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A conversation with USA Cycling president Mark Abramson

Published: May. 21, 2008
Abramson calling the action at Fort Collins
Abramson calling the action at Fort Collins
Photo: Fred Dreier

It was no surprise to see Mark Abramson, USA Cycling’s newly elected president of the Board of Directors, helping call races at the 2008 collegiate national championships, earlier this month in Fort Collins, Colorado.

Abramson is a longtime trustee of the National Collegiate Cycling Association (NCCA), an occasional announcer at collegiate races and a former college racer himself. Abramson got his start as a cyclist while a sophomore at Tufts University in 1995, rising the ranks from a “C” racer to an “A” race by his senior year. Abramson stuck around with the team to coach, put on races and help organize the eastern collegiate cycling conference.

His rise through USA Cycling followed a similar pattern — Abramson was elected to the board as a volunteer member in 2004 and steadily involved himself over the following years.
VeloNews lured Abramson away from the microphone to talk college racing 101. His
opinions on the sport, as well as a comprehensive rundown of the action, can be read in VeloNews issue 10, due to hit newsstands next week.

VeloNews: Where do you hope to see collegiate cycling in five years?

Mark Abramson: Well one thing we’ve been working on this past year is a strategic growth plan. I really think we can get a significantly higher membership base and new programs at schools across the country. Basically we want to see more races and more riders involved. In college cycling there is no financial incentive so the only reason people do it is for the love of the sport. It’s pure, and we want to see it expanded.

VN: How do you plan on expanding?

MA: It takes a lot of work but it’s a pretty straightforward approach. At every school there are cycling enthusiasts, whether they’re faculty or students, and we create mechanisms to get them involved with collegiate cycling. A lot of what we’ve done is to lower the barrier of entry and taking the administrative hassle out of starting a team out of the equation. We also make it easy to race. College students can buy a collegiate license which is half as much as a regular USA Cycling license [the collegiate licenses costs $30]. And most races cap their registration costs at $13 to $15.

VN: I would think that this would let in a fairly broad spectrum of racers.

MA: It does, and that’s why we also put our efforts in 2008 into rewriting the rulebook. We set out to craft something that could stand the test of time for the next 10 years or so. Something that could be the standard. At the national championships, for example, we made it so schools could enter up to six riders in the road race but only the top three riders score points. In the past you could enter four but all four scored. We think this will lead to more animated racing because you don’t have to finish all of your riders. Powerhouse schools like Fort Lewis or Lees-McRae or Colorado will all have six riders and be able to burn some matches and maybe blow the race apart. I think the smaller teams still can be competitive because they can then play off of those moves.

VN: How do you regulate the quality of riders who are able to race at nationals?

MA: Well in collegiate cycling there’s always been some self-selection. But now we rely on experience for riders to get into the B and A categories. If you are a new rider and have some decent fitness, you can jump into the C or D categories and then upgrade to the B, which is a big step up in terms of speed and aggressive racing. For the A category that is set by your equivalent USA Cycling road category. To be an A racer you need to be at least a Cat 3 on the road. That was a rule we started in the eastern conference that has been rolled out nationally this year.

VN: What about regulating pro riders. I know collegiate cycling is one of the few collegiate competitions where “professional” riders can compete.

MA: The participation of pro riders is definitely something we’ve talked about. Our thought is that collegiate cycling should be open for anyone who is a full-time student. If the pro riders are indeed full-time students who are taking a full course load and paying for school and still finding time to train, we believe its fair. The participation of pro riders in collegiate racing is very unique to the United States as a cycling nation.

VN: I had heard some buzz in previous years about trying to earn National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA) status for collegiate cycling. Is this still a goal?

MA: In the long term perhaps, but the NCAA’s standards for inclusion would mean we’d need perhaps 100 schools with big varsity teams, then they might take an interest. Honestly, at this point there are a lot of advantages to not being an NCAA sport. We can allow graduate students to participate, and there’s no restriction on the number of years you can compete. If we did go forward with NCAA status you would see a lot of enthusiastic members all of a sudden become ineligible to participate. Right now our policy is to cast open our hands and welcome any full-time college student into the sport.