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The Union Cycliste International (UCI) has unveiled a two year plan to further the development of women’s road cycling.
The plan includes bringing the UCI Women Road World Cup back to the United States as well as further promoting of the growing number of televised events across the UCI women’s road calendar. Next year will also see many one-day, or multi-stage races included in the UCI calendar across Europe, North and South America, Asia and Oceania.
The plan builds on recent expansion of women’s races including La Course by Le Tour, launched this year. 2014 also saw the UCI develop and finance TV programme production for the UCI Women Road Word Cup. At 152 hours of broadcasting, the UCI’s investment and that of series sponsor The Sufferfest saw an eight-fold increase, according to UCI. The @UCIWomenCycling Twitter account has over 7,000 followers, also helping push the UCI YouTube channel coverage.
In a statement, the UCI added: "To build upon these encouraging developments, the UCI and its partners plan to continue their collaboration throughout 2015 to fine tune a project intended to promote a larger and stronger platform for women’s road cycling. Organisers, teams, broadcasters and sponsors will work with the UCI and its Women’s Commission with the goal of finalising these plans by the end of 2015.
UCI Vice-president and President of the Women’s Commission Tracey Gaudr said: “We have taken another step in favour of women’s cycling. The UCI Women Road World Cup seminar highlighted the progress already accomplished in 2014, which we are going to build on to raise and expand the platform for a new professional series. As President of the Women’s Commission and UCI Vice-president, and also as a former athlete, I am proud to see that the UCI and its partners are finding concrete solutions to develop women’s cycling.”
UCI President Brian Cookson also commented: “I would like to emphasise the remarkable mindset which we saw during the UCI Women Road World Cup Seminar. I thank the organisers for the quality of their contributions, which reflect the growing professionalisation of women’s cycling, one of the priorities of my programme. I am looking forward to meeting all our partners again in 2015, so that together we can add a new dimension to women’s road cycling.”
