LA Call Minutes- 11.30.16

  
  


LA Call
Wednesday, November 30, 2016
 
  • Stefanie Larson – Event Services – USAC – slarson@usacycling.org / 719-434-4217
    • First I would like to bring on Jon Whiteman for a quick reminder
 
  • Jon Whiteman – RaceClean  – USAC – jwhiteman@usacycling.org / 719-434-4222
    • I’m starting to plan 2017 for RaceClean and I can use some suggestions on events.  As you’re putting your calendars together please send me 3-6 suggestions for 2017.
 
  • Jeffrey Hansen- Membership- USAC – jhansen@usacycling.org / 719-434-4215
    • Policy and pricing changes for 2017
      • The comparison chart will be public soon (see chart attached).  Feel free to ask any questions as we walk you through all of this information.
    • LA rebates and contract information
      • More information will follow by the end of this week. 
    • Membership
      • We are introducing tiers that we’ll get into a little later.
      • Collegiate membership will stay at $45 for a standalone.
        • If you’re adding a collegiate membership onto an annual, instead of the collegiate membership being free, we’re going to charge $10.  This allows entry into collegiate races as well as the ability to generate more revenue for the program so we can improve the quality of collegiate racing.
      • International membership pricing is not changing
        • We’re adding BMX Racing and Freestyle to be all one International Membership instead of having 2-3 different memberships.
      • Pro Road UCI license
        • Pro women used to be able to buy a regular International license at $200.  For 2017, it will be $250 for Women and Continental Men.  This is a price reduction for the Continental Men since last year it was $300.
        • Pro Continental men will see a price increase to $350 which better reflects the resources applied although affects a small amount of the membership.
      • Ride membership
        • We will be adding a new tier called Ride Plus
      • Printed Memberships- We used to print licenses for free, but we’re moving to charge for these.  Anyone who wants a physical license, which will be a better quality, will pay $5.  Anyone who prefers a thicker plastic card will pay $10
      • All members will also receive a phone sized screenshot in case there is any trouble with the internet.
        • This is obviously not as frequently updated as your app, but more convenient.
    • RaceClean Surcharges
      • One item that’s missing from here is the RaceClean surcharge.  Most likely, Cat 2s and 3s will remain the same.  There is potential for a change on Cat 1, but it would go down if anything were to change.
    • One-days Licenses
      • We are offering a discount on beginner one-days for anyone who has a Ride or Podium Plus Membership beginning 2017.
      • Experienced one-days
        • Will be removing the one time per person limit starting summer of 2017.
        • This item is tied to IT
    • Surcharges
      • Race surcharges will stay the same  
      • Gran fondo and fun ride surcharges are increasing by $0.25, but we are also removing the requirement for race director licenses or affiliation with a club requirement in order to permit your event.
      • Insurance surcharge pricing for camps, clinics, and training rides in 2017 will be $2.50 per rider per day.
    • Rules- The following are all pending board approval:
      • Pro Continental Men and WorldTour Men will be allowed to participate in non UCI races, but there will be caps.
      • Women’s category 5
        • We are adding Cat 5 for Women’s road, track, and cyclo-cross.
        • We fully acknowledging there is not the same number of women in the sport, but this at least gives them the option to enter as a true beginner if they so choose. 
        • This will eliminate some stagnation in Cat 3 and 4.
        • The same upgrade requirements that apply for men will apply for women.
        • This gives us more parody between men and women.
      • Pro MTB
        • Historically, if you had a pro category on your MTB race membership you had to purchase an International license, but that will no longer be a requirement.
      • MTB XC
        • We are making Category 1 self-selectable.
        • You no longer have to get two top-5 finishes in order to upgrade.
        • There is not a lot of concern for safety with endurance races.
          • We reviewed these with the Safety Committee and they agreed.
        • This has been a huge barrier in the past especially for new MTB events coming on board as well as the participants.
      • Race radios will be allowed for Cat 1 or 2 road events, excluding juniors and collegiate members.
 
  • Chuck Hodge- Technical- USAC – chodge@usacycling.org / 719-434-4264
    • Our board meeting starts on December 12th so between now and then please send me your comments.
    • Women’s Category 5
      • I admit currently we don’t have enough women racing since we can barely fill Cat 4 fields, but the more it got discussed, the more it made sense.
      • Race directors may run 4/5 races in order to have minimal impact on race day.
      • We feel that a step from 4 to 3 is very difficult and a lot of times it’s like asking a cat 5 male to upgrade to cat 2.  These Cat 4 women end up racing high level women.
      • This provides women an additional step to gain experience.
  • Randy Legeai- LAMBRA
    • Will existing Cat 4 women continue to be Cat 4?
  • Chuck Hodge- Technical- USAC
    • Correct, we will not downgrade women to Cat 5
  • Randy Legeai- LAMBRA
    • This will be a bit confusing at first.
  • Chuck Hodge- Technical- USAC
    • We will definitely have a sorting out period for a couple years.
    • There is no problem in downgrading to Cat 5.  We want people to be in the category that is appropriate for them.
  • Steve Rosefield-NCNCA
    • If a women purchased a membership for the first time and now has a Cat 4 license, she can stay as a Cat 4 even if she signed up for the very first time?
  • Chuck Hodge- Technical- USAC
    • She may continue to be a Cat 4 or she may choose to downgrade.  There will be flexibility.
    • Self-selecting to Cat 1 for MTB XC
      • Just to clarify, Cross-country is considered endurance so this new change would not apply to Dual Slalom or Downhill. 
      • Endurance is what we consider the XC events as opposed to gravity.
      • The rationale is there isn’t the same safety issue with endurance events as opposed to the extreme DH and DS events.
      • We start to see extreme courses once we get to the Cat 1 level for gravity events.
 
  • Jeffrey Hansen- Membership- USAC
    • Membership purchase process
      • I will go through the steps of Membership registration using our test website.
      • Our new platform for selling memberships will be in tandem with our old USAC website.
      • Only the purchase process itself is changing.
      • We strongly urge all of you to help us get the word out to your members within your regions once the platform is fully launched.  Please remind them to renew their memberships.
      • Click “I want to become a race member”.
    • Login using your e-mail address and current password.
      • Select the membership you want.
      • You may have family members under your account and each one can have their own identity.
      • Select who you want.
      • Address should be pre-populated.
      • Select membership.
      • You will see your categories.
        • If you’ve upgraded in the last couple of days, it won’t be up-to-date.  It will only show on your real account.
      • Select your primary discipline.
      • It should list your emergency contact.
      • In the past we always collected citizenship information from International Members.
        • We will also collect that information voluntarily from Domestic Members just so we have that information on file in case they want to participate in a National Championship.
      • Podium Plus members may add merchandise.
      • Select whether you want a paper or digital Membership card.
      • Click “Complete and proceed to cart”.
      • Waiver
        • If you’re purchasing a Membership for someone else, the system will send the waiver to that person.
        • If you’re buying your kid a race membership, you can sign for them online.
          • It will be a smoother process than having to print out a waiver and send it to USAC.
      • Agree to waiver.
      • Complete purchase.
  • Randy Legeai- LAMBRA
    • Will Officials and Race Director renewals go through the same system?
  • Jeffrey Hansen- Membership- USAC
    • Yes, but those memberships won’t be live tomorrow.  We want to get race memberships out the door first.
    • Technical and Race Director Memberships will be ready December 15th and will be very similar to what you just saw.
 
  • Chuck Hodge- Technical- USAC
    • Rule changes- The following are pending board approval:
      • All of the changes have been vetted by our Sports Committees.
      • Pro Continental Men and WorldTour Men will be allowed to participate in non-UCI races.
        • We are looking to limit this number of events.  We may land on 5 events, but this is still to be determined.
        • Many of the teams don’t want their members participating in too many events.
        • There may also be no more than 3 participants at the same race.
        • The teams have seen this as a positive. 
      • Upgrade changes
        • Our goal is to make this a more automated process once the upgrade tool is implemented in our new system.
        •  You will be able to follow your points online with more accuracy.
        • To clarify, when riders cat up, we start them back at zero.
        • Gran fondo points
          • We will allow minimal points for those riders who finish a gran fondo.
          • We are still deciding on the maximum amount of points and we like the idea of 5 points total for the year.  A rider may earn 1 point per gran fondo for those looking to upgrade from Cat 5 to 4.
          • The gran fondos must be USAC permitted.
        • CX will follow the road rules as far as combined categories and how we score those points.
  • Judy Rhyne- CCA
    • As far as MTB self-selecting to Cat 1, how will the upgrade rules change with the automatic cross over between disciplines?  What if those Cat 1 MTB members want to use that criteria as a reason to be a Cat 2 in CX?
  • Chuck Hodge- Technical- USAC
    • We fixed that and they will have to be a Pro in MTB to move up in CX.
  • Jeff Poulin- NYSBRA
    • If LAs can approve points for a mentor race experience, why can’t LAs approve points for a sanctioned clinic?
  • Chuck Hodge- Technical- USAC
    • We want a little bit of control regarding overseeing the quality of the clinics.
    • This is also a rubber stamp that comes from Kevin Dessart.
    • We want to address how many points get assigned based on length of the clinic since there is a wide variance out there.  Some people do clinics that are hours long versus days long.
  • Jeff Poulin- NYSBRA
    • I strongly urge that USAC allows the LAs to approve points for clinics.
 
  • Stefanie Larson – Event Services – USAC
    • Symposium schedule
      • Wednesday, February 8, 2017
        • Morning—Open for arrivals
        • Afternoon—(starting around 1:00 pm) Mountain Bike and Track Race Directors (separate meetings)
      • Thursday, February 9, 2017
        • Morning—Mountain Bike, Track, Road, and Cyclo-cross Race Directors (all together—joint programming)
        • Mid-day—Keynote lunch with all Race Directors and Local Associations
        • Afternoon—Road Race Directors, Local Associations, and open discussion for CX Race Directors (separate meetings)
      • Friday, February 10, 2017
        • Morning—Cyclo-cross Race Directors and Local Associations (separate meetings)
        • Afternoon—Local Associations
      • Saturday, February 11, 2017
        • All day—Officials
      • Sunday, February 12, 2017
        • Morning—Officials
 
 


This Article Updated December 15, 2016 @ 01:13 AM For more information contact: