April 24/99 12:23 pm - Official Confirmation of World Cup Changes

Posted by Editor on 04/24/99
 

Mountain Bike World Cup Date Changes

It is now official:

The UCI, as exclusive owners of the World Cup property, confirmed today that various changes to the Diesel/UCI Mountain Bike World Cup schedule are necessary as a result of circumstances beyond the control of the UCI.

The 6th Round of the Cross Country World Cup, originally scheduled for June 19 and 20 in Conyers, just outside of Atlanta, will now take place one week later. This is as a result of Conyers City Council withdrawing their financial support of the event, which has left event organisers, Gold Medal Event Services, with no choice but to re-locate the event.

The event was originally to be relocated to Crystal Mountain, near Seattle, Washington, however this has now proven impossible due to very high snowfalls at the venue. Latest reports as of this morning have the sections of the venue under more than 200 inches of snow.

Todd Anderson who has worked at Crystal Mountain for the past 15 years said today:

"We hate to see the World Cup go away from Crystal Mountain, but it is a truly wise decision. We currently have 15 feet of snow at the start area of the downhill and an average of 7-8 feet all along the course. In the recent nights (April 19 - 20) it snowed probably an additional foot. Temperatures are staying in the 40's and we're seeing no sign of melting. We are at 100% of normal snowfall for the year."

The organisers, Round and Round Productions, have decided to move their newly confirmed double World Cup event to Big Bear, California, just outside of Los Angeles. This venue also hosted last year's relocated Downhill/Dual event.

"We have been working with the organisers of Crystal Mountain and NORBA for the past week to find a suitable location. This has been difficult for everyone and was not helped by the premature release of unconfirmed information earlier in the week by 3rd parties who disrupted negotiations and created unnecessary confusion through their naive actions. We've now resolved to locate both Downhill/Dual #4 and Cross Country #6 to Big Bear where Round and Round Productions will be the organisers of the event contracted by UCI." - Martin Whiteley, UCI Offroad Manager.

The double round will have a schedule similar to a World Championships with the Downhill Semi Finals and Finals on Saturday, Dual Finals on Saturday night, and the Cross Country women's race on the Sunday morning and the men's race on the Sunday afternoon. There will also be citizen events as well as the Junior and Masters Cross Country category events. It will be a full schedule with a lot of high quality racing. The final schedule will be available next week.

Recent cancellations by the Tour of BC in Canada and the Italian Cup have opened the calendar, and these changes to the World Cup calendar will not create any clashes with other major events. Teams and exhibitors wishing to make contact for the event in Big Bear should contact Round and Round Productions for further information. Email address is:

cisco@roundandround.com
fax +1 509 4556365.