Good morning all, Here is my response to Mr Cooksons response to the actual I posted, I hope we can make change that is in the best interest of our sport rather than continue to have the medium in the public arena. Though unfortunately until we get a satisfactory response and action from the UCI it may have to be this way, fingers crossed common sense prevails. Why I am so upset with Mr Cookson is that he contacted my best athlete in the run up to the UCI election promising that he had a strong track agenda, though none of us are yet to see any thing as yet and the world cup season is in chaos we under two months to go to the first event and as yet no one knows were we are headed. Here is my response. To Mr Cookson president of the UCI, First of all I would like to apologize for my poor choice of words, there is no excuse for that as I was brought up better. Secondly I would like to thank you for your quick and prompt response, as we the track coaches are all extremely frustrated with the lack of communication that comes out of the UCI, could you please look into fixing this issue, as this would go a long way to stop our frustration we all are dealing with. We, the track coaches, whom have formed an informal coaches commission since the World Cup Aguascalientes 2013 would appreciate a response to the several issues from your counterpart. The reason of this newly formed track coaches’ commission unrecognized by the UCI was because we are all extremely worried about the direction of track cycling is heading and also the sad lack of foresight it seems the commissions have for track cycling. We the coaches have many issues regarding all aspects of the sport though to this day do not have an avenue to voice them. Collectively between us we have a vast knowledge, and many of us are formally educated and experienced though still we get no respect it seems from many people within the UCI. It seems that almost all aspects of cycling are represented on the different boards the UCI have except for coaches, could you please explain to us why this is so and what are the reasons behind this. Mr. Cookson, we would love to have a coaches’ representative on the track commission, I do believe this would add a lot to the commission as all of the coaches’ collective views could be channeled through the one voice in the right forum. Do you not think that this is a good thing? We do not want to do anything other than helping track cycling become the sport we all know it can be if the right decisions are made so it can head down the right direction to become a great television spectacle we all know it can be. We all know that any changes take time though we are tired of lip service and it is time for action, it is very clear to all of us that members of the track commission are struggling to deal with the real issues that confront us at this time, so that this is even more rational why the UCI should invest in our collective knowledge. Mr. Cookson, we think that the UCI has been treating the track cycling unprofessionally compared to the road. Could you imagine that the UCI having announced the dates for the next year Tour de France but unable to announce what the course details or start venue will be. We that is the track are faced with the upcoming track cycling World Cup competition set down for early November (less than 2 months time) yet the UCI have got some dates locked in though still we are faced with no venue so how do we plan to purchase flights as we do not know where we are going. We as the track coaches need to make plans ahead and propose to the respective national cycling federation or sports council to race in each international competitions and all of us are facing financial tight budgets. I can go on forever though I won’t, as we are all time poor, so I will cut to the chase and see if we can get some answers we the coaches are all desperately looking for. Can you please respond to the following questions? As a priority, we believe that we need to: (i) Establish a Track Coaches Commission recognized by the UCI (ii) Have representation on the UCI Track Commission. (i) Track Coaches Commission: (Track Coaches commission is the representative body of ALL track coaches) (a) Track Coaches would nominate/elect one (1) representative from each continental region (perhaps up to 3 representatives from Europe and 1 from all other continental regions giving a seven (7) member Coaches Track Commission?) who would represent their respective region as well as all Track coaches (global position) (b) Track Coaches Commission to meet 2 x per year at 1st World Cup & World Championships? At the World Championships meeting, elect/nominate one coach and a proxy (substitute representative) to represent the new Track Coaches Commission for possible a 2 year term (ii) UCI Track Commission: (a) The Track Coaches commission representative would sit on the UCI Track Commission and assist in shaping policy and be actively engaged in decision making (b) The representative coach would report back following UCI track Commission meetings to the larger Track Coaches collective via regional representatives with updates, policy changes etc. 1. Request for a meeting in the coming months by nation representative(s) with UCI officials where nation representative to report back to group. Subsequent actions to be taken based on said nation representative report like: (i) Vote of non-confidence of the commission (ii) Exposing to the UCI issues around hosting 2 days of WC instead of 3 days 2. Exposing the adverse effects of only hosting Olympic events at World Cups: (i) World Cups to be announced 6 months prior to the commencement of the 1st World Cup so that each nation can prepare the planning and budgets in advance. (ii) 12 months notice of where the next World Track Championships to be held. (iii) Major Games are following the same format as the Olympics, this will bring about the demise of the track endurance program due to lack of variety in endurance events therefore we face the real prospect of losing our track endurance riders to road because there is not enough to keep them in the sport of track cycling. 3. We need a process of appeal that is fair and equal to all the competitors and not solely on the commissaries’ adjudication. At this point, I will add that the 2013/14 World Cup and World Championships decisions were inconsistent. (i) Recommendation to have UCI to appoint the same panel of experienced commissaries (with the support of the local commissaries for their professional development) to each of the 3 World Cups and concluding with the world track cycling championships each season, that way at least we would have consistent adjudication for the season. (ii) Recommendation to increase cameras with different angles to help in the adjudication process. 4. There is a current inconsistency the way the UCI administer its own technical regulations. (i) Purchasing of bicycles and equipment not commercially available to all countries. (ii) UCI must enforce their own rules where this is applicable (iii) Alternatives only allow commercially available pieces of equipment as the rule states. (iv) Banning such things as gloves that everyone can afford and has access too is clearly not in the best interest of the sport. Though allowing high technology (in areas of skinsuit materials) allows the big budgeted nations such as Great Brittan to put a lot of resources into the development of a super speedsuit which is a much greater speed advantage over a 20 dollar pair of gloves that everyone can afford. (v) Even if the UCI governed the commercialization of equipment (or skin suits) and if they were made commercially available to all, it would be cost prohibitive for small nations to purchase the suits so where is the fair play in this sport? For example, FINA has banned the sharkskin speed swimsuit. (vi) Technology is a good thing, do not get me wrong. What I am trying to say here is under the current UCI regulations there are so many inconsistencies, the UCI state how they bought these rules in to be fair to everybody and I am sure they did, though in their current format they are far from being right. 5. Rider’s safety (i) Tracks hosting World Cups or World Championships must follow the safety requirements set down by the UCI’s own regulations. (ii) Recommendation: Specialist medical team to be appointed at all World Cup and World Championships events. (iii) UCI to enforce countries to have medical insurance certificates, these are to be presented at permanence just as the license and skin suit is as per the regulations. (iv) At UCI sanctioned events, there should be commissaries and a medical team on site during every official training session. We have witnessed many dangerous practices during these sessions and as such are very concerned. 6. When considering or implementing of change to: a. Rules b. Equipment c. Race schedule The coaching commission be actively involved in the process of the decision making process. 7. We need a fair World Cup season. What we mean by this is that the rules state that each nation must be represented in each discipline that they wish to qualify for the World Championships at every World Cup classic. This is not a fair system, the larger countries have many athletes with UCI points, and as such they have the option of their top riders being able to race the first two World Cups, and then rest them from the travel to gain a good training block leading into the World Championships. This needs to be looked at and the Coaches’ Commission comes up with a format that is both fair and reasonable for all countries. 8. UCI has to take more control at looking over race schedules for major events such as Continental Championships to make sure that one event is finished before the next events is started. Mr. Cookson, I know there is a lot of content in this email but your kind attention and action are greatly appreciated. An extremely concerned stakeholder. Yours sincerely, John Beasley Asian representative of the Coaching Commission
Posted on: Fri, 15 Aug 2014 08:09:24 +0000
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