USAC and MTB Cup Split Over ProXCT

Oh, the drama.

If you haven't been following the interwebs this week, here is what you've missed:

The people behind the US MTB Cup (and the ProXCT, which is US mountain biking's one year old Pro Tour) and the USAC (USA Cycling, which used to sponsor NORBA and is the Olympic governing representation for US Cycling) had a falling out over the cost/scheduling of UCI (i.e. World Championship Pro Tour) events. USA Cycling (which I will call USAC from now on) wants demands them, US MTB Cup people say they are too expensive and only benefits a small handful of riders (both probably true).

You can read the expert analysis of the donnybrook at Velonews and CyclingNews.

So what does this mean for NorCal racers ? Probably nada.

USAC will have an abbreviated ProXCT Series to keep their precious UCI points (and save face):

USA Cycling will continue the 2010 Pro XCT with the nation’s three remaining UCI inscripted events: the Bump ‘N Grind in Birmingham, Alabama on June 5; the Subaru Cup, slated for June 26 in Wautoma, Wisconsin; and the Carmichael Training Systems International Classic in Colorado Springs, Colorado on July 10.

The US MTB Cup people will press on with their series also:

“The US Cup is now working on the soon-to-be-released US Cup Mountain Bike Racing League (US Cup MBRL),” said Tedro. “We have over 20 events committed to being a part of the US Cup MBRL and we are very excited about that.”
Tedro said that the company plans to release details of the series later this week.

This will probably include the first three events (all SoCal-based) from the earlier announced ProXCT schedule.

For 99% of MTB racers (and maybe 100% in NorCal), this whole kerfuffle means nothing other than the name of the sponsors on the banners. However, it does continue to demonstrate that MTB racing has failed to gain a critical mass here in the US (which may be good or bad depending on your view). This is now the third major split/reorg/failure of Pro MTB racing series in the last five years (NORBA, NMBS, ProXCT) ...