I trust that everyone had a great holiday season and is back to the hustle and bustle of your regular day-to-day activities.
Racing is well underway in our warmer climates, with others gearing up to get started. Chuck Hodge, Trish Black, and I have had the honor of attending some of the Local Association’s yearly Officials meetings to review regulation changes and our forecast for 2023 events. We always enjoy getting out and connecting with our officials, even if it is only through Zoom.
The Tech Director Updates are our primary method of communication with you, our Officials. Please consider adding the email address: membership@usaycling.org to your contact list to avoid these updates from being routed to your spam folder.
Officials Webinar Schedule
Below is the tentative schedule for our upcoming webinars, all of which your peers have identified as areas of interest. As we finalize additional details and start times, we will share in future Tech Directors Updates. We understand that some topics and times may not work for everyone. Join us if you can, or watch the recorded session when it’s convenient for you. Links for the recordings will be made available in the following month’s Tech Director Update.
March 2
4 pm MT
USA Cycling’s 2023 Vision and 2023 Regulation Updates
If you haven’t had the opportunity to meet USA Cycling’s CEO, Brendan Quirk, be sure to tune in and hear directly from him as he shares his 2023 vision for USA Cycling. A short Q&A session will follow.
We will also take some time to talk about the key regulation changes for 2023. Please use the following link to join the webinar a few minutes early, as we plan to start at 4:00 PM sharp. Your promptness is appreciated.
March 23
Time TBD
Bike Measurements
The UCI has made several changes for 2023 around bike measurements. Curious as to how these changes will affect you? Tune into this seminar to hear directly from International Commissaire and UCI Technical Commissaire Randy Shafer as he dives into the modifications and provides an understanding of how the changes will affect the current bike check process.
April 27
5 pm MT
Go Fast, Turn Left
Hear from two of our International Track Commissaires Noreen Landis-Tyson and Zach Maino, as they host this track-specific webinar. They will dive into the updated UCI/USAC regulations that may impact track officials assigned to work a National Championship or UCI event. Fresh off their return from the Nations Cup in Milton, ON, hear the details and best practices on what they see at the international level and how to assure consistency across the events.
May
Not for the Faint at Heart
When someone talks about officiating a mountain bike race, they generally refer to cross-country. Join National Technical Commission members Michael Donovan (IC) and Tobin Behling (ENC) as they jump headfirst into the ins and outs of working a mountain bike gravity event (downhill and dual slalom).
June
Officiating a Stage Race
Members of the National Technical Commission, Tom Nee (IC) and Steve Eppel (IC), host a panel of chief referees from our larger stage races to share their experiences. Find out how to plan for the role and hear about challenges faced once on-site at the event.
Renewing Your Officials License
Many of you have reached out over the year regarding your license renewal. Therefore, I thought it would be helpful to share some key points as you begin your renewal process.
Safe Sport training (yearly) and a Criminal Background Check (every other year) are requirements for holding a valid officials license. In addition, if you are a motor referee, an MVR is required yearly. The status of these items is available on the Membership tab of your account, and when due, it may be initiated from here as well. There is an integration point between outside websites and ours, where the completion details should automatically update your account within 24-48 hours. While the background check and MVR information generally flows seamlessly into our side, Safe Sport is a little finicky. Here are some pointers you can do to help with the information flow. Log in to your Safe Sport account and confirm your profile contains the following information:
Email – The email you have associated with your USA Cycling account
Organization Member ID – Set to your USAC license number
Role – Set to Official
Name of Sport of Community Organization – Set to USA Cycling
Our system generates automated emails about 30 days in advance to remind you of an upcoming expiration. Please note that the system will generate these emails in advance and, on occasion, will be sent to you several days after you have already renewed your requirement. No need to be concerned about this, as the timing may have been a bit off from when you completed the requirement and when the list of those needing renewal was pulled from the system.There are a couple of different ways you can renew your license. The simplest method is to go directly from the license tab on your account, where you will find a list of current and recently expired licenses. Next to your most recent expired official’s license, you will find a “renew” link. The second method would be to navigate to our technical licenses membership page to initiate your renewal.
Officials Invoices
The Excel invoice for 2023 has been updated and is available for download on the Officials Resource page on our website. The file has been compressed and will need to be unzipped before using it.
The current IRS mileage rate is $0.655 and reflected in the latest invoice.
2023 National-level Assignments
National-level assignments opened for your requests on December 13. Most mountain bike and road assignments have been sent to the prospective Race Directors for their input/approval and are shared with the assigned crews once approved. We had to juggle a few dates on the track side, but we anticipate the assignments will start rolling out over the next week.
We are continuing to use ComMgr as the assignment tool. If you are unfamiliar with it, please revisit the topic in the December Tech Director Update. Past versions of the TD Update are available on the Officials page on the website.
Education Opportunities
March 1
3:50 PM to 8:00 PM
Category C Officials Course
Hosted by the Arizona Bicycle Racing Association
This course will be an in-person course held in Tucson, AZ, before the Tucson Bicycle Classic and taught by Dorothy Abbott (IC). Due to the limited time, the focus will be on road racing and cyclocross. The is no cost to attend the course, but you must register in advance.
March 18
Motor Referee C Course
We will offer the first of two Motor C courses on March 18. The second one will be offered in late summer or early fall, depending on the need. These courses will be an all-day Zoom course taught by Chris Black and Steve Johnson, followed by an online exam.
The course isn’t limited to only those who drive a motorcycle. Any official can take the course and, after successfully passing the exam, will have Motor Referee designation as a passenger, making you eligible for the position of timeboard or motor commissaire. Those who want to drive a motorcycle in a race must meet the following requirements:
Hold a current Officials license
Licensed as a motorcycle rider
Have taken a motorcycle safety course
Have a current MVR (see Renewing your Officials License above)
The cost to attend the course will be $50. If you are interested in attending, please email officials@usacycling.org for additional information.
May 24-25
Para-cycling Officials Course
Several of you have already expressed an interest in attending the Para-cycling course on May 24-25 in Huntsville, AL. This course will be held prior to the UCI Para-cycling Road World Cup and taught by Catherine Gastou, an International Road, Track, and Para Commissaire from France. We are still finalizing details, but if you are interested in attending the training, please send an email to officials@usacycling.org.
Fall 2023
2023 International Commissaire Courses
The UCI will offer two International Commissaire classes, one for BMX and one for Mountain Bike. These courses will be held in Aigle, Switzerland, in September and October.
We will receive additional information regarding the application process for both courses soon. Candidates interested in being considered for nomination by USA Cycling should review article 1.1.054 of the UCI Regulations. Generally, the UCI will limit the number of candidates each country can nominate for course inclusion. The UCI will make the final selection based on all nominations. If you are interested and meet the criteria, please email officials@usacycling.org to make your interest known officially. Once more information is available, I will share it with those who have expressed an interest.
