News: U.S. Cup Update

Written by: Shannon Boffeli

As MTBracenews readers know Team Sho-Air director Scott Tedro has been leading the charge to create a new U.S. National races series. Plans for the series are constantly evolving. We recently spoke with Tedro who gave us this update.

According to Tedro the U.S. Cup will be split into two individual series' in 2009. With title sponsorship coming from Kenda, the U.S. Cup will consist of an East and West coast series with the two series' combining for the final race in Las Vegas, Nevada. The series finale will be replacing last year's Cactus Cup and will be held in conjunction with the Interbike trade show on September 26, 2009.

Each series will consist of 6 races. While Tedro stated that race dates and venues have been finalized a race calendar has yet to be released. At the time of this publishing we do know that stops at Bonelli Park, Fontana and Santa Ynez, California will be included in the West Coast series as well as the Sea Otter Classic in Monterey.

Tedro, who has always envisioned the East and West coast format said "We are very excited that we were finally able to make this happen. The new format will provide opportunities for a greater number of participants to experience racing on a National level."

Trek/VW Pro Jeremiah Bishop had this to say about the changes for 2009, "I am really excited that momentum is building for US mountain biking next season... An East Coast Cup and West Coast Cup makes it possible for more riders to feel like "hey I can get a top 5 in the East Cup". That's just a days drive to get to all the big races. This is obviously not ideal but as a bridge season it will be nice way provide fun racing to the most people."

While it appears the East and West Coast series' are finalized MTBracenews has been told from outside sources that a plan to carve out a separate series for Professional racers is still in the works. The Pro series would most likely include races from both the East and West Coast series'.

As the 2009 U.S. Cup begins to set sail it appears more industry sponsors are coming on board. Along with Kenda, U.S. Cup title sponsor, Specialized and Hayes Bicycle Group are each proposing some new and exciting race promotions.

According to Tedro, Hayes will randomly choose one amateur racers from each race in the series for an all-expense paid trip to the series finale in Las Vegas. While the folks at Specialized have agreed to pay the entry fees for the first 10 junior racers who register for each event in the series.

Please stayed tuned to MTBracenews.com for future updates on the U.S. Cup including a full race calendar which should be available soon.