JHK Update | More thoughts on U.S. professional racing...

It’s been a busy day here at casa JHK and Heather. Between trying to cram yet more house work in on my rest day and catch up with all the commentary about my column yesterday I’ve got my hands full.

For those who haven’t seen it, I wrote a piece yesterday for Singletrack.com about the current status of the 2010 professional calendar. It can be found here. I’ve received a variety of comments about this – overwhelmingly positive, but some criticism has also been leveled at my take on the current status of things.

Specifically, several individuals have expressed their opinion that there’s little point in trying to develop a national calendar of top-level professional races, and that the future of mountain biking lies in the strong grass roots events all over the country. Who cares about UCI points if they only benefit a handful of World Cup focused riders? This sentiment misses the point of my article.

Lest anyone forget - I have not always been an international level paid professional traveling the globe racing my mountain bike. I started racing - just like everyone else - for fun at great local events. Fortunately I still get the chance to do this – this summer I had the opportunity to race a bunch of local Winter Park series races, which are still some of my favorite events. I absolutely love racing the Iceman Cometh every year precisely because the fun festival atmosphere is a world apart from what I am used to week in and week out as a World Cup racer.

I agree that these events will always make up the broad base of mountain bike racing in this country and should rightfully be encouraged. It’s why we all do it right? However I believe that there is value in developing the professional component of the sport. I am living proof that there is a legitimate path to making a good living doing the sport we all love. What I am investing my time in is trying to make that a reality for more people.

The structure of a professional series of races will necessarily always be different from what appeals to many racers – who may just want to share a few beers with their friends in the middle of the 24 hours of Moab. There’s nothing wrong with that – and these two visions of MTB racing are not incompatible. Whether it’s shorter courses (which I hate racing on too, by the way – but are good for spectators), more urban venues, or jumping through UCI hoops, building a credible professional component to the sport will entail a different set of concerns.

While many racers don’t have the aspirations of traveling the world and racing professionally, hundreds of riders in this country do. By building both a legitimate, professional series, and eventually a professional team structure I believe that this can become a reality. From strictly a business standpoint there is real value for sponsors in a variety of creative ways via the mountain bike world – I think that this can be exploited if people work toward the same ends. I am interested in building this value so that eventually there can be more depth of opportunity in the professional ranks. As someone who “made it” despite a difficult and largely unsuccessful young pro career at 20 or 21 I would like to make these difficult transitions more reasonable for my Junior, U23, and young professional friends.

With that in mind – I would never advocate that all these great local events in the country all of a sudden try to inscript with the UCI for my or other top riders’ benefit. What I am suggesting is that this is an important part of a professional national series. That said, there are serious problems with the UCI structure when applied to North America vs. Western Europe – which is why this is a perennial debate. Is there a place for non-sanctioned races on a professional calendar in the U.S.? Possibly in unique cases – if there were compelling other reasons to include them - say, great promotion, marketing, and a huge prize purse. There are some great events – Teva Games comes to mind – that would be a worthy inclusion in a professional series despite not being UCI accredited. The UCI issue is so complicated that it’s difficult even to address in a short blog post. Without delving into the details here, UCI status for races does absolutely benefit many more riders than just the top handful. It’s incredibly important for aspiring Junior and U23 riders – riders who will be the future face of MTB racing and hopefully continue to inspire people to get out and ride their mountain bikes. It's one thing to expect me to go to Europe to gather UCI points - which I have the ability to do. However, for the domestically-based professional who desires to someday compete at that level, having a legitimate avenue to begin to do that in the U.S. is crucially important.

The issue that we currently face is that any momentum that we've built toward a sustainable professional series is in danger of evaporating if different parties pursue equally valid but disparate agendas. There is no "bad guy" in the current drama, but everyone will lose if we all just pursue our own ends. Great promotion, marketing, event experience, prize money, and UCI status are all worth pursuing - but what we need right now is a broad consensus on which events are the most important for the media, athletes, and industry - and work to build some history here.

                In any case – I am encouraged by the passionate reactions that my column has provoked. A healthy debate about what we want for our sport is terrific. I stand by the overarching point of my original column - which is simply that the best interests of the sport are served by the various stakeholders reaching a consensus about a single group of races moving forward. I am strongly urging everyone to exercise some flexibility to make this happen - and keep the momentum of the Pro XCT rolling into 2010. The mountain bike community is overwhelmingly populated with great people – which is why I think we can achieve great things if we work together.  

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