Louisville will make the leap from hosting the USGP to World Championships in 2013 photo © BikeClicks.com
Bruce Fina, who, along with Joan Hanscom, has worked to bring the Elite World Cyclocross Championships to Louisville, Kentucky, in 2013, as well as the Masters World Championships to Louisville for 2012 and 2013, recently gave an interview on the Belgian cyclocross.info website. “We’ve been working on this plan for a few years, and we have the city of Louisville behind us,” said Fina. “I have to thank Peter Van den Abeele of the UCI for putting his trust in us. I’m really looking forward to it.”
Fina talks about how other athletes have made the trans-Atlantic trip to race ‘cross in the U.S., as former world champ Erwin Vervecken did several times. “I was a manager for six years for the U.S. team, and it’s really difficult to travel across the ocean and race cyclocross,” said Fina. “We will make a very competitive course and will try to make all of our races as close to the European standard as possible.”
“We want to invite all of the Belgian fans to come over and see all of their heroes take on the Americans on their home soil,” said Fina. The organization will be putting together travel packages that will add in American sites to the trip to entice fans to travel to the U.S. for the races, adding another revenue generator for the organization and country.
Perhaps an enterprising cyclocross promoter might put together a set of races after Worlds to draw both fans and riders to extend their stay. After all, while some top Europeans may still need to return to Europe to contest the GVA Trofee and Superprestige cyclocross series, riders from across the world as well as the Juniors and U23s may not have the same incentive to immediately return to Europe. More racing could encourage them to extend their trip.
