Oh right, no harm in asking i guess! Beginning to be a pain seeing as it was one point and now instead you have people who would find it hard to get UCI's but instead doing World Cups cause they can get on a trade team!! I think the NPS always used to be 20 points for 1st which i guess is E1 ranking? 2 SDA's are normally E2 but i think the NPS should be E1?

The trade team "Back door" has allowed many riders the opportunity to race WCs who would not be there otherwise, who in my opinion deserved to be there.

The UCI need more race categories, to have the British NPS as an E2 race while the Portuguese Nationals have the same status is just daft. The current ranking system makes it possible for a much less talented rider to race at WC level as long as they happen to live in a country with a lower overall standard of riders.

ok, this is going to seem like a bit of a rant......... but bare with me.

Steve - how can you say this?

do you have any idea how it works?

no one can be on a trade team without the UCI's approval, if they don't think they are good enough, they can't be on.

We were I think the only trade team last year set up exclusively with people who would otherwise not be able to race world cups.  Out team was top 10 in the world for most of the season. 

If it wasn't for this "back door" riders like Adam Brayton, Sam Dale, Josh, Ruaridh Cunningham etc etc etc.  couldn't have raced world cups last season.  All of whom got awesome results and all have now signed deals with proper pro teams.  Its not a back door, its playing by the rules to the best of our ability.  Part of life is making the best of things that go on around you.

The other problem is that the rule on trade teams for the UK are totally different than they are for other countries.  Which is also unfair.

in the UK you now have to be an Elite, or one of the top juniors/experts to get on a trade team.  This is decided by Roger.  How he knows who the top juniors and experts are going to be before the Feb 15th trade team application deadline is I'm not sure. 


The NPS hasn't been UCI ranked for years, because for a while it was down to your federation to say if you could ride a world cup or not.  But if you had 1 point, you defo could ride.  So BC just said, that if you got a top 20 at a NPS they'd let you ride, you didn't actually get any points.

Going from E1 to E2, is a lot of money for the organisors, and under the current system, there is little point having UCI points, cos every rider that gets them will probably already have them.  Its a lot easier to get points at a world cup than anywhere else.

What the NPS should be doing imho is.  Set up a trade team.  It costs alot less than registering a whole series for UCi status.  Then SPS can say, that one of the prizes they will offer is a place on the trade team to anyone who gets a top 20 overall finish at an NPS in 2008, meaning that they can then race world cups in 2009.   As it currently stands, you could win an NPS and still not be able to race world cups.

The other issue, is that britain is pretty much the only country with an Elite / Expert / Senior cat system.  So there are riders over here who are senior, but if they went to Croatia, or Austria or somewhere to race they'd be classed as Elite, and therefore able to join a trade team, but here they can't.

The system at the moment is unfair for a number of reasons, it could work very well if handled properly and discussed with people who actually understand it.

The simple answer at the moment is that if you think you are good enough to race world cups, you need to travel to get your points, and at the moment that pretty much means get yourself to Portugal.

Feel sorry for the yanks.  Have a look at how many UCI races there are over there! 

The level of riding over here is so high, that even if the full NPS and SDA when UCI ranked it really wouldn't mean any more riders got the chance to race world cups, cos the top 10-20 riders at most races are all pretty much the same people.

ok Steve, sorry, fair point.

but can you explain why you feel moving the points requirement up to 20, when the current system of E1 and E2 qualifying races doesn't allow any but a very few riders to score 20 points in a season, is a good idea.

As it currently stands riders who race world cups, stay racing them.  Good riders who want to move up to that level have no chance - even if they are good enough.  Its a way of keeping the elite, the elite and not letting anyone threaten them.

plus.  how can you say its a back door?  can you give any examples on anyone abusing it?

I'm not trying to start an argument, I'm just interested to see your side of things.

Cheers
Col.

the application is about to go off to the UCI.  If they approve it, then yes

Cheers Chris,

I've been chatting with Roger at BC about this for ages now.  He knows my feelings and for some reason can't see that the current system is unfair.

BC are making rules to limit the number of riders from here that can race, that they are not actually required to do by the UCI.  I can't work out why BC aren't doing everything they can to get British riders onto the world scene (as long as they are good enough!) not the other way round.

At the moment, its possible for me to go to Taiwan, or somewhere like that, register a trade team there and put a load of useless people on.  However if I want to give BC my money, and register some of the top Juniors, Elites and Experts on the team, who otherwise can't race..... he's not having any of it.

I've given up with BC to be honest.  I'll take my cash and pay it to another federation.

But yes feel free to bring it up at a meeting.  Because BC talk to the UCI about this all the time, and don't seem to have considered developing riders at all!!!

they only care about the elite.

Col.

trade teams are a lot more than 650euros steve.  They were 1000 last year and this year its more like 1800euros.

however there are lots of other benefits to being a trade team.  One of which is 60m2 of free pit space at each world cup.  So thats worth it alone for us.

plus when your riders get the team into the top 10 trade teams (as we were last year) its free entry for the entire team, which can save quite a bit.

the 20 point rule was brought in because there were loads of riders at events like Vigo and Schladming who simply were not good enough, because the previous requirement was simply the approval of your federation, and as we all know different federations have different standards.  It was not brought into reduce the number of people who can enter world cups down to just 200.  How many of those 200 do you then think would enter....... we'd end up with not even 80.  Its low enough already at courses like Brazil and Canada.  Will be interested to see how many go to Australia.

the standard needed to be brought up across the planet...... NOT HERE!

any one fancy giving me a lift to the nps ill chip in with fule money and bring some kicking tunes

baised near stafford

please plaese please!


cooper