UCI Women's Teams

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UCI Women’s Teams

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Welcome to the homepage for the 2006 UCI Women’s Teams. On here you will find all of the information we have on the logistics of forming, registering, and maintaining a UCI Women’s Team.

We also manage the UCI Continental Teams, but we have a separate page for them. Click here to be redirected to the UCI Continental Team Page.

Well, let’s get to it then! You can either scroll through this entire document or click on the individual items in the list below to be taken to that section. Items shown in purple are defined or further explained in the glossary. Items with active links look like this, and indicate you can click on it to get to that document or page immediately.

I hope you find this information useful. If you ever need assistance with any aspect of your team process, please do not hesitate to contact me. One of the benefits of being on a UCI team is that you have a dedicated USA Cycling Staff contact. While I would not claim to be reachable 24/7, it is pretty close to that. I can be reached at:

sfarrell@usacycling.org or you can call me at my direct work number, which is 719-866-3364, or on my cell phone at 719-229-0732.

What’s on this Page?

1. Team Composition and General Principles

2. Team Participation

3. Roster Changes

4. Key Dates for Team Registration

5. Associated Fees for Registering a Team

6. The Registration and Auditing Process

7. The Bank Guarantee

8. Archive of Downloadable Files

1. Team Composition and General Principles

A UCI Women’sl Team is made up of a minimum of 8 riders and a maximum of 14. To be registered with USA Cycling, the majority of the riders must be US Citizens. All riders on the team must have a road category of 1. If you have foreign riders on your team that are licensed by another federation, they must have their federation’s equivalent of a category 1.

In addition to the 14 rider maximum, a team may have extra riders who are specialists in other disciplines, such as track, mountain bike, or cyclocross, provided that these riders were in the top 100 of the UCI Classification for that discipline last year.

Every rider on the team must have a contract for a period of at least one year, although for these teams there are no rules regarding what the compensation must be. Whatever it is, it must be spelled out explicitly in the contract.

There is an extensive process for registering these teams that will be explained in other sections of this document.

The United States can register 15 Women’s Teams with the UCI.

2. Team Participation

Once a rider is on your team, she can ride in many kinds of races. For women’s races, the UCI allows organizers to engage UCI teams, National Teams, Club or Regional Teams, and Mixed Teams. When your team is riding as such in a foreign race, you do not need Foreign Permission Letters. For any international race, your riders can participate with your team, or they could potentially ride as part of the USA National Team or they could ride on a Mixed team. However, they can only participate on teams apart from your UCI Women’s Team IF your team is not participating.

It is important to remember that being on a UCI Women’s Team DOES NOT mean you are automatically selected for any particular race. Each UCI event is by invitation only. A UCI race organizer must meet UCI rules when extending invitations to their events, and since these rules include a minimum number of non-American teams. Each team must contact the race organizer to secure an invitation.

3. Roster Changes

The UCI has imposed strict limits on how and when team rosters can be changed. The official roster change period is June 1, 2006 to June 25, 2006. Any changes will require a new audit and review process.

In addition to the normal roster changes in this period, there are three other ways your roster can be changed:

• At any time during the season, you can add a rider if that rider meets all criteria and has never had a contract with a UCI team before.
• If a rider has been inactive for 6 months due to illness or injury and has not been on a different UCI team in 2006, that rider can be added to your roster outside of the June 1-25 window.

4. Key Dates for Team Registration

OCTOBER 10, 2005 -- Preliminary paperwork and information is available by USAC to teams wishing to register a UCI Women’s Team for 2006.

OCTOBER 31, 2005 -- USAC must submit list of teams that it intends to register to the UCI. This means that at a minimum, we need to know the name of the team. If we submit a team called Billy Joe’s Bike Shop/Raleigh/Target to the UCI by this date, we may be able to register a team on December 20 that is called Billy Joe’s Bike Shop/Della Santa/Fred’s Bank. However, if no part of the team name is the same, it may be rejected by the UCI. Therefore you would be well advised to have your primary sponsor lined up before you commit to this process.

DECEMBER 2, 2005 -- This is the FINAL DATE applications will be accepted by USAC and our auditor, Waugh Associates. Applications received after this date will not be processed and will not be submitted to the UCI.

DECEMBER 20, 2005 -- USAC must submit all completed Women’s Team registration paperwork to the UCI by this date.

MARCH 31, 2006 -- Bank Guarantees from the 2005 season due back to teams will be mailed by USAC on this date.

JUNE 1 – JUNE 25, 2006 -- All 2006 UCI roster transactions will take place during this period.

5. Associated Fees for Registering a Team

The following table gives the fees involved in this process, who they go to, when they are payable, and how they should be sent:

* Note that the fee to the UCI should not be sent until you receive approval from USAC.

In addition to these fees, there is also a Bank Guarantee of either $5500 or 10% of the total salary package of your riders and staff, whichever is greater. If you are a first time team, this bank guarantee will be in the form of a certified check or wire transfer. If you are a returning team, there is a procedure for rolling over your guarantee from last year, as explained in detail in the FAQ.

6. The Registration and Auditing Process

The following are the proper steps for registering a UCI Continental Team:

A. Familiarize yourself with the UCI regulations regarding continental teams. Your existence as a team is based on these rules, which can be found in their entirety on the UCI website, www.uci.ch (click rules). The most relevant chapters are also provided for you here as PDFs. They are Chapter 1 – General Regulations, Chapter 2 – Road Racing, and Chapter 12 – Discipline. In addition, you can download these abbreviated rules specific to Women’s Teams.

B. Compile the following for mailing to Waugh & Goodwin, LLP (auditor) by certified mail (must be received by December 2nd, 2005):

• Two copies of all signed rider/team staff contracts. If you have never done one of these before, the UCI has provided us with a model contract you can use as a guide.

• Completed official UCI registration forms.

• Certified Check for $750 to cover auditing services

• Copies of signed sponsor contracts over $ 5000

• A complete team operating budget. For your convenience, the UCI also has provided a model operating budget.

• A completed UCI Team Repartition of Tasks Form

C. Send USA Cycling a certified check for $2000 to be received by December 2nd.

C. E-mail Shawn Farrell at USAC (sfarrell@usacycling.org) to inform him of your team’s mailing to Waugh & Goodwin, LLP. At the same time, attach your complete rider and staff roster for USAC to review.

D. Waugh & Goodwin, LLP will provide you with a total amount due to USA Cycling to cover your bank guarantee. Mail a check for that amount made out to USA Cycling to the attention of Shawn Farrell by certified mail (Must be received by December 20, 2005).

E. Compile signed International license applications and mail them by certified mail to USAC attn: Shawn Farrell.

F. Waugh continues to review the documents and once they meet all the UCI regulations, they’ll send an auditors report to USAC, and notify you.

G. If the bank guarantee is in order when the auditors report arrives, USAC will notify the UCI of your team’s successful completion of the registration process.

H. When the UCI lists your team on their official roster on the UCI website, the process is complete.

I. When the team is listed on the UCI roster, USAC will process the rider and support staff licenses. One copy will be mailed directly to the license holder, and the other copies will be mailed directly to the team director.

J. If you make roster changes, the new rider contracts and $125 per rider added must be sent to Waugh and Associates prior to the end of the June 1-25 window. Note that the audit must be completed and the new riders submitted to the UCI by this date.

7. The Bank Guarantee

For 2006, the UCI has allowed each National Federation to set the bank guarantee amount and rules for its use. As such, USAC will continue to charge Women’s Teams for a bank guarantee in the amount of 10% of their rider contracts, or a minimum of $5,500.00 USD. The bank guarantee can be satisfied in one of two ways – by certified check or wire transfer.

If you wish to use your 2005 bank guarantee on file with USAC toward your 2006 team, you may do so after submitting signed copies of theBank Guarantee Release Letter included here. This letter, if signed by all 2005 riders and team staff, will release the 2005 bank guarantee money for the team’s use in 2006. If the bank guarantee on file with USAC is less than $5,500.00, the team will be billed for the difference by USAC.

8. Archive of Downloadable Files

Click on the links to download files:

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
UCI Rules – Chapter 1 (General Regulations)
UCI Rules – Chapter 2 (Road Racing)
UCI Rules – Chapter 12 (Discipline)
UCI Rules – Abbreviated rules pertaining to Women’s Teams
UCI Model Team Contract
UCI Official Team Registration Form
UCI Model Operating Budget
UCI Team Repartition of Tasks Form
Bank Guarantee Release Letter
Complete UCI Manual for Women’s Teams