Cycling

INTRO

https://s3.amazonaws.com/usac-craft-uploads-production/documents/TeamLeadersGuide.pdf

https://s3.amazonaws.com/usac-craft-uploads-production/documents/starting_a_club.pdf

Collegiate Cycling is a fully integrated division of USA Cycling, with specific licenses available to collegiate athletes for exclusive use in collegiate races. USA Cycling provides racing opportunities for collegiate riders in track, mountain biking, cyclocross, BMX, and road disciplines in 11 conferences nationwide, with national championships occurring once a year for each discipline.

Collegiate Cycling teams vary from having just a single member to over 120 active racers, from school-funded Varsity programs to heavily sponsored club programs to the completely unfunded grass roots programs. Every year, though, between 10 and 20 collegiate clubs don’t renew with USA Cycling, and fade into the history books. Typically these are small teams that don’t have a structure in place to pass down leadership once the team president graduates, but we’ve seen it happen to big, successful teams, as well. To a certain extent this turnover is unavoidable, but some of these losses are preventable with just a little extra effort on the part of the team leader.

The Racing Seasons In collegiate cycling there are two main seasons, Mountain in conjunction with the fall semester and Road in the spring. There are also two lesser attended, but equally as challenging seasons intermixed. Cyclocross season in the late fall and track season in the summer and early fall are two disciplines that are gaining popularity among collegiate athletes.

Regional and National Competitions

Regional competitions are held at the end of both the Mountain and Road Season. The best overall team and riders are decided at these competitions. Every year there are National Competitions for each discipline. Since the field size is limited at Nationals, each year the number of teams from each conference is determined by the percentage of riders that conference has compared to the total number of collegiate riders. Then the best clubs from each conference qualify to send a team. Nationals are the height of the race season and not to be missed! 

Division II

a) Any team at a school or campus with a full-time enrollment of less than 15,000 must compete in Division II unless authorized by USA Cycling to move to Division I.

Division I

a) Any team at a school or campus with a full-time enrollment of more than 15,000 must compete in Division I.

List of all schools in different conferences

https://s3.amazonaws.com/usac-craft-uploads-production/documents/SchoolConf-list-Flyer_e2.pdf

Varsity Teams Requirements
a) Program is supported and designated as a varsity program through the athletic department and/or major university initiative.
b) Major funding source for the program is through the university budget.
c) Program is headed by a team director or coach with SafeSport training and a background check on file with USA Cycling.
d) At least one full-time USA Cycling certified coach is on staff for the team and is paid by the University, with exemption waivers available for emerging programs.
e) Participates in at least one national championship a year, with waivers available for emerging programs.

RACING STANDARDS, REGULATIONS FOR DIFFERENT CATEGORIES

https://s3.amazonaws.com/usac-craft-uploads-production/documents/CollegiatePolicyDocument.pdf