carleton

Wiggle exec and former pro Derek Bouchard-Hall appointed CEO of USA Cycling - VeloNews.com

There's new hope for Track Cycling in the USA!

The US Trackies have done a lot with seemingly very little support including Olympic medals and World Championships. Hopefully they'll get a lot more support and continue to do even more.

queerpunk

It's very cool. He has a good reputation with people whose opinion I trust - he's smart, not part of the good-old-boy gran-fondo glad-handing back-slapping network, and has a robust business background. He could actually improve USAC as an organization - not just as a brand with some high profile athletes.

One of the big problems that USAC is accused of is, they just scour the country for a high power:weight ratio, and then they throw all their resources at a few people. It doesn't do anything to ensure that the next crop of good bike racers will come up behind them.

They need better funding and a better pipeline to the Bigs. I hope DBH can make it happen!

carleton

I have a long wish list, but the top 2 are:

1) Pay US National Team members a good wage so that they can be free to train twice a day without fear of neglecting financial responsibilities and family. It's impossible to train twice a day, sleep, and work 40 hrs/week.

2) Make the prize for winning a Track National Championship a guaranteed spot on the US National Team (at least the "long team") and be allowed to represent the US in international competition (World Cups, Pan Ams, Olympics). It used to be that way.


well, crap...I'll continue. Hopefully they will see this thread.

3) Pay for team members to travel to World Cups. I mean, geeze. There was a World Cup in Mexico where the flights would have been less than $500 each and hotels would have been cheap. But, we sent no one. This is how you get the young racers some international experience that way, when they make it to bigger events (Pan Ams, Olympics) they aren't intimidated.

4) Create a *real* recruitment program that actively recruits and nurtures young, talented athletes. Go to the track and field scene and get some of those athletes who might miss the cut for T&F scholarships and put them on bikes. They already have the bodies and engines. They just need bike handling skills. As it stands now, we just wait for young kid's parents to get them into cycling and when they get sorta fast USA Cycling gives them kits and says "Go race for us."

5) Make the prizes for winning Jr and Collegiate National Championships some sort of support or sponsorship for the kids to keep them in the sport or offset the parent's expenses somehow.

dunderhi

One thing I saw that the USAC did right this summer was that they held a track training camp at Ttown for promising junior road riders.

carleton

Was this the one that cost like $800 - $1,000 (plus travel and hotel fees)? If it's the same program that I'm thinking about:

A "talent ID camp" should not cost the riders any money to participate. Entry criteria is based on performance. That pay program was a way for someone to make some extra cash. You are only gonna get well-heeled athletes ($$) in a program like that.

dunderhi

Yup, that's it. It was a road camp that included three days of track lessons. I even raced against some of them. I thought it was a good idea. I didn't know about the cost, but as a non-well-heeled teen myself at one time, I paid my own way to Nats, so I would have found a way to pay for one of these camps.

BTW, have you seen what officials get paid? We should also throw some more money in their direction. The only thing I don't know is were the money would come from, well... other then people like you and me.

queerpunk

All of this stuff also means that presumably USAC needs to find money somewhere, and they can't just keep raising the insurance cost that they pass on th promoters, and the price of licenses.

carleton

The purpose of "Talent ID" camps is to benefit the organization, not the rider.

USA Cycling should be on the hunt for the diamond in the rough. It's in their best interest to see as many talented kids as possible and they should eat the cost.

We can learn from British Cycling. They would take bikes around to schools and have kids do sprint and endurance efforts on them. The kids with the best numbers got invited back.

Joanna Rowsell:
ABOUT | JoannaRowsell.com

That is how you find talent.

The camps that USA Cycling hosted were more like "Summer Cycling Camps" where young athletes can train under their idols than "Talent ID Camps" where coaches are looking for the next generation of champions.

It's my understanding that they have lots of money.

And, as British Cycling has proven, Track Cycling provides the most Olympic medal opportunities per program second only to Swimming. Think about how many Olympic medals are up for grabs for a track team (10? 12?) compared to a Road team (4? Road Race and TT for men and women).

queerpunk

really? i mean it's great if they have lots of money... but where does it come from, and where does it go? i thought the whole "usac is behind the times" line was because there was no source of steady, reliable government funding, like all the other national teams in the (developed) world.

carleton

I'm sorry that I can't substantiate. But here on BF (maybe in the Road Racing forum) someone quoted and cited some of their financials, and they certainly were not hurting. They were flush with cash.

carleton

Go nuts: https://www.usacycling.org/usa-cycli...nformation.htm

queerpunk

yeah, you're right. that... well it sounds like a lot of money. but it also looks like the vast majority of their revenue comes from memberships, and from sanctions and entry fees. a total of 76%.

that's a frustrating position to be in.

dunderhi

British Cycling: https://www.britishcycling.org.uk/ar...g-Publications

USA Cycling had an income of 14 million dollars in 2014, while British Cycling had an income of 40 million dollars in 2014. For comparison sake, the membership count is roughly 65k to 100k, USA to UK respectively. Maybe with an extra 26 million dollars, USA Cycling could cover the $371k for the camps and be more aggressive in their recruit of talent.

carleton

Dude, charging parents and kids $1,000 for a "training camp" is not the answer. Period. That is a money-grab. There is no way those kids got $1,000 worth of coaching during those few days.

I stand by my opinion that it's a bad program. They should rename it "Pay to Train with the Pros Camp" and it would make more sense. It's definitely not a "Talent ID Camp". If that's how we choose to look for talent, that's sad.

dunderhi

I've only seen one camp firsthand and it was very much an instructional activity with three track coaches giving off-bike instruction and running them through on-bike drills. Not to insult the coaches, but they weren't top international superstars.

Looking at the spreadsheet, I don't see an organization that can sustain any significant increase in new expenditures. If the USAC implemented all of the UK's wonderful programs, they would be bankrupt within a year. So instead of seeing an organization that is flush with cash, I see an organization that is rather poor with respect to other world-class organizations.

queerpunk

some more numbers:

per capita (of the countries), UK has nearly 15x the amount of money for cycling (population of 65 million versus the USA's population of 330 million).

even simply adjusted for membership rather than population (100k versus 65k), UK has almost twice as much as USAC.

and then, critically, there's the membershipopulation ratio: the UK's is 8 times that of the USA.

carleton

1) I don't expect USAC to implement all of British Cycling's programs. They are lottery funded. They have/had their Skunkworks programs.

2) How do we compare the FRA and AUS teams who are also dominant? I've never had the impression that those orgs have a lot of money.

Dalai

Having an insiders view of the AU Institute of Sports machine I can say money is tight here too. So the question of how do they make it work is a very good one!

Like the States I am not aware of any Talent ID programs going to schools and finding individuals from other sports who may excel at cycling. There have been a few Womens development programs searching for female athletes willing to transition into cycling over the years.

We have a number of velodromes with most country towns even having some form of velodrome so track is accessible. I can't speak for interstate clubs, but a number of local clubs including mine do have junior programs and small track bikes as free loaners so they can train on the velodrome and compete at our summer track races. Though again like America really only kids who have an interest and want to give it a go will try...

In regards to funding most junior rider funding is still via parents, this includes the BT's and gear that they are expected to have if they make the local State NTID! State Institute of Sports provide mostly scholarships which help cover some of the sport science support and coaching unless in the AIS squad in South Australia which I don't have first hand knowledge about but I'd expect more support.

I do know the local juniors who just went to the Junior worlds had to crowd fund to get there... No Lottery moneypit supporting cycling here either, though perhaps more financial support from State and National Government than the USA by the sounds of it?

dunderhi

Cycling Australia has 24 thousand members and $13 million US in revenue. I'll leave France to you.

WhatsYoCadence

this country needs more good velodromes.

Baby Puke

This is kinda promising:
Q and A with new USA Cycling CEO Derek Bouchard-Hall | Cyclingnews.com

"The other thing I think is that we want to make sure we're helping all disciplines so that this is not just a road organisation. We are also about BMX, mountain biking, cyclo-cross, track. And we want to help those efforts grow. It's integral. That's going to require growing the pie and having more resources, but it's unquestionably about all of the disciplines.Another thing is that on the elite side we have some fantastic athletes and some fantastic success stories that particularly USA Cycling has been a part of. But it's not broad enough. We're not where we would like to be on track, for instance. We're not where we want to be on all the disciplines like mountain biking and downhill.
[FONT=Helvetica]If you look at where American athletes are across all the disciplines, It's hard to say we're satisfied with where we are. Again, it's a resource question. We're very much interested in having a broader range of success than we have right now."[/FONT]

carleton

That's great to hear! At least it's already on his mind and possibly his agenda. I'm down to help.

Baby Puke

You should email this guy if you haven't yet. He certainly seems to be open to it.

carleton

Not sure what I'd say.

Baby Puke

Same as what you say on the subject on here?