The UCI takes action for women's cyclo-cross

The Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) is pleased to announce the introduction of a new Women’s Under-23 category for the UCI Cyclo-cross World Championships.

In compliance with the announcement made on January 30 this year, the members of the UCI Management Committee, who met in Aigle last week, approved the modifications to the UCI Regulations for cyclo- cross,introducing a new Women’s Under-23 (17-22) category with effect from the 2016 UCI Cyclo-cross WorldChampionships in Heusden-Zolder (Belgium).

This new category will also apply to Continental Championships and – for the National Federations whowish to follow suit – to National Championships.The prize money for this new category will be equal to that of the Men’s Under-23 category.

The UCI is extending its efforts to develop women’s cycling across all its cyclo-cross professional events: the

overall prize-money distributed to women for the UCI Cyclo-cross World Cup will increase by more than

50% from the 2015-2016 season.

Significant initiatives have also been introduced for its C1 and C2 events.

Commenting on the decisions, UCI President Brian Cookson said: "The UCI began to introduce equal prizemoney to its World Championships in 2013 on the occasion of the UCI Cyclo-cross World Championships inLouisville. Today is an important step towards greater men-women equality in terms of participation andremuneration in the cyclo-cross discipline. These measures will help develop women’s cycling, one of thepillars of our strategic development plan."

Helen Wyman, one of the disciplines top athletes and member of the UCI Cyclo-cross Commission, said: "Iam really happy with the progress the UCI Cyclo-cross Commission is making for women in the discipline.

The increase in prize money for women, particularly in the UCI World Cup, is fantastic. Offering this kind ofreward enables the sport to keep its star riders and ensure the exciting level of competition we have beenprivaleged to experience in the last few seasons. With Marianne Vos now joining the Commission as theriders’ representative, we now have two female members. This allows us as to take this sport in the rightdirection for everyone, male and female. These are exciting times for cyclo-cross and I can not wait tocontinue the progress we have already made."

For more information, please contact:

Louis Chenaille

UCI Press Officer

+41 79 198 7047

louis.chenaille@uci.ch

John Zerafa

VERO Communications

+44 7813 814 816

jzerafa@verocom.co.uk

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