Hi there USGP riders, fans and cx supporters. This is the first of many posts here I hope. And I hope you like it. We will try to bring you info from the inside out. Some entertaining and I hope some useful.
News from the road. I recently attended the Roc d Azur in France, an annual cycling gathering for about 30,000 Euro folk. Mostly crepe eaters. There is a very prestigious Mountain Bike marathon going on there with many of the biggest names and I sat down for dinner with Christoph Sauser, the current World Champion who is just back from Interbike. We talked a bit about his Vegas cross experience. It was his first ever cross race! And he was in the front group until the final lap. I had to break the news to him that not every race is like a crit - throw in some mud and technical elements and it's a real game changer! It was interesting to see that he was wearing some goofy looking open toe compression stockings at dinner and putting his feet up at every chance. What it means to be World Champ. Sadly, Christoph is hanging up the racing bikes for the winter now and we will not be seeing him in the US again soon.
That leads to the interesting news about Euro riders. The USGP has been getting a steady stream of e-mails from Euro cross pros about coming to race in the US. It seems that the news about riders like Nys etc taking all of the start money might have some teeth. (http://www.cyclingnews.com/cross.php?id=news/2008/sep08/sep30crossnews) I will not name riders but we have been getting frequent contacts from riders that place between 5th and 15th in top level Euro races. To me it is a bit shocking that they are leaving it this late. That means that the whole year has passed and they do not have start contracts with the top races and series' in Europe. That might imply that the promoters over there have been playing hard to get and leaving it until it is too late for the rider to get a different deal. Thereby the rider has to race with no start money. Lets face it folks. The economy is not getting that much better these days. Paying steep appearance fees is going to get tougher and tougher. Don't get me wrong I'm all for riders getting paid -they've worked hard and they're pros but there has to be balance too. Especially in the US where we can't charge spectators 10 euro to watch the race like in Belgium!
From the racing side- I'm concerned about the divide and conquer situation developing in US Pro racing. From my perspective what happened this weekend in Gloucester and Cincinnati wIth the Pro Teams of Kona and CyclocrossWorld.com forced to split up and race in seperate locations - Wicks and Powers going one way and Johnson and Trebon going the other - it does not really make for exciting racing. This is really a scheduling mistake from above and is not good for the promoters of either race. The USGP was founded with the specific goal of getting all of the top riders to race against each other more than just once a year at Nationals. If the competition level goes up then the speed and skill goes up. Then we, the USA, do better internationally! The Cincy/Gloucester situation, while awesome for grassroors racing also weakens the opportuity for head to head racing at the top pro level. Luckily, all of those riders will be racing in Louisville next week so we will see some fast and furious smacking down in the Elite Men's and Women's racing.
Finally, and you will hear this often here, a huge thanks to CyclocrossWorld.com for kicking in additional support to make the Juniors racing at the USGP official UCI races. These will be official selection races for Juniors to make the National Team for worlds and will also award UCI points for start positions at International races. (http://www.usacycling.org/forms/cx/09-WorldCXWorldsSelection.pdf) Please make sure you check details at USAcycling.org.