[NCNCA] Juniors Category Change

[Nitish Nag]

To whom it may concern,

As the president of a Junior Cycling team, *and *a junior racer, I think it
is completely destructive for the promoters of the Giro di Sf to remove the
juniors race as a Category.

First and foremost, Junior development in cycling is the only way a
traditional and exquisite sport such as road cycling will have a chance to
continue and grow as a community. While promoters may be thinking of next
quarter revenues and increased advertisements for a specific sector for
their product market, it is quite frankly a short sighted decision by the
promoters. In order to build the base of America's cycling potential, junior
racing is simply the ONLY way to ensure success of professional and
recreational competition growth. For example, in Europe the support for
Junior cycling is immense, 10 fold of what the united states carries, thus
the abundance of successful European cyclists in ALL arenas of cycling
(including mountain biking, which was founded in California itself, where
all international level champions are of European origin and citizenship).
>From this example, American based promoters should take note as to how long
term investments in cycling can truly be beneficial for all. The junior
field evaporates quickly in to the Elite fields as usually a racer starts
when they are about 15, and graduating from this league by the time racing
age crosses 18. From this perspective, it is easily visible how important
attracting juniors is for a long term return at events.

The basic point is that juniors are the future. Deleting the future from
cycling equals no future for cycling, hence the fact for the extreme stress
on support for juniors.

I sincerely hope you will take this in to consideration for your future
endeavours in race promotion and sponsorship.


All the best,
-- 
-Nitish Nag
Team President
NRL Racing
nrlracing.org
nitish.nag at gmail.com
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