pro
1) UCI sanctioning is tres cool.
2) You get top riders from all over coming in search of UCI points. Maybe more local riders to the amateur events too.
3) Velonews will cover your race (currently they refuse to cover NorCal races because we don't have any UCI or Supercup here)
4) Elite riders get more exposure to national class racing. The rider and the sport benefit.Con
1) Bureaucratic hassle, particularly with respect to date approvals from your venue manager.
2) Lots of money to UCI, for prizes, etc.
3) Pain in the ass for your customers (the cyclists) to purchase UCI licenses.
4) What if nobody shows?
5) Neither the Amherst or Delaware races attracted significantly more entries than other events in the region (according to my highly unscientific review of the calendar).
6) UCI points earned in the US are meaningless elsewhere. That's proved by the extremely small number of Euro' riders who come out here for our races.Comments? I'm trying to decide whether to recommend this route to local promoters.
Yours in mud, DC
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Subj: Re: UCI cross
From: albrigh@mail.med.upenn.edu (Andrew Vernon Albright)
To: DavidLCarr@aol.com, albrigh@mail.med.upenn.edu, amyerson@aol.com> > Thanks Andrew. Now the inevitable question. Why do UCI?
> > I see the following arguments.
> Pro
> 1) UCI sanctioning is tres cool.
> 2) You get top riders from all over coming in search of UCI points. Maybe more local riders to the amateur events too.
> 3) Velonews will cover your race (currently they refuse to cover NorCal races because we don't have any UCI or Supercup here)
> 4) Elite riders get more exposure to national class racing. The rider and the sport benefit.That is about right. People have a woody for Super Cup, Nationals, etc. UCI is something a single, non-professional promoter can do. I approach promoting like I do anything else...with a competitive nature. I want to do what I do the best possible. (except English grammar). Anyway UCI is it. I will probably end up as having the only Cat 1.2 race in the US (outside Europe?). To me that is a personal accomplishment. At some point I wnat to promote a Superprestige or World Cup race..all of these things go through UCI.
> Con
> 1) Bureaucratic hassle, particularly with respect to date approvals from your venue manager.There are hassles, but not with date. I have given up trying to make my race fit into the national 'schdule'..espcially since Lyle never has his shit together WRT dates. I am putting monkey hill on as the top Mid-Atl race, and if others want to show up, that's cool.
> 2) Lots of money to UCI and for prizes, etc.
The money is to the riders (which I think is good). The UCI calendar fee is small (2-3% of total budget?) in the grand scheme of things.
> 3) Pain in the ass for your customers (the cyclists) to purchase UCI licenses.
Yes.
> 4) What if nobody shows?
A concern. I would talk to your local NorCal riders and see what they want. If some want to do Super Cups or more importantly if some want to go to Europe, and UCI points are important (just ask Adam).
> 5) Neither the Amherst or Delaware races attracted significantly more entries than other events in the region (according to my highly unscientific review of the calendar).
Yes that is true (for DE at least). My goal isn't getting a ton more riders than anyone else. Quality over quantity.
> 6) UCI points earned in the US are meaningless elsewhere. That's proved by the extremely small number of Euro' riders who come out here for our races.
Actually for someone like Tobias Nestle they are important. When he comes over here for 3 weeks, he does well with UCI points (that are harder to get over there). Lyle canceling in Oct may have hurt? I don't know. but the UCI points are not 'meaningless', whether or not it is financially worthwhile..I don't know.
> Comments? I'm trying to decide whether to recommend this route to local promoters.
I think a region is better off deciding this as a whole. It doesn't make much sense to have just one UCI race.
Also, if I am correct, you guys dont have many one day races with a published prize list??? If this is true, starting to have a races with good prize lists is really important at this stage in the game toward getting top riders to do cross..in any region of the country. Whether you go with UCI is probably less important.
Andrew
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Subj: Re: UCI cross
From: AMyerson
To: albrigh@mail.med.upenn.edu, DavidLCarrI agree with everything Andrew said.
> 1) UCI sanctioning is tres cool. > 2) You get top riders from all over coming in search of UCI points. Maybe more local riders to the amateur events too. > 3) Velonews will cover your race (currently they refuse to cover NorCal races because we don't have any UCI or Supercup here) > 4) Elite riders get more exposure to national class racing. The rider and the sport benefit.
You're spot on with all these. Andrew and I got good press in VN that really raised the level of our races, and all it cost us was an extra $150 to the UCI.
> Con > 1) Bureaucratic hassle, particularly with respect to date approvals from your venue manager.
Very little hassle, actually. One form, send it to Tara Morris, who sends it to the UCI, and then that's pretty much it. Your regional rep assigns a UCI official, and they have to do the report to the UCI, which includes the results.
> 2) Lots of money to UCI, for prizes, etc.
The prize list is for the riders, which you should be pushing towards anyway.
> 3) Pain in the ass for your customers (the cyclists) to purchase UCI licenses.
That's true, and it could hurt your A turnout a bit. But if you let them race B's, you won't lose the entries. And if you publicize it NOW, people can get their UCI licenses when they renew.
> 4) What if nobody shows?
If nobody shows than you shouldn't have put the race on in the first place. If this is a possibility, then your scene isn't strong enough for a UCI race. You have to think that way.
> 5) Neither the Amherst or Delaware races attracted significantly more entries than other events in the region (according to my highly unscientific review of the calendar).
That’s true in MA. We had our normal 300 riders. But, we had the biggest crowd ever, and the best men's A field ever. It was a big show.
> 6) UCI points earned in the US are meaningless elsewhere. That's proved by the extremely small number of Euro' riders who come out here for our races.
Tobi and Jens were really pissed at Lyle for cancelling the first SuperCup. They now plan their October around being able to do 4 UCI races in 3 weeks and coming to stay with me. This year, they already had the tickets, and figured they'd at least get 2 UCI events in. But believe me, for anyone trying to compete on an int'l level, the points count. You have Ben Jacques-Maynes, Justin Robinson, etc. Those guys need UCI points, and if they could get them at home, it would make a difference when they go to Europe and don't get called up last. It also helps get you better start money.
Also, aren't you skipping a step [by not having big money races on the calendar already]? We had $1000 for men, $500 for women and $250 for masters and juniors before we went UCI. And then we went to $2000/$1000/$250/$250. That's $3500. Our total budget was almost $7000. Can you do afford that? I'd got for a NE series level event first, then go UCI.
Adam
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Subj: Re: UCI cross
From: DavidLCarr
To: AMyerson, albrigh@mail.med.upenn.eduHi guys, good thread.
> We had our normal 300 riders. But, we had the biggest crowd ever, and the best men's A field ever. It was a big show.
I think if we got something big out here, they will show, riders and fans alike. Just look at Natz last year.
>> Also, if I am correct, you guys dont have many one day races with a published prize list??? If this is true, starting to have a races with good prize lists is really important at this stage in the game toward getting top riders to do cross..in any region of the country. Whether you go with UCI is probably less important.
> Exactly. Aren't you skipping a step? We had $1000 for men, $500 for women and $250 for masters and juniors before we went UCI. And then we went to $2000/$1000/$250/$250. That's $3500. Our total budget was almost $7000. Can you do afford that? I'd got for a NE series level event first, then go UCI.
Yeah, good point. While we have the participation (often 300 riders at a Surf City event) we don't have the funding. Most races are for series prizes, occasionally daily merchandise. It's a different mind set I think. People race Surf City because that's where everyone races, where the prestige and bragging rights are, and that has nothing to do with prize lists. In that context it's a beautiful thing, I think.
On the other hand, maybe it's time for promoters out here to step up and make the cross scene into something bigger. But if they can charge $20 a pop, award no prizes and still get 300 riders a day, what's their motivation? Also out here it appears that very few promoters have access to the kind of cash needed for those prize lists. Even top level downtown criteriums have trouble attracting more than $1-2K in cash sponsorship.
Maybe it needs to start with one big-time local race as you have done, maybe in the context of a west coast regional elite series, as Benson is talking about.
See ya
DC
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