UCI Organizes Para-Cycling World Cup

The International Cycling Union (UCI) will organize a Para-Cycling World Cup as from 2010. The first UCI Para-Cycling World Cup will get underway in May 2010. It will consist of three rounds on two continents:

21 May: Correze, France

11 June: Segovia, Spain

2 July: Baie-Comeau, Canada.

The organizers of the first two rounds have already organized P1 events on the 2009 UCI Para-Cycling calendar. All three events are strongly backed by their respective National Federations.

Each round of the new World Cup will enable participating nations to gain qualification points for the 2011 UCI Para-Cycling Road World Championships in Roskilde, Denmark.

The three World Cup events will feature on the UCI Para-Cycling calendar alongside the disciplines' major international events such as the World Championships and the Paralympic Games, organized respectively every year except an Paralympic year and every four years.

Para-Cycling was fully integrated into the UCI in February 2007 and is enjoying constant growth. A record number of para-cyclists participated in the Beijing 2008 Paralympic Games, and the organization of the UCI World Cup is an important step for the development of the discipline.

According to the UCI Para-Cycling Co-ordinator Chantale Philie, next year's UCI Para-Cycling World Cup is just the beginning: "The UCI is confident that this first edition will be very successful. Indeed, the series should include four events from 2011. The new race should be organized in Asia or Oceania, which will contribute to the universal development of the discipline."