My respect for Cannondale just shot through the roof if they had a say in the Sho-Air teams decision.
Does MTB need the UCI?
If it wants to race at the Olympics, yes. Which for a lot of athletes is still the pinnacle of sporting achievement. Beyond that? Doubtful. The amount of athletes that race both road and mtb professionally in a given year is probably pretty limited.
Interesting the parallels you can draw with triathlons - the pinnacle of the sport is, arguably, the Kona Ironman - but that's a privately owned sporting event, and has nothing to do with the official federation. Fortunately the tri federation seems a little less stuck up its own a**e, and accepts the situation. Likewise top athletes can race XTerra events and the like, no complaints.
My respect for Cannondale just shot through the roof if they had a say in the Sho-Air teams decision.
I don't know if they did or not. I say this based on reading about the Aaron Gwinn/Trek Racing split. I always assumed that Trek (and other bike companies with teams named after them) ran the teams. I was surprised to find out that the team was run by another company, and Trek was just a sponsor, though a big one no doubt. I'm not involved in the racing scene at all, so I don't know whether this is the norm or not.
The mtb racing scene is definitely broken! UCI try to run it the same as their road racing, but its not the same and never will be. Someone needs to hit the reset button...
Good to see the UCI have backed down for now at least - technically I could have faced a ban and fine for participating in an entire non-BC/UCI UK Enduro Series this coming season as well as 2 EWS rounds and a couple of non-UCI SuperEnduro rounds too.
What is interesting is the response from the SuperEnduro organisation when I asked about the new EMBA (Enduro Mountain Bike Association) membership and whether it could be used instead of a BC/UCI Licence code (something to do with it being a requirement due to Italian red tape, either an international licence or a medical exam out there). Their response was "not this year", suggesting that because infrastructure is already in place, it can't be changed - but if plenty of Enduro organisers go with the EMBA and stick two fingers up at the UCI next season, that should do the job once and for all hopefully.
My respect for Cannondale just shot through the roof if they had a say in the Sho-Air teams decision.
I don't know if they did or not. I say this based on reading about the Aaron Gwinn/Trek Racing split. I always assumed that Trek (and other bike companies with teams named after them) ran the teams. I was surprised to find out that the team was run by another company, and Trek was just a sponsor, though a big one no doubt. I'm not involved in the racing scene at all, so I don't know whether this is the norm or not.
The Sho-air team is run by a guy called Scott Tedro, and he's been affiliated with Specialized for the last 13 years. Cannondale only came on board this year, and I'm pretty sure they are not an integral part of the team organisation.
USA Cycling now has a competitor, the North American Bicycle Racing Association!
[url= http://reviews.mtbr.com/new-national-sanctioning-body-set-to-compete-with-usa-cycling ]MTBR article[/url]
The sh!t was going to hit the fan as some teams were going to defy the rule like Sho-air.
Yes but doing judging by the photos they may be practicing for triathlons not mtb biking - strangest press pic I have seen in a while
Yes but doing judging by the photos they may be practicing for triathlons not mtb biking - strangest press pic I have seen in a while
Yeah, that Sho-Air team photo is a real WTF...
Edit - but if standing in water will make the UCI go away, then I'll do it, too! 😀
Guys, before you go stirring up a hornets nest, please make sure you have all the facts!
This UCi ruling was not aimed at Gravity Enduro/Enduro, there is a bigger picture.
All UK Gravity Enduro events are BC sanctioned as are most UK races, be it XC or DH, we have only 1 governing body here in the UK, unlike other bigger English speaking countries 😉
All of the World Enduro series, European rounds, will have the hosting Countries National Cycling body behind it, so just to repeat, this is not aimed at the UK races.
Does this mean wiggo can't race at SSUK, but armstrong can?
I'm gonna need a bigger drug testing kit.