UCI searches for new 2013 title sponsor as Rocky Roads contract ends
The UCI have just announced that it has ended it’s contract with RockyRoads and is seeking a new title sponsor for the 2013 Mountain Bike World Cup. Shimano who have been long standing partners to the series have committed to another four years.
The RockyRoads website hasn’t been updated since October last year and rumours were rife on the interwebs that they were experiencing difficulties seem to be true.
The first 2013 World Cup is the XC event at Albstadt, Germany on 18/19 May, so they better get a move on.
The International Cycling Union (UCI) is looking for a title sponsor for the UCI Mountain Bike World Cup presented by Shimano, which gets under way in Albstadt (GER) in May.
The UCI will not be continuing its contract with RockyRoads.net, which was title sponsor for the World Cup series in 2012. Discussions are already under way with other parties with a view to different partnership packages including naming rights, on-site visibility and promotional opportunities across the disciplines XCO, DHI and XCE.
Meanwhile, long-standing presenting sponsor Shimano continues its partnership with the Mountain Bike World Cup for another four years.
The 2013 UCI Mountain Bike World Cup presented by Shimano will include eight rounds in eight different countries, finishing with the Downhill final in Leogang (AUT) in September.
holy sh*t! knew something was up after they cut the 4x from PMB.
I am SHOCKED!
How much cash do they need? Can we just have a whip-round? See if we can get a couple more rounds while we’re on
HAHA The UCI suck the balls off old corpses
Hasn’t this been obvious for months? Can’t believe how amateur the entire thing is
The UCI is not fit for purpose
The only purpose those corrupt fuckers serve is themselves £$£$£$£$£$ is the only ‘part’ of cycling they are truly interested in.
I think everyone knew the rocky roads thing wasn’t going to last
First XCE, now no sponsor.
Come on, we can do better than these clowns… why don’t/can’t we just fook them off and have our own series with out all the dictatorial bullshit and complete lack of interest in the gravity side of things. UCI is too roadie/xc orientated. XCE over 4X? What a fooking joke. Why bother? Unbelievable.
after the way they have treated 4x, I say fuck ‘em.
Fucking shocking really , Rocky Roads was never the right choice from the start…
Now they need to find a title sponsor at such short notice , it makes mountainbiking look even less professional than ever before , sad times.
Hope someone steps up. I was disappointed when they dropped 4x, and I’m sure XCE is a perfectly discipline. But maybe we should be looking at something like DH1 again for 2014. I honestly don’t know how good/bad MTB would be without the UCI but if all the big names got behind something then it could be amazing
Call me nasty, but I hope nobody does. I hope nobody goes near UCI mtb competition with a barge pole and they have to drop it.
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If the UCI’s mtb world cup becomes financially un-viable, it’ll leave the door open for someone else to start something without those roadie bullshitters. Currently nobody wants to be that first team to jump for fear of being in a championship against themselves, if there’s no championship there’ll be no other option. The big teams would thrash something out, between them they’ve got the money and the organisation to do it.
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Of course it could lead to an IRL/Champ Car type situation of two series against each other, but even that is better than the status quo.
Hey man, ‘roadies’ hate the UCI more than we do…watch the press over the coming weeks as the whole Armstrong house of cards topples.They’re in a worse position than he is.
Just read on a norwegian mountainbike site (terrengsykkel.no) that UCI want XCE to become an olympic discipline from 2014!!!
Rocky Roads didn’t deliver, really? UCI folk I am aghast, such a prominent mtb website suddenly appears to be a completely fictional business. Lets just hope those trustworthy so-and-so’s at UCI hq got their brown enveleopes out of Rocky Roads before it went belly-up. UCI’s title sponsor has now been ANOUNCED, after learning their lesson with Rocky Roads, they have chosen..
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.. Livestrong!
Si Paton should sponsor it with his millions?
Would that be Cola or Raspberry?
some peeps seem to live in a little bubble of their own world.dont you ever stop and look around at the rest of the world?the uci is a corrupt little club designed to make its head honchos rich. They love road racing cos it brings them lots of riches in drug bribes(go on then, sue me…) the off road world doesnt bring them lots of money in brown envelopes so they arent interested in it. Simple as. I personally wouldnt want to be associated with drugs and corrupt money but you have to remember that trek,specialisd,etc also sponsor road teams,where the big dollars/euros are so they arent going to make the break in case it backfires and they end up having to humiliate themselves again at the altar of hein verbruggen(google him).some of the small teams should set up a euro series cos if they build it up based on a love of the sport then it will succeed. Personally i dont see whythe uci exist except as a corrupt beaurocracy aimed at making its bosses lots of money.as we all know pyramid organisations are corrupt and not to be trusted so its time to move on.
and after all the shit they gave dirt for filming/ reporting and actually keeping the sport going. UCI = useless, corrupt, idiots.
Oh dear. Perhaps we should just draw a line under it and see this as an opportunity to get a decent sponsor in. I’m trying to be positive…
Why not just set up Strava segments for the courses and have an annaual award for the fastest? should be cheaper to organise…
maybe because strava is fundamentally flawed and only taken seriously by nimrods
I wish they would just pick up a beer sponsor for the DH… Maybe Corona? Or Heineken?
Yeah… That would be amazing. However, because of the amazingness of this idea, the UCI would ban it.