No UCI License for Tour of Gila
by Jen See on Jan 12, 2011 2:47 PM EST
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PrintAccording to VeloNews, Tour of Gila needed to raise an addition $500,000 to buy UCI status. The race will continue, but the failure to acquire a UCI license will likely limit the participation of ProTour teams like RadioShack and Pro Continental teams like UnitedHealthCare.
Me, I'm just wondering what $500,000 buys from the UCI?
Update! The fab @sweide answers the $500,000 question over on the Twit. A UCI race requires full road closure, instead of the common U.S. centerline-rule racing. Full closure means more money, natch, because all those highway patrol guys need to be paid and local authorities typically want some cash for the use of the roads and such. Thanks Sean!
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Two stickers and a candybar wrapper
the actual UCI approved candybar is another $250,000
Death before decaf! :D
- gavia
My The UCI’s account number is 468-8952536-89. Please pay an advance of 99% of the total amount. If said amount is received, the candybar will be promptly sent to you. Thank you for choosing Pat’s Glorious Candybars.
Death before decaf! :D
- gavia
Lucky ticket
One of those candybars wouldn’t happen to have a golden ticket in there for a Gila monster?
centrifuges
Anyone who has every thought a working Photojournalist has a glam job needs to rethink...
by Christopher See on Jan 12, 2011 4:31 PM EST up reply actions
To Be UCI, Or To Not Be UCI
It’s going to be an uphill battle for this well-established event to make the jump to UCI status. Not only are budgetary issues a concern, but also the infrastructure needed to support a larger event.
For instance:
- An airport
- Hotels (the little ones in town are already packed)
- Good cell phone service (Podium Insight/Lyne was brilliant with a sat phone last year)
The promoter probably could have ditched all the lower category races and gone UCI, but at what cost to the overall event? The return for SRAM and in financial terms comes from the large number of competitors racing the non-National Racing Calendar portion.
by Chief Commissaire on Jan 12, 2011 3:06 PM EST reply actions
Gila wasn't run with full road closure?
Really? I’m surprised by this.
Full road closure
Nope. Neither is the Redlands Bicycle Classic, the Cascade Cycling Classic, the Joe Martin Stage Race or the Nature Valley Grand Prix (all NRC-level events).
by Chief Commissaire on Jan 12, 2011 3:19 PM EST up reply actions
Ahh.
I become rather less suspicious of the cost differential. I had thought that most of the infrastructure would already have been in place for a fairly big-time event the past couple of years, but this is a different order of magnitude, sans doute.
The CHP and
Course Marshals “try” and close the intersections when the peloton comes through. There is a video from 09 or 10 ToU that shows how bad it gets though. Traffic doesn’t obey very well. The road is closed for the TT and prologue at least for the ToU.
Hmm wonder how the Tour of Utah is doing on funds?
My source says done deal. New promoter and all.
Anyone who has every thought a working Photojournalist has a glam job needs to rethink...
by Christopher See on Jan 12, 2011 4:37 PM EST up reply actions
what he said.
Full closure is actually quite rare for point-to-point racing in the U.S. Big money for that thing.
Which raises the next question:
How are things getting onto the calendar in the first place when the funding isn’t sorted? This goes to the Pegasus collapse too. Seems like things shouldn’t be getting to this point before collapsing, at least not nearly so often.
Is a rolling closure considered to be full road closure?
I think so, yes? That is also how most races in Europe are marshalled.
Still, logistics of that (inc. police overtime, etc.)...
…surely runs into a LOT of money. And it’s not as if state and municipal governments are going to shell out for this, nor should they, especially in the current budgetary climate.
Yep
Even the Giro and the Vuelta have rolling/partial road closures where possible, not just the smaller races. When they shut the road it means the race is near, time to leave the pub…
'zactly!
Anyone who has every thought a working Photojournalist has a glam job needs to rethink...
by Christopher See on Jan 12, 2011 4:42 PM EST up reply actions
Cascade is a rolling closure
Like Utah. So no traffic as the race proceeds. Once it passed you, you were stuck behind it. no real yellow line enforcement that I recall. So it can’t be all that difficult to do. The full closure thing is why Utah is changing formats this year, more circuit type stages and fewer long point to point.
Anyone who has every thought a working Photojournalist has a glam job needs to rethink...
by Christopher See on Jan 12, 2011 4:35 PM EST up reply actions
Queen stage remains
everything else except the ITT will change. That’s all I know at this point until Burke finishes his part of the deal.
Anyone who has every thought a working Photojournalist has a glam job needs to rethink...
by Christopher See on Jan 12, 2011 4:39 PM EST up reply actions
So UCI is demanding not rolling closure, but FULL closure while the race is on?
If what Ted says is right, then that’s a tad odd…
It's like Tour Of California
Roads cleared then shut down until the race passes. The difference is that most NorAm races the closure only applies to the half of the road that the race uses, over the yellow line traffic moves as normal.
Anyone who has every thought a working Photojournalist has a glam job needs to rethink...
by Christopher See on Jan 12, 2011 4:41 PM EST up reply actions
rolling enclosure is expensive
Each field requires at least two (preferably more, of course) uniformed vehicles with lights to close the road and signal the road’s ‘open’ again.
In between, you’ll have vehicles (follow car and motos) for the officials and whatever race caravan is allowed.
I KNOW that it doesn’t cost $500k to produce a rolling enclosure (at least not in Texas). It does take money and a whole lot of sweet-talking, though.
So . . . I’d want to know what UCI requirements were for lead- and follow-vehicles for course closure.
Right.
But we’re also talking several days of stage race… more expensive?
iirc Philly was in real trouble two years ago partially b/c the city wanted to get more from the race for police overtime, and the figures weren’t so far from this.
It was less than $10k
to get rolling road closures for a two-day stage race with multiple categories racing all day in TX . . .
Costs for Closure
In Philadelphia in 2009, the promoter of the TD Bank Philadelphia International Cycling Classic paid $500k to the city for crowd control and course closure of the 14.4-mile circuit for one day of racing.
by Chief Commissaire on Jan 12, 2011 7:27 PM EST up reply actions
I can sorta see that
You’re talking lots of police and lots of urban roads.
Not quite the same thing in . . . beyond rural . . . New Mexico.
Yeah, Philly is one thing...
but when your two hours from any major civilization, 500k should be getting you a lot, seeing what an economic boost it would do to Silver City anyways.
Tommeke!, Tommeke!, Tommeke!, Tommeke!
by Vlaanderen90 on Jan 12, 2011 8:42 PM EST up reply actions
there goes radioshack's chances of winning a UCI race.
"Ants don’t worry, they operate like a fantastic team, they accept obstacles and deal with them in a positive manner, they don’t complain and remain positive. An ant doesn’t work on emotion, is proactive and always chooses the ant role."
This road closer business is hard to contemplate
even French junior races get ‘rolling closer w/ intersections blocked’…
BAH!!!!....Cavendish?! Double BAH!!! Sky!!
TLP 7.0 Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent
Colorado
From what I understand, there was an enormous amount of red tape to cut in Colorado to clear the Quiznos Pro Challenge for any type of racing on the road. This probably equated to a significant cost.
Somewhat related: There are more than 50 pages in the UCI road manual which spell out regulations and requirements for UCI race promoters. Many of these specifications lead to additional costs many U.S. race promoters are not already budgeting for. (Think something as simple as a press pass system – which most National Racing Calendar races do not utilize.)
by Chief Commissaire on Jan 13, 2011 7:49 AM EST up reply actions
considering the volume of "credentialed" media at ToU last year
conforming to the UCI stipulation that all media have AIPS creds is going to take a staffer or two simply to do verification. Not to mention the demands of supplying those media types with the material they need.
Anyone who has every thought a working Photojournalist has a glam job needs to rethink...
by Christopher See on Jan 13, 2011 12:56 PM EST up reply actions
Cool coments
My two cents really here though in this is that the race goes on and we all get to enjoy it through Tweets Video or just being there. And thank God that the race is not Broke and it dose not have any Finance issues
yep
Good point, for sure. We aren’t losing the race, it just isn’t upgrading to UCI status. That’s an especially good thing, because it’s a long-standing U.S. race with a big following among riders. Cuz like, it’s hard and stuff.
New regulations prohibit the participation of pro riders in this and other non UCI events in the US.
At the same time NRC Crit series will be allowed to invite the professional teams. Sponsorship dollars will soon follow the crit series, and none of the best European based riders will risk riding in that kind of race. The domestic rider we hope to someday see racing in Europe won’t really be able to gauge their development on American roads against pros on hilly and/or mountainous courses. American road racing won’t develop to the point where we’ll be able to regularly see some high quality one day and stage racers learning with the pros. Hopefully the race continues in the long run but it will certainly feel the effects of losing sponsorship dollars and higher quality racers.
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