Two tier system, and La Course

The UCI has announced the schedule for the 2017 Women’s World Tour, and that announcement was met with a resounding sense of pleasure that more dates had been added to the calendar.

Some riders and fans alike were less pleased to learn that the UCI still have not implemented a two tier system. In men’s racing, there are World Tour teams, Pro Continental and Continental teams – each have access to different races depending upon their ranking. In women’s cycling, teams are either UCI World Tour Women’s teams, or not. That means that those such as Guarnier’s heavyweight, World Champion laden Boels-Dolmans team competes against teams who are much less experienced, and receive less funding.

The result is that riders on those teams are often dropped in races – presenting challenges to lower ranked managements struggling to justify the cost of being a World Tour team with little to no chance of a win. Of course there are fewer women’s teams out there, so splitting the existing teams into tiers would mean smaller numbers at races.

UCI’s Tracey Gaudry on the Women’s World Tour: We are not shying away from commitments we’ve made

Is the Women’s World Tour too Much too Fast?

Guarnier – who just so happens to have a degree in Neuroscience by the way – empathises with the young and inexperienced riders affected, but doesn’t feel the women’s peloton is ready to split its ranks to multiple tiers.

Carefully considering the question, she tells me: “Right now we need more funding for our sport in order to have a [two tier] system like that. There’s just not the depth of teams, and enough teams to fund and support a two tier system. It’s all this one thing leads to another… money comes in, depth and breadth of the sport gets bigger, we’re able to grow and naturally the two tier system will work itself out. Right now, you’ve got juniors and first time racers in some of these World Tour races. That’s just the point where our sport is at. I’d love to see it go to a higher level, but that’s what all of the media and the coverage helps with. And it’ll slowly grow, it won’t happen overnight – but we need to keep trying to get there.”

She adds: “You need the experience, I needed that experience when I first started… It can be super frustrating if you show up to every race and you’re getting dropped, and you’re not getting the experience. At some point hopefully we can fill that void and hopefully make it an easier progression, into the top level – because it can be very frustrating for new riders.”

“Just because [La Course is] a shorter distance, doesn’t mean it’s going to be a less interesting race. It gives other types of riders a chance to be featured in the race.”

Another controversy in the UCI World Tour calendar was the movement of La Course from the Paris setting of the final day of the Tour de France to a mountain stage of just 67km long.

Many riders expressed disgust at this – but Guarnier looks upon the move more positively – saying: “It’s definitely not a step back. Just because it’s a shorter distance, doesn’t mean it’s going to be a less interesting race. It gives other types of riders a chance to be featured in the race.”

She adds: “At some point I’d like to see a stage race – 3 days, 5 days and 21 days in the future. Hopefully they’re taking steps to see how this goes, so maybe they can add further days in future. I can’t predict the future, but in my optimistic world this is a trial towards the next big thing.”

We hope this year’s own ‘next big thing’ rider turns out to be right in her predictions about the future of La Course. And, of course – we wish her every bit of luck going into her winter training (not that she needs it).