Cycling South Africa is eager to take full advantage of its home ground advantage at the Confederation of African Cycling (CAC) Road Cycling Championships taking place from February 9 to 14, outside Pietermaritzburg.
Cycling South Africa is eager to take full advantage of the upcoming African Road Cycling Champs to be held outside Pietermaritzburg from 9 to 13 February to secure vital Olympic qualification points. Photo: Anthony Grote / Gameplan Media
The international governing body, the UCI, and the International Olympic Committee have changed the Olympic qualification criteria in recent years to enable more nations to qualify riders for the Games.
World Tour events carry significant Olympic qualification points, with a weighting that favours the individual riders set up by their teams to win these road cycling “majors” while compromising the talented professional who play a pivotal supporting role in their teams performance but for whom overall positions, and therefore Olympic qualification points, are not a priority.
Not every cycling team is able to simply enter a World Tour event, as these are limited to registered World Tour Teams only, with a few “Wild Card” places left for pro-Continental Teams, like South Africa’s MTN-Qhubeka.
The UCI has sanctioned continental tours where Olympic qualification points can also be earned, and each federation’s national championships also carry specific Olympic qualification points.
However the continental championships carry significantly more weighting – the winner of the CAC Road title will earn 100 points while the winner of the SA National Road title earns 40 points – making it a priority for Cycling South Africa.
“The revised Olympic qualification criteria make provision for a country to enter three riders from the nation ranked number one in Africa, with the next four African nations earning two Olympic places,” said Cycling South Africa’s General Manager Mike Bradley.
“There are 22 teams, plus a few Wildcard teams, that participate in the top-tier World Tour events, where they have the opportunity to earn Olympic qualification points at all the events.
“Fortunately almost all of our elite riders will be here as our national championships are in Mbombela the week before, so we hope to go all out to secure as many points as we can,” said Bradley.
Go to Confederation of African Cycling Road Cycling Championships for more event information.
