Globalisation, Anti-doping, Riders and the Calendar the centre of “A Bright Future for Cycling”
The International Cycling Union (UCI) has announced the scope of its stakeholder consultation exercise, dubbed “A Bright Future for Cycling”, which will be launched later in the year. The topics dealt with by the consultation have been divided into what the UCI refers to as the “four pillars” of Globalisation, Anti-doping, Riders, and the Sports Calendar, with issues of governance considered as part of all four.
Additionally – and separately – the UCI has engaged international auditors KPMG to review the governance of the UCI, as well as that of the Cycling Anti-Doping Foundation (CADF), reporting its findings in time for them to be debated in the consultation process.
The consultation, which deals with cycling’s future, will be “entirely separate” from the UCI Independent Commission, which is charged with reviewing the issues arising from the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) ‘reasoned decision’ on the doping of Lance Armstrong and his US Postal team.
“We saw this year at the Olympic Games in London that cycling is one of the world’s most popular sports, both for participants and spectators, and it has a bright future,” said UCI president Pat McQuaid. “We want to make it an even more popular sport. This is what the consultation exercise will focus on.
“All cycling stakeholders were consulted on the issues to be discussed,’ he explained. “We listened to their feedback and have ensured that all their priority issues were included as topics for discussion. We must all work together to recover from the damage which the Armstrong affair has undoubtedly done to our sport, the sport we all love and cherish.
“The world is moving forward and cycling has to keep up – as all cycling enthusiasts know, when the peloton moves forward you either keep up or get left behind.”
The UCI has outlined the topics surrounding each pillar as follows:
Pillar 1: Globalisation
Objective: Cycling must benefit from its universal nature. In addition to being socially responsible, cycling must also ensure it is keeping up with the global evolution of sport in society.
Topics will include:
• how cycling can engage better with women;
• how to identify demographic and territorial trends and opportunities in cycling (eg, growth of youth interest);
• taking cycling to new countries, while maintaining high standards of events;
• making cycling accessible to all;
• how to reinforce cycling’s role in the Olympic and Paralympic Games;
• how cycling can integrate with and enhance green tourism;
• development of small urban cycling structures (eg. BMX parks) to encourage healthy youth activities; and
• environmental priorities for event management.
Pillar 2: Anti-Doping
Objective: cycling must create an athlete ‘eco-system’ with a favourable economic, social, training and cultural environment that will eliminate doping from the sport.
Topics will include:
• the severity of doping sanctions, both for riders and their entourage;
• anti-doping education for riders and their entourage;
• developing incentives for good practice;
• the independence of the Cycling Anti-Doping Foundation, its tools and methods;
• amnesty and whistle-blowing;
• how to identify risk situations;
• gathering of tips, information or key indicators;
• sharing of information with other anti-doping organisations, the police and different authorities; and
• standardisation of team models.
Pillar 3: Riders
Objective: to ensure a closer relationship between the UCI and riders, in particular to enable the UCI to listen to and understand riders’ concerns.
Priority topics will include:
• how best to ensure timely transfer of relevant quality information to riders;
• increasing the number of riders playing an active role in different cycling bodies and rider organisations;
• developing measures to guarantee better working conditions and legal cover for riders;
• how to improve race security;
• evolution of confidential rider hotline (to be established in January 2013);
• opportunities for the UCI to meet riders and whether to create a ‘permanent contact person’ in the field;
• the option of introducing a UCI licence;
• determine criteria for bodies/organisations that represent active riders; and
• consultations with ‘neutral’ experts on different subjects (reconversion, management, follow-up of new career).
Pillar 4: Sports Calendar
Objective: to review the different cycling calendars from all stakeholders’ points of view, as well as the systems of participation.
Priority topics will include:
• the points system, rankings and rules of participation;
• how best to develop the elite women’s development teams and calendar, as well as the development of women’s cycling generally;
• how to make races more attractive for spectators, as well as maximise media coverage;
• the composition and duration of different cycling calendars;
• new technologies;
• the hierarchy, format(s) and globalisation of professional road cycling competitions, including proposed new races and system(s) of teams;
• relations between professional cycling (1st and 2nd divisions) and continental level (3rd division);
• collaboration between different stakeholders to ensure optimal use of resources and greater efficiency; and
• financial fair play, including maximum/minimum salaries and sharing of revenue.
Details of how the stakeholder consultation exercise will be run will be announced in early January 2013; the exercise will also be open to cycling’s fans, through social media channels like Facebook and Twitter.