USA Cycling rolled out a pared down national calendar, known as the Pro Road Tour (PRT), for the 2017 season today. The series, which offers a mix of UCI-ranked stage races, non-UCI stage races and criteriums has been reduced significantly from this year's calendar.
Micah Rice, USA Cycling's Vice President of National Events, explained why the racing has been reduced from 25 events to just 20 next year.
"There has been a big push to try to create a better travel flow for the teams, and to eliminate conflicts in the schedule. Next year we will have no overlapping events," Rice said to Cyclingnews.
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Teams complained last year of the untenable travel on the calendar, which had riders crisscrossing the country several times, going from Redlands in California to the criterium and team time trial national championships in South Carolina, back to Tour of California and then back to North Carolina for pro road nationals.
"We have had input from the Pro Road Committee and various teams, athletes and race directors, including a sit-down meeting in May, and we feel that this lineup of events is an excellent step in the second year of the Pro Road Tour," Rice said in a USA Cycling press release. "We had a great first year of the PRT last year, and we feel that 2017 will allow for some excellent racing."
In 2017, the calendar will start with the Joe Martin Stage Race in Arkansas, which was bumped up to the end of March, then heads to Alabama for Sunny King. There is a 10-day break before the racing resumes in New Mexico at the Tour of the Gila in April, then a block of racing in California in May: the Dana Point GP leads into the Redlands Classic and Tour of California. While the men's and women's Tours of California do not count for points in the Pro Road Tour next season, there will be no races overlapping with them.
You can read more at Cyclingnews.com
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