EXCLUSIVE: Cycling Australia acquires Caribou event suite

The Tour of Tasmania, Tour of Gippsland, Launceston to New Norfolk, Melbourne to Warrnambool and Tour of the Murray River will all come under CA control as of next year.

Cycling Central understands that a decision on the future of the sixth domestic event in Caribou's current control, the newly formed Tour of the Great South Coast, will be made only after the inaugural edition is held.

CA will also take full responsibility of the Australian National Road Championships, which has been renewed in its current location of Ballarat to 2017 after an agreement with Ballarat Regional Tourism.

"These developments recognise the growth in our sport, and aim to further build on cycling's increased profile," said CA CEO Graham Fredericks to Cycling Central.

"It's been part of our major events strategy to acquire back some of our events which I guess we've been 'leasing' to other promoters for a long time now.

"Our plan for the National Road Series is not necessarily to oversee every event, but we wanted to gain additional event inventory, and build on the great work that has been done by John (Craven) and Caribou.

"We wanted to control the standards, the levels of the series, and taking control of events is an obvious way to go in that regard.

"We're quite happy to have independent promoters, but we see it as our role to get involved now to help set up a commerically successful platform and a series with strong sporting criteria that people want to invest in."

Fredericks added that the importance of a strong domestic 'league' was both important to CA's bottom line financially and the grassroots level of the sport developing.

Despite the announcement of a title sponsor at the beginning of the year for the NRS, there has still been teething issues as CA pushes for an increasingly professional national competition.

A timing issue let down the Mersey Valley Tour, while road closure problems in the Santos North Western Tour led to the men's race being all but abandoned on the final stage.

CA has distanced itself from the 'inadequacies' of such events which it says is a good example of why it needs take a bigger role in the organisational and operational side of the series.

The federation has project managed several major events over the last few years, notably the UCI Road World Championships in Geelong, the UCI Track World Championships in Melbourne as well as ongoing support at the Tour Down Under.

It feels that much of this logistical experience has needlessly gone to waste and will be now better utilised in the future.

Craven meanwhile, the owner of Caribou will leave a legacy as one of Australia's longest and most succesful promoters of grassroots racing in the country.

He'll be remembered with the creation of a perpetual shield named for the Victorian - awarded to the winning team of the National Road Series. Craven will also bring his wealth of experience to CA's Road Commission which he has been appointed to.

Craven, who's been involved in cycling for over 40 years, said he was honoured to be associated with such an award.

"To have my name on the shield presented to the champion team is a real honour - I believe this series to be the breeding ground for future legends."

The SCODY cup, Caribou's premier series will however be disbanded as CA look to attach additional focus on the overall national series.

The existence of both competitions often confused followers of the domestic calendar, and arguably devalued the National Road Series.

"We have no interest in continuing a regional competition - the Subaru National Road Series is a national competition and that's the way we'll develop it in the future," said a CA official.

The Subaru National Road Series will continue unaffected until the end of the 2012 season.

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