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In a great development for professional cycling in Australia, the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race yesterday announced it had secured “in principle” support for an upgrade to 1.HC status, the second highest race classification.
Eager to follow in the footsteps of the Tour Down Under, should the race pursue World Tour status?
There is no doubt that securing World Tour status brings a wealth of advantages, first and foremost guaranteeing the participation of the World Tour teams but is it really in the race’s best interests? It does not guarantee the participation of the worlds greatest riders and will it really help to develop the sport in Australia?
Unfortunately, gaining World Tour status would restrict the race to just World Tour and Pro-Continental licensed teams and give a growing number of local Continental licensed teams the proverbial cold shoulder. While the DRAPAC Pro Cycling team did successfully make the transition to Pro-Continental status the team were forced to consider looking abroad for sponsors to finance its ambitions.
What about the participation of national team UniSA – Australia, often seen at the Tour Down Under, you ask? It owes its participation to Article 2.15.154 and the UCI’s self-interest in developing cycling, however, by no means does it guarantee that such special exemptions will be given to Australian races in the future.
Before racing towards World Tour status Australian races should consider the American model of aiming for 1.HC and 2.HC status, for one-day and stage races respectively. The flexibility to include a mix of World Tour, Pro-Continental and Continental teams allows events like the Tour of California to strike a wonderful balance between attracting some of the worlds best cyclists and allowing the smaller American teams to showcase themselves to the world on live television.
For these smaller American teams their Tour de France is the Tour of California, the Tour of Utah and the USA Pro Challenge. Out in front of larger and larger crowds each year, these are the races the riders look forward to as an opportunity to test themselves against the very best and possibly earn themselves a contract on a professional World Tour or Pro-Continental team.
Some of the most notable American success stories so far include Joe Dombrowski, Lawson Craddock, Carter Jones, Chad Haga and Joey Rosskopf. These American riders, at the time riding for local Continental teams, battled so well up against their more illustrious World Tour rivals that they soon found themselves with offers to make the monumental step up to the World Tour’s ranks.
Just like their American cousins, the Australian and New Zealand Continental teams were able to compete with the very best at the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race. In its inaugural edition there were four Continental riders just nine seconds adrift of race winner Gianni Meersman of Etixx – Quick-Step and up alongside renowned World Tour riders like Richie Porte, Ian Stannard and Heinrich Haussler.
With all the World Tour teams already over in Australia for the Tour Down Under the Great Ocean Road Race has so far had few issues enticing some of them to extend their stay just a week longer. Already several World Tour teams have confirmed they will be returning to the race in 2016 while others are currently in negotiations about making their debut, the move to 1.HC status allowing 65 per cent of the peloton to consist of World Tour teams.
This rare, sought after exposure to a wider audience via live TV coverage would be a massive boon for the local Continental teams and it is oft said that competing against the best athletes produces the best improvements. Do we really need another mandatory World Tour race on these shores when we could potentially be reaping the best of both worlds?
It even comes with the added advantage of banning intra-team communication via race radios for you purists out there.
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