Last week, Cycling Australia released its provisional National Road Series (NRS) calendar for 2017 with an increase in race days for both the men and women. This was made achievable with the introduction of several new races and the re-introduction of former NRS events. As Cycling Australia general manager of sport Darren Harris told Cyclingnews, the revamped calendar is an important for future sporting and commercial success for the domestic series.
"It's reflective of a lot of interests from the promoters of the existing events that were part of the 2016 series and reflective of interests from other promoters and states wishing to be part of it," Harris told Cyclingnews of the calendar. "It's a good reflection of the interests out there and provides a good mix of racing across the year and we are seeing a few more men's and women's events coming together which is positive and certainly something we are keen to facilitate further down the track as well."
In 2017, the NRS will be spread across six states and territories but there is some way to go to ensure the full national status which Harris aspires to. Victoria will host seven NRS events next year with an eighth, the Tour of the Great South Coast, to take place in Victoria and South Australia. New South Wales is next with three events, two for Tasmania, and one each for the ACT and Western Australia.
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"As long as you are going to call it the national road series, it really needs to be national," Harris said of the current spread of events. "In saying that, we understand and appreciate just how difficult it is for promoters to put these events on and put them on at the level and expectation that not only Cycling Australia expects, but the teams expect as well. Our vision is to have a race in every state and territory and this provides us with a good foundation to build on over the years. Tour of Tasmania has been really well supported and has been a key event over the years and that was demonstrated again this year not just with the teams, but also with the individual riders and a lot of the Pro-Continental riders coming back and wanting to be part of that action.
Two events that have been removed from the women's NRS calendar are the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race and Santos Women's Tour. Both races are .2 UCI events and have attracted international fields. While Harris is feeling the late loss of both events, he is celebrating the success of the NRS and believes other races should be striving to achieve UCI status.
"It can be looked at as a really good outcome for women's cycling in Australia and what these two races have achieved over the last few years in a very short period of time. It is a really positive story but it is unfortunate for some of the NRS teams that aren't going to be able to race in them anymore. I know some of them are disappointed but when we all sit back and look at it, it is a reflection that women's cycling has grown enormously in the last couple of years to the point now that international women's teams want to come out and support the events. When we became aware of that in the last few weeks as those event organisers were getting confirmation of the international rider rosters, it left us with the challenge of finding and filling the women's calendar at the domestic level so everyone was given the opportunity to have just as many days racing as they did this year and if not more."
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