Shot of the Sunday venue, Steilacoom Park, of the new UCI race. Photo courtesy of user Ron McDonald on Flickr
Last week, the UCI race in Bend, which has become a cornerstone race on the American calendar, announced that it was unable to continue for the 2014-15 season. Although the Deutsches Brewery has provided the race with a great venue, the race promoter cited that the lack of a title sponsor made holding the race infeasible.
A closed Bend race, and the earlier move of the Star Crossed race from UCI to unsanctioned, meant that not a single UCI event would be taken place in the Northwest, a particularly hard blow to racers who are looking to meet the new qualifications to qualify for the United States National Championship. The good news is that the MFG was able to work together with the UCI at the last minute, and get a permit for the same weekend as what would have been the Bend weekend. This might mean a little more travel time for the Oregon folks, but at least they will have a race they can now feasibly drive to.
Details are from the MFG Team and are as follows:
MFG will be hosting a double weekend of sanctioned racing, headlined by UCI Category 2 races on Saturday, December 6th and Sunday, December 7th of this year. The race weekend will take place at two separate venues: Saturday, on the Campus of Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma and Sunday, at Ft. Steilacoom Park in Lakewood.
Shot of the Sunday venue, Steilacoom Park, of the new UCI race. Photo courtesy of user Ron McDonald on Flickr
This weekend will give you the chance to extend your racing season into December. For those of you who are interested in gaining USAC points for Nationals, you’ll have a local option. For those Elite racers who need UCI points, you’ll have two opportunities to collect points. The Elite payout for men and women will be equal for both days.
We are very thankful for the help and continued motivation Dean Burke, of the Tacoma South Sound Sports Commission, has provided us in bringing this weekend to Tacoma. We are also happy to report how helpful and accommodating USA Cycling, Micah Rice, and the UCI have been throughout this process.
We are fortunate to have a friend in California who has graciously decided to personally fund the title sponsorship for the weekend. With his support, we are able to do great work, and keep UCI racing in the Northwest. In exchange for his support, he has simply asked that we bring awareness to and help support an organization that he firmly believes in: Waves For Water.
Waves For Water is a non-profit with a simple mission: “Get clean water to every single person who needs it.” To date, Waves For Water has helped provide access to clean water to over 7,500,000 people.
Each race day will focus on bringing financial support to two Waves For Water projects: Project Liberia and Project Nepal. These two projects will be exclusive to our cyclocross weekend. The funds raised to positively impact these two nations will be a direct reflection of the financial participation from our cyclocross community.
One of the Waves For Water mantras is, “Do What You Love and Help Along the Way.” We identify with this way of life and look forward to seeing the cyclocross community do the same.
