Dear Madam, Dear Sir,

Since a couple of days, the UCI installed an Off-Road structure, grouping the following disciplines: Mountain Bike, Trials, BMX and Cyclo-cross.

The Off-Road structure will be composed of an Endurance part (MTB Cross-country and Cyclo-cross) and a Gravity part (DHI, 4X, Trials, BMX and BMX Freestyle).

To cover the Endurance part a coordinator will be appointed, we are actually in close contact with a very experienced person to take-up this job.

The Gravity part will be handled by the Gravity coordinator, Mr Johan Lindström, who’s the actual BMX coordinator.

Mr Peter Van den Abeele, MTB & Cyclo-cross Sports coordinator, becomes the Manager of the Off-Road structure.

The group also includes two assistants, Mrs Annelyse Torrent Day and Mrs Corinne Vaudroz, and a Data Controller, Mr Peter Poelman, responsible for the UCI World Cup and UCI World Championships registrations, results and standings (MTB and Cyclo-cross).

For Cross-country, DHI and 4X a detailed discipline analysis will be made, this by requesting information from the riders, national federations, UCI MTB Teams, Sponsors, etc. The analysis starts in May 2010 and will be ready and presented in September 2010. In order to prepare the analysis, various valuable UCI statistics (Calendars, World Championships, World Cup, UCI MTB Teams) have been prepared.

During the DHI/4X analysis, Johan will be assisted by Mr Oscar Lozano, Colombian former MTB rider. Johan will attend Fort William UCI MTB World Cup event in order to discuss with the different parties involved in our sport.

All in all, it will probably have a major impact on the UCI Rules. Note that the Downhill protections topic, the national champion’s jersey and a new concept of the UCI MTB Teams will be examined as well.

Best regards,

Peter Van den Abeele
Manager Off-Road Disciplines
Union Cycliste Internationale