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A closer look at the 2009 USA Cycling National Racing Calendar (NRC)

Posted on 18. Oct, 2008 by lyne in news

Earlier this week, USA Cycling announced the 2009 National Racing Calendar (NRC) topping off at 34 events, one more than last year, which includes 27 women’s races and 29 men’s races. 

Gone from this year’s calendar are 8 races including Sequoia Cycling Classic, Garrett Lemire Memorial Grand Prix, Sea Otter Classic, Tour de Nez, ATT Austin Downtown Crit, the Cox Charities Cycling Classic and the Louisville Metro Police Foundation Crit.

The good news is that the calendar includes 8 new events starting off with the $25,000 Amgen Tour of California Women’s Stage Race held at the same time as the UCI Men’s race. Other new races include the Dana Point Grand Prix of Cycling, the Tour de Windhaven, the Chicago Criterium, the Tour of Elk Grove, the Marion Classic Riverwalk, the ING Direct Capital Criterium powered by CycleLife , the San Francisco Twilight Criterium and the Priority Health Ann Arbor Cycling Classic p/b Saint Joseph Mercy Medical System.

The 27 events on the women’s calendar include 10 stage races, 2 more than last year which combined with the one-day races provide 76 days of racing as opposed to 54 in 2008. On the men’s side, 11 stage races are included in the 29 events providing a total of 70 days of racing compared to 71 last year. As a reminder, the men also have the UCI America’s Tour which include events such as the Amgen Tour of California, the Tour of Leelanau, the Tour of Missouri and more.

Still same disparity in the prize money. The overall prize list for the 2009 NRC is $1,378,660, with the overall purse for women coming to $424,330 compared to $954,330 for the men.   Of note, with $57,330 up for grabs, the International tour de ‘Toona offers the largest women’s prize purse.

While some problems with the calendar have been fixed, there are still some eyebrow raising decisions.  The two big money races, the Tour of Elk Grove and the Presbyterian Hospital Invitational are no longer going to head to head and are on different weekends.

But there is still a big gap of 6 weeks between the first race of the calendar, the Amgen Tour of California and the next race, the Redlands Bicycle Classic. Another big problem is the 3-day gap between the 7-day stage race the International Tour de ‘Toona in Pennsylvania and the 5-day  Cascade Cycling Classic in Oregon.

Add to the WTF file is the just announced  first-annual National Racing Calendar (NRC) Promoters Summit in Colorado Springs Nov. 14-16, 2008. A great idea except that the three-day event will be open to all  and only the 2009 NRC race promoters. As Olaf pointed out:

“what about all the previous NRC promoters and the wealth of experience they could bring to such a summit?  What about potential NRC promoters who could benefit from attending such a summit?  Shouldn’t they all be invited to a 3-day event of such importance?”

*: Women’s races are also on the UCI International Calendar

Tags: nrc