With the teams’ category events of the National Road Series soon upon us, I am taking this opportunity to update on a few items. After negotiation with the respective race organisers, five events have been identified from within the NRS calendar this year for Teams-only racing and series ranking.

The Teams Series events are:
30 July to 3 August Gippsland Tour
31 Aug to 6 Sept Tour of the Murray
13 September Goulburn to Citi
30 Sept to 5 Oct Tour of Tasmania
25 October Melbourne to Warrnambool

Entry by Teams who will contest the series will be accepted from:

• UCI Registered (AUS) Continental Teams
• Teams registered with CA
• State Institute or representative teams

Additionally, local regional teams or teams registered with the respective state association may also enter events but their results will not be calculated for the national teams’ series without registration with CA. Similarly, individual entry may be accepted for these events but in such cases the promoter will enter them in locally sponsored teams.

We are also pleased to announce that SBS TV has agreed to broadcast half-hour highlights packages of each of these events. The production is being put together in a joint effort by SBS TV, Cycling Australia, the promoters and WIN Victoria. The scheduled broadcasts will be;

• Gippsland Tour Sunday 31 August, 12 noon
• Tour of the Murray Sunday 14 September, 12 noon
• Goulburn to Citi Sunday 5 October, 11.30am
• Tour of Tasmania Sunday 19 October, 12 noon
• Melb to Warrnambool Sunday 9 November, 12 noon

The aim of this investment is to provide opportunity for exposure for team & event sponsors and promote the sport & the national series; particularly leveraging off the interest in cycling post Tour de France and the Olympics.
Teams who haven’t yet registered for the Series still have time to do so and forms can be obtained from the CA website or through CA (acf.info@cycling.org.au).

A new NRS page on the CA website will also provide information and generate interest in the entire National Road Series – Men’s and Women’s individual series events as well as the teams’ series. The site will display team sponsor logos, latest news items from the events and the teams, the calendar with links and rankings & results. The CA home page will permanently display the current team and rider leading each category of the NRS. After a delay due to recent technical problems with the CA site, the new NRS page is anticipated to be published next week.

The NRS winners in the Team and Individual categories will be presented at the Australian Cyclist of the Year Awards in Melbourne on 23 November.

At the conclusion of this year’s NRS, the Road Commission will conduct a Review and assess strategies for promotion of the elite tier of domestic road cycling in 2009 and beyond.

Best regards
Graham Fredericks
Chief Executive Officer