The first pillar is globalisation, with the objective being that “Cycling must benefit from its universal nature. In addition to being socially responsible, cycling must also ensure it is keeping up with the global evolution of sport in society.”
Topics will include: how cycling can engage better with women; how to identify demographic and territorial trends and opportunities in cycling (eg, growth of youth interest); taking cycling to new countries, while maintaining high standards of events; making cycling accessible to all; how to reinforce cycling’s role in the Olympic and Paralympic Games; how cycling can integrate with and enhance green tourism; development of small urban cycling structures (eg. BMX parks) to encourage healthy youth activities; and environmental priorities for event management.
Anti-doping is the second pillar, with this objective: “cycling must create an athlete ‘eco-system’ with a favourable economic, social, training and cultural environment that will eliminate doping from the sport.”
The topics include: the severity of doping sanctions, both for riders and their entourage; anti-doping education for riders and their entourage; developing incentives for good practice; the independence of the Cycling Anti-Doping Foundation, its tools and methods; amnesty and whistle-blowing; how to identify risk situations; gathering of tips, information or key indicators; sharing of information with other anti-doping organisations, the police and different authorities; and standardisation of team models.
The third pillar is the riders, with the aim being “to ensure a closer relationship between the UCI and riders, in particular to enable the UCI to listen to and understand riders’ concerns.”
Matters to be discussed under this heading are: how best to ensure timely transfer of relevant quality information to riders; increasing the number of riders playing an active role in different cycling bodies and rider organisations; developing measures to guarantee better working conditions and legal cover for riders; how to improve race security; evolution of confidential rider hotline (to be established in January 2013); opportunities for the UCI to meet riders and whether to create a ‘permanent contact person’ in the field; the option of introducing a UCI licence; determine criteria for bodies/organisations that represent active riders; and consultations with ‘neutral’ experts on different subjects (reconversion, management, follow-up of new career).
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The fourth and final pillar is the sports calendar, with the stated purpose of reviewing “the different cycling calendars from all stakeholders' points of view, as well as the systems of participation.
The priority topics will include: the points system, rankings and rules of participation; how best to develop the elite women’s development teams and calendar, as well as the development of women’s cycling generally; how to make races more attractive for spectators, as well as maximise media coverage; the composition and duration of different cycling calendars; new technologies; the hierarchy, format(s) and globalisation of professional road cycling competitions, including proposed new races and system(s) of teams; relations between professional cycling (1st and 2nd divisions) and continental level (3rd division); collaboration between different stakeholders to ensure optimal use of resources and greater efficiency; and financial fair play, including maximum/minimum salaries and sharing of revenue.
