Premier Calendar Series - Going Places in 2008

 

News Posted: 26 Sept 2007

As part of the ongoing development and evolution of the Premier Calendar Road Racing Series , British Cycling's Road Commission has made changes for the 2008 season to continue to enhance the quantity and quality of competitive opportunities for top riders.

During 2005, British Cycling was becoming increasingly concerned about the health and future of the Premier Calendar Road Racing Series. As a result, in partnership with Cycling.tv, British Cycling pursued the opportunity to film and broadcast the series on the Internet, with highlights to be shown on British Eurosport.

Investment in cycling.tv coverage has boosted the Premier Calendar

A significant investment of British Cycling's membership funding was made to make this happen on the basis that the provision of a new media platform for the events would lead to increased external funding for organisers to support the delivery of their events, encourage new events which would aspire to Premier Calendar status and stimulate increased support for clubs and teams through sponsorship.

It was accepted that the impact would not be immediate and that we would hope to see a positive change from 2007 onwards. As such only 7 events were successfully delivered in 2006 but, as anticipated, there was a jump to12 events being successfully delivered in 2007, with new levels of enthusiasm and energy from everyone involved, from the organising teams through to riders and their sponsors.

Top riders and top teams have also benefitted from the resurgence of the series

At present there are 11 events confirmed for 2008 (with discussions ongoing about another 2 possible events). On top of this, there will be two UCI International Road events. Throughout this time, the increased number of events has naturally increased British Cycling's financial commitment to the support of this series which works out at approximately £3000 per event. Cycling.tv has also played a significant part in this investment over the last 2 years.

This investment was always made on the basis that the Series would become increasingly attractive to sponsors, which would mean we could gradually decrease our membership investment into the Premier Calendar Series and move this investment across to other National Series in different disciplines.

Eventual series winner, Chirs Newton, works hard during the Lincoln GP

Given the number of events now proposed for the 2008 season, the Road Commission has taken the decision to elevate the status of the two UCI International Events to sit above the Premier Calendar as flagship events for riders and promoters alike to aspire to. This will also ensure that the International nature of these events does not adversely impact on the Premier Calendar Series standings. As such, the UCI events will no longer count as part of the Premier Calendar Series but the Board of British Cycling is committed to ensuring that they continue to get a similar level of support as events within the series.

However, this will be constantly reviewed in the context of the increasing number of new, developing events now looking for financial support from British Cycling and the very fact that the support package for International events represents a fraction of the overall budget of the event i.e. £3000 support per event from British Cycling is significant to a normal Premier Calendar event and will probably dictate whether the event is financially viable or not but this is not the case for those organisers who choose, and can find the resources, to deliver a UCI registered event.

Brian Cookson commented: -

'At a time when we are seeing significant growth in our membership and participation in our grass roots competitive events programme it's also great to see that our flagship National Road Race Series is thriving as well. It's amazing to think that only one year ago we were struggling to see 7 events delivered as part of this series and now we are getting to the point where we have got two fantastic International events in the East Midlands Classic and the GP of Wales, 11 Premier Calendar events with potentially some new events yet to be added and 12 Elite Circuit Race events for the 2008 season. It should be a great season for everyone involved next year and we are committed to replicating this success across all our disciplines over the coming years. I would like to thank the efforts of all our organisers and their supporters who have contributing to the success of the Premier Calendar Series over the past few years'.