March 23/09 20:29 pm - Canadian Cycling Association Announces 2009 National Mountain Bike Team Spring Program

Posted by Editoress on 03/23/09
 

Courtesy CCA

Team Size:
Elite Men: 2
Elite Women: 2
Espoir Men: 2
Espoir Women: 1

The CCA is organizing a partial-funded spring project to the first 3 rounds of the UCI MTB world cup, in Pietermaritzburg RSA, Offenburg GER, and Houffalize BEL. The project will be lead by the national team head coach and assisted by a mechanic. The project will consist of an elite group of men and women who will travel to South Africa on the 6th of April for the first World cup of the season. The Espoir team will then join the Elites in Germany on the 20th of April to compete in the 2 European world cups. The team will then return to Canada on the 4th of May.

Tier 1 national team athletes will be fully funded on this project. Tier 2 national team athletes attending the whole project will be asked to pay for their flight up to a maximum of $2000.00. Tier 2 athletes attending only the European races will be asked to pay for their flight up to a maximum of $1500.00. Flight fees for this project will be due march 31st 2009, payment must be received to participate in the project

Objectives of the Project:

1) To gain points towards Canada’s UCI Nation Ranking for MTB in the elite categories.
2) To prepare experienced tier 2 athletes for the next level of competition through exposure at European
World Cups.

Selection process:

Athletes will be selected from:

1) 2009 AAP Carded athletes list
2) 2009 Canadian National Team List

With priority going to Carded athletes, within each criteria athletes will be prioritized based on the following criteria as explained on pages 6 and 7 of the 2009 CCA carding criteria.

- Athletes who meet the SR1 criteria
- Athletes who meet the SR2 criteria
- Athletes meeting the D international criteria in U23 category
- Athletes meeting the D international criteria in Junior category
- Athletes meeting the SR automatic criteria
- Athlete meeting the D automatic criteria in U23 category
- Athlete meeting the D automatic criteria in Junior category
- Athletes meeting the SR specific criteria
- Athletes meeting the D specific criteria in U23 category
- Athletes meeting the D specific criteria in Junior category
- Athletes meeting T1 National Team Criteria as explained within the national team selection criteria
- Athletes Meeting T2 National Team Criteria as explained within the national tem selection criteria
- Athletes Meeting T3 National Team Criteria as explained within the national team selection criteria.

• Within each cycling sport, athletes who are eligible for the same level of card will be prioritized as follows (except for Discretionary cards):

- Highest finish at 2008 Olympic Games
- Highest finish at a 2008 Elite World Championship event
- Highest finish at a 2008 U23 World Championship event
- Highest finish at a 2008 Junior World Championship event
- In Mountain Bike the athlete with the highest number of UCI points using the UCI ranking released immediately following the conclusion of the cycling sports 2008 World Championship.
- Highest finish at the 2008 Elite National Championship event
- Highest finish at the 2008 U23 National Championship event
- Highest finish at the 2008 Junior National Championship event

If after all of the above, there still remains a tie, the expert opinion of the CTO and the National Team head coach will be used to prioritize among the tied athletes taking into account the factors listed in the Discretionary.

Note: If after the initial selection some team spots have not been used, any remaining spots may be reallocated to another category as additional Discretionary spot. The distribution of these non-used spots will be made by the CTO and National Team coaches based on their expert opinion. The CTO and National Team coaches will take in consideration the following elements:

• a detailed review of each cycling sport results at the:
- 2009 World Championships,
- 2009 National Championships and
- 2009 UCI Individual Rankings
- the number of competitive athletes per cycling sport in the Canadian system
- the number of cards already allocated to each cycling sport
- the ranking of the athlete in his/her cycling sport

Application Process:
All athletes (meeting the above criteria) interested in participating in this project should email Nicholas Vipond stating their interest in this project by Thursday March 26th 2009.