The 2022 road racing season officially kicked off in Kansas last weekend with the running of week one of the 28th edition of the Spring Fling Criterium Series. The results of that event were delayed, in part, due to some team affiliation mix ups. We thought it might be an appropriate moment to talk a little about teams and race licensing.
It is not a requirement to join a team for the purposes of competing in a USA Cycling sanctioned race. There are some benefits which vary from team to team but, suffice it to say, it is not required. However, if you do opt to join a team there are a couple of specific sections in the USA Cycling Rulebook that mandate licensing and representation on race day that we thought you might want to be familiar with.
“Licensed riders must register with a club and USA Cycling before they are eligible to present themselves as a member of that club. This includes, but is not limited to, wearing a club’s jersey or entering a race as a member of the club.”(Section 1F4, subsection a)
This is pretty straightforward…your team affiliation must be reflected on your license before registering and certainly before showing up in full kit. This also applies if you’ve changed teams or are racing unattached but are still racing in your old team’s kit.
“A rider’s team affiliations must be registered with USA Cycling and will be shown in USAC member data, either on the racing license or on the USAC website. Riders whose team affiliation is not printed on their license should be prepared to show documentation at registration.” (Section 1F6, subsection b)
In the old days of printed and mailed licenses, team affiliation changes took some time. In today’s digital world, with the self service portal, this shouldn’t ever be an issue.
Race promoters have told us that they often get post event messages from race participants that their team is listed incorrectly and to please to update it. With few exceptions, race promoters use the master list from USACycling indicating a racer’s team affiliation based on their license. As a license holder, it is the racer’s responsibility to update as changes are made. This is accomplished by logging into your USA Cycling account and updating your team. Based on the above passages from the rulebook, not doing so may compromise your ability to compete on race day and, at the very least, will delay results for all participants.
So, we encourage you to log into your USACycling account today. Click on LICENSE on the top tool bar and double check your team affiliation before your next event.