MTB News and Notes: A Conversation with Peter Van Den Abeele; ’08 World Cup dates

Peter Van Den Abeele: I would say our first major goal was to reinvest the money into our image, to make it look more professional. We now have nice banners, podium backdrops inflatables and gate transpiration for the four cross. The look was the first. Second, having the look we invested a lot of money into TV.

A lot of the money from Nissan goes back into TV production, and we hired CIS as a TV production company. They make the 26-minute racing coverage and the free three-minute highlights segments. Third, timing company. Timing is very expensive for organizers. Those three factors we have increased at our races

VN.COM: Where do you hope to see the series in five years?

PVDA: Once we have the level up the World Cup in general, I would like to see that we still have Nissan, but I would like to see maybe two or three more sponsors as well come on to help us put on a bigger show.

We need more money in the sport so we can pay the riders more and have more money in the circuit. But we need to start from here and the most important fact was that we needed TV. For instance at the Schladming World Cup, the production was back on EuroSport TV. With Eurosport, that would be very good if they could send out the images we provide them. But for sure this is not done in one day.

VN.COM: The World Cup has been very Euro-centric in the past decade. What is the UCI doing to get the series out of the continent?

PVDA: I think the UCI is there to develop the sport worldwide, and if an organizer applies for the UCI bid world championships in 2009 we will be back in Canberra, Australia. I think we’re here to develop the sport everywhere. It will be great in Australia. We are not just focusing on just the strong nations in Europe. If we have to go abroad we will do it.

VN.COM: Fort William appears to be a major success for the world championships this year.

PVDA: Fort William was good because they have World Cup experience; they are not just an organizer who is applying for the world championships and then end of the game, history. We will continue coming back here with the World Cup after the world championships and that is good. We need classics like Fort William. That’s how you attract spectators and the media and TV. This was an excellent opportunity to show this worldwide.

That is most often the problem with the world championships. After last year we had a good world championships in New Zealand, but it unfortunately there is no racing there anymore. We had a very good [world championships] in Livigno [in 2005], but unfortunately no more racing any more. We had a very good world championships in Les Gets [in 2004], and now no more World Cup there anymore. We hope that an organizer will continue to organize World Cups after the world championships — that is the strategy we want.

VN.COM: What will it take for a World Cup round to come to the U.S.?

PVDA: We want to do a lot with mountain biking in the U.S. I don’t think there is a problem between the UCI and USA Cycling. To hold a World Cup, the bid must come through by the national federations.

If we don’t receive anything from the national federations and all of a sudden there is an organizer coming to the UCI for a bid, well first of all we are glad. But first of all they need to contact USA Cycling, and together they should continue to have a World Cup. I think the major problem in the U.S. is liability and insurance.

VN.COM: It sounds like the UCI will award cross-country points next year for stage races like the Cape Epic.

PVDA: Not only for Cape Epic but other races. We presented to the UCI commission new rules toward the management boards and one of the new rules will be that stage races will have only points for the final General Classification, not for each stages, and the points will go back toward the Olympic format.

VN.COM: It took a while for news and information about the 2008 Olympic course to come out of China. How has the UCI’s relationship been with China in the lead up to the Games?

PVDA: It’s been not only slow but also hard. From the beginning we had a big discussion concerning the setup of the Olympic test race because the Chinese only wanted to organize a race for men, they didn’t want to host a race for women. So of course, as always, rumors were going on and people were very unhappy with this. You can guess why [China] didn’t’ want to host a test event for women.

After a long discussion they changed their minds and said ok to women, but only under certain criteria. To select the nations they used the UCI nationals ranking of 31st of December 2006. The strongest four nations in Europe were on the list for men, and the Chinese said that Asia needed four nations in too. Only then could they have the elite woman test event. At the end we said ok we will host a test event, but only the invited nations can compete and we will not award UCI points. That was quite hard for the Chinese to take.

VN.COM: Next year looks very busy, with nine World Cup rounds, the world championships and the Olympics. I’ve heard some people say it is too busy. Your thoughts?

PVDA: Well, if this is a rumor that would disappoint me! A couple of years ago when I first became sports coordinator, people said, ‘Oh we need more World Cups.’ Now we have more World Cups, we have world championships and yes, once every four years we have the Olympics. I tried to get more World Cups. Oh well, I have learned you can never satisfy all parties in the mountain-bike community.

UCI Unveils 2009 World Cup calendar
The UCI has announced its 2009 World Cup calendar, and like the previous two years, the list includes no American stop. However the venue at Bromont, Quebec will host the second North American stop behind Mont-Ste-Anne. Two other new venues include Canberra, Australia and Vallnord, Andorra.March 3-4 Marathon No. 1, Manavgat, Turkey. April 19-20 Cross-country No. 1, Houffalize, Belgium 26-27 Cross-country No. 2, Offenburg, Germany May 3-4 Cross-country No. 3, Madrid, Spain 10-11 Downhill/4X No. 1, Maribor, Slovenia 31-June 1 Cross-country No. 4; Downhill/4X No. 2, Vallnord, Andorra June 7-8 Cross-country No. 5, Downhill/4X No. 3, Fort William, Scotland 17-22 UCI World Championships, Val di Sole, Italy July 6 UCI Marathon World Championships, Vilabassa, Italy 26-27 Cross-country No. 6, Downhill/4X No. 4, Mont-Ste-Anne, Canada August 2-3 Cross-country No. 7, Downhill/4X No. 5, Bromont, Canada 30-31 Cross-country No. 8, Downhill/4X No. 6, Canberra, Australia September 13-14 Cross-country No. 9, Downhill/4X No. 7, Schladming, Austria October 4-5 Marathon No. 2, Ornans, France Mont-Ste-Anne to host 2010 World’s
The UCI world championships of mountain-bike racing will return to the North American continent in 2010 when Mont-Ste-Anne hosts the 21st edition of the games. The resort, located 40 miles outside of Quebec City, last hosted the world championships in 1998. The last time the UCI world championships hit North American soil was 2001 when Vail, Colorado, served as host venue.