Welcome
Greetings collegiate cyclists! As some astute readers may have noticed, we’re trying out a quick-read format for weekly race wrap-ups on the collegiate page, so be sure to check in every Monday for updates on what’s going on nationwide in the world of collegiate cycling.
In other news, there are currently 7% more collegiate cyclists out there than there were this time last year, women’s participation is up by over 10%, and we have over 20 new teams already this year, so collegiate cycling is continuing to grow in all the right ways. I hope everyone’s road seasons are going well. As always, never hesitate to contact me with questions.
Best,
Jeffrey Hansen
USA Cycling Collegiate Program Manager
In this issue:
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Summer Position Available at USA Cycling
Looking for a job for this summer? Are you a self-starter with a passion for collegiate cycling and an interest in growing the program, as well as helping lay the foundation of high school cycling? Excellent. We’ve got a position here at USA Cycling headquarters in Colorado Springs that you’ll be interested in.
 USA Cycling headquarters in sunny Colorado Springs
The High School and Collegiate Program Assistant is a part-time seasonal position within the USA Cycling Membership Department. The main objective for this position is to assist the High School and Collegiate Manager with website updates, newsletter articles, Conference Director Summit logistics, and long-term initiatives for the collegiate and high school cycling programs. The ideal candidate will have first-hand experience with collegiate cycling and a familiarity with high school cycling programs. This person will be energetic and motivated to further develop and grow these programs, improving the membership experience of all USA Cycling Collegiate and High School racers. Read the full job description and learn how to apply here. We look forward to hearing from you!
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Qualifying for 2011 Road Nationals Want to roll across this finish line in Madison in May? You better read up on how to qualify!
Questions start to swirl in the run-up to collegiate road nationals: Am I eligible to compete? How many start spots is my conference given for Road Nationals? How do I qualify? Well, we have the answers.
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Eligibility: In order to compete at road nationals, you must be a full-time student at your school during the regular season.You prove this by bringing this form to packet pick-up at the event.
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In addition to that, in order to compete in the road race or criterium, you must have raced in three Category A mass-start races during the conference season.
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To compete in the TTT, you must have done three Category A races (of any kind) during the conference season.This means that if you're a B, but have participated in two A TTT's throughout the season, you can go to nationals and race the TTT.
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Full details are always available in the rulebook, starting on page 190, here.
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Allocations: Each conference is given a finite number of start spots for each race, based on the number of category A licenses held by racers in that conference last year. These numbers can be found here.
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Qualifying: In order to earn one of these start spots that’s been allocated to your conference, you must qualify either as a team or an individual. Every conference determines qualifications differently, so check with your team president and/or conference director to find out exactly how you can qualify in your conference. As an example, however, this is how the WCCC qualifies riders (a fairly typical example of the process):
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TEAM: The first placed team gets six starts spots in the road race and four in the crit. The second through fifth placed teams each get four start spots in the road race and three in the crit.
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INDIVIDUAL: The five highest-ranked individuals not on one of the qualifying teams qualify for the road race and the top four individuals qualify for the criterium, as well.
If, however, extreme circumstances prohibit you from qualifying for the event, you can petition to the USA Cycling Collegiate Board of Trustees using this form and they will consider making an exception to the rules if the situation warrants.
Clear as mud? We thought so. So shoot us an e-mail with any questions you may have.
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Add on a full USAC Road or MTB License for $30
What do two out of every three collegiate cyclists have in common? Besides a strange affinity for spending 15 hours in a 15 passenger van every weekend, they keep on racing when school gets out! Your collegiate license cost you $30 and covers all four disciplines of collegiate cycling, but at any point in time, you can add a non-collegiate license for either Road/Track/Cyclocross or MTB/Cyclocross for just $30 more. That way, when June rolls around, and you get that empty feeling in your stomach because you miss bike racing more than you knew possible, you don’t have to wait until the fall collegiate season to get that feeling back.
Log into your usacycling.org account, click on “Purchase/Renew License” to get your full USA Cycling license before school is out so the racing never has to stop!
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Meet Spencer Powlison, RMCCC Director Spencer in his element, watching out for rustlers
How did you first get involved with cycling? Two good friends of mine decided to go mountain biking at a local trail center in Vermont, Catamount Family Center. I went with them, and the rest is history. That was 1996 or so, I think. I began racing mountain bikes in 1997.
What about collegiate cycling? A high school friend of mine let me stay with his teammates from UVM for the Mount Snow Nationals one year, and that was the first time I really became aware of the opportunities to ride collegiately. They were all uncharacteristically well-behaved, so I had no idea what I was getting into. I was president of my school's team, Saint Michael's College, for all four years of my time at school. I was also the mountain bike conference champion in the ECCC in 2004.
Read the rest of Spencer's interview here, including why he's scared of Wyoming.
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Collegiate Board of Trustees Update
The last few months, the Collegiate Board of Trustees has focused on two primary issues during their meetings:
Road Nationals Meeting Agendas: Once again, the Collegiate Board of Trustees will be holding its annual meeting at Road National Championships, and in preparation, the board has been discussing topics for those meetings. There will be two meetings open to the public at the Madison Concourse Hotel:
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Collegiate Rules Friday; 7pm-8:30pm
The Collegiate Board will be holding an open meeting on proposed rule changes for 2012. Rule change proposals are due to your conference directors by April 15th, and will be discussed with riders and coaches at this meeting. This is your best opportunity to participate directly in the rules change process. The rules will not be voted on at this time, but the board seeks as much rider input as possible on all rule changes.
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Women in Collegiate Cycling Saturday; 2pm-3:30pm
The Collegiate Board will be devoting this meeting to all things women in collegiate cycling, from recruiting and retention to training and racing. What works and what doesn’t? This will be a semi-structured meeting, with a few short keynote presentations given at the beginning, followed by an open discussion. Come and share your experiences, ideas, and questions. Men and women welcome.
In addition to these meetings, the board will be available for questions and discussion at packet pick-up Thursday evening.
Nationals Qualification in the WCCC: As discussed above, most riders qualify for National Championships as a team, based on the Category A rankings of the men’s and women’s squads combined for each team. Given that some teams have far less than the national average of 20% however, a group of riders from the Western Conference saw this system as unfair, and began pushing via the conference listserv to have this changed. The board had several frank discussions with the riders, WCCC Director Hanns Hartman, and one another to debate the merits of the proposed change, and eventually concluded that the current rules would stand, especially given that a formal rule change would be required and could not go into effect until 2012, as the season was already underway. More fundamentally, the board stood by the Collegiate Cycling mission statement, which says, in part, that collegiate cycling is team-oriented, where “team” is defined as the riders from a single school, regardless of gender.
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Call for Presenters on Women in Collegiate Cycling Women make up 20% of collegiate cycling, but we think that number can be even higher.
As mentioned above, the USA Cycling Collegiate Board of Trustees will be hosting an open meeting to discuss how best to grow the ranks of women in collegiate cycling, and would like to feature a few keynote presenters that represent programs that have been successful in recruiting, retaining, and fostering a positive, enjoyable environment for women in our sport. If you think you are part of such a program or have ideas you would like to present, please contact the chairperson of the board, Emma Bast, and the USA Cycling Collegiate Manager, Jeffrey Hansen.
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Join Your Conference's Listserv
The best way to stay up-to-date on race schedules, conference announcements, and important updates is to sign up for your conference’s E-mail Listserv. All team presidents should sign up, but other team members are encouraged to join these e-mail lists, as well. A complete list of conference listservs are available on the right side of this page.
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Call for Rule Change Proposals
Want to change the rules? No problem!* Proposals are due by April 15th to your conference director, so get on it! What should the proposal consist of? We’ve made it easy: simply fill out this form and send it to your conference director. Bam. Your conference director will submit the proposal to the board and then it will be considered and discussed at Road Nationals. Yes, it really is that easy.
*Keep in mind, changing the rules isn't a matter of snapping your fingers, but submitting a proposal almost is.
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Meet the Lifers of Collegiate Cycling: Rob Dahl
Ed. note: We'll be profiling some collegiate riders over the next few months that have stood the test of time, as it were, finding ways to stay eligible in collegiate cycling for much longer than the traditional 4 year plans. Do they really want to get higher degrees, or do they just find any means necessary to keep racing collegiate?
This interview and those following in this series are being conducted by UC Berkeley's Nitish Nag.
 Rob breaks out the tie-dyed skinsuit for 2010 Collegiate CX Nationals.
I've been at UC Berkeley for 7 years now working on a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering. My focus has been to engineer E. coli for the production of biofuels and other natural products that can be used as pharmaceuticals. I came to Cal from CU-Boulder where I competed on the triathlon team as an undergrad. I was pretty average at 3 sports, so I wanted to focus and get better at cycling while at grad school. So in addition to wanting to work with my current adviser, the cycling team at Cal was one of the biggest factors in my decision to move out to Berkeley (as they were coming off of a 3-peat as National Champions).
Once I got out here I joined the cycling team and started off getting two 2nd's and a 1st in my first B's mountain bike races. After that I upgraded to A's and was off to my first mountain bike nationals. On the road, I started in the C's and was second in the omnium my first year, and upgraded over the years to get to the A's today. I definitely was hooked right away. I think my favorite thing about collegiate racing are the road trips and the camaraderie. Rarely at UCSF races do you get up early to hang out and cheer on or feed your teammates in other categories. I also met my fiancé on the cycling team, so that is cool too.
Read the rest of Rob's story, including his take on where collegiate cycling is headed, here.
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Send questions, comments, story ideas, or photos to collegiateupdate@usacycling.org.
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