2008 Olympics

[redlinerider]

i just herd that BMX is a go for the 2008 summer olympics

so who is going to represent the USA for bmx????????

[awsm4]

I'm not the resident expert on this but I know it will be determied by the UCI world rankings. From my understanding riders will have to qualify to the world championships in order to be considered for the US team. Rope may chime in here I think he has a pretty good understanding of how it works. I would say it is a pretty safe bet to assume Bubba Harris - Mikey Day - dR - maybe a few other AA guys will be doing the representation. Not sure if there will be age groupings or what...? I think the UCI website is UCI.org - check it out.

Adam

[awsm4]

check that UCI is http://www.uci.ch

Adam

[awsm4]

also usacycling.org - I read that the teams to sponsor usa in this years uci world championships have already been set - the format and requirements are listed on the aobve websites...

[mackdaddy]

The way I understand it from info on a couple of websites there will be a 5 person USA team 3 men 2 women for the 2008 olympics.
How they pick the people I am not sure on

[bmxchris73]

I was talking to Joey Bradford and he's heard that they will be doing time trials for the Olympic team. He said hes not sure but that is what he's heard.

[UtahLori]

Each county earns points at UCI races that will acrue and decide the number of riders from each country that will get to go. Some countries like Japan are sending riders like MASA who will not be able to qualify for the olympics due to age, to UCI races just to acrue the position points for their pros.

The most that can be acrued and the most America will get to send, will be 2 American Women and 3 American men . They must be currantly old enough to race ELITE ( UCI and NBL's version of AA) and there will be no age group classifications. There will be no Vet pro or Masters class.

Arielle has attended 2 meetings on the selection process and nothing is set in cement yet. They will be going by UCI points but that may not be the only factor and the date that they have said points count, varies anywhere from 6 months ago to it hasn't started yet .

Right now, all points are acrued at NBL-UCI races for this continant but there is a real good possibility that ABA will get in the game this next season.

Arielle has a decent shot but will need to be in Brazil in a month and since sponsorship funding of that trip fell through she may be out of luck.

It is really interesting how other countries approach it. Sammy Cools from Canada is paid a very decent salary to do nothing but train and the government pays her travel but also controls all of her racing decisions.

France has team doctors, nutritionists and trainers and they tow around portable oxygen tanks. They travel together, wear matching warm-up suits and look about like what you see in team gymnastics.

While the USA has always been more of a free for all , Arielle did get a call yesterday from Mike King( of MTB Fame) who will be taking care of the USA Pro's in Brazil. It sounds like this new guy Martin (no relation) with USA Cycling might getting some things more organized. We can hope but there is still no funding.

No matter how it all pans out, it will be fun to see our sport compete!

LM