UCI President Pat McQuaid (l) and UCI ProTour Manager Alain Rumpf. (Image credit: AFP)
The International Cycling Union (UCI) has announced that its UCI Academy will conduct the first directeur sportif programme at the World Cycling Centre in Aigle, Switzerland from November 2-5.
The programme will see directeur sportifs from UCI ProTour and UCI Professional Continental teams come together to undertake specifically designed workshops, develop practical skills, enhance knowledge sharing throughout the teams and ultimately assist with the overall global development of the sport - a key objective of the UCI and the UCI Academy.
The training allows directeur sportifs to improve their knowledge of many aspects of the sport, such as cycling regulations (sporting, technical and anti-doping) and team management (budgetary control, supervision of activities, human resources). Participants who successfully complete the training will receive a certificate awarded by the UCI Academy and the Manchester Business School.
"Next week, 25 directeur sportifs from UCI ProTour and UCI Pro Continental teams will take part in the first directeur sportif programme at the World Cycling Centre," said Alain Rumpf, UCI ProTour manager. "This constitutes a key step in the improvement of the quality of professional cycling worldwide, one of the goals pursued by the UCI ProTour since 2005. Ultimately, anyone who wishes to become a directeur sportif will have to be in possession of this diploma (by 2013 for UCI ProTour and 2015 for UCI Professional Continental Teams)."
Programme Manager Michael Cary commented on the success of the programme to date in generating positive feedback and full registration.
"We were confident that this new and exciting programme would be well received by the UCI teams," said Cary. "It has been developed with a large amount of industry input so that it addresses real requirements and issues faced by the directeur sportifs today. We are pleased with the response to date and look forward to welcoming the directeur sportifs to the World Cycling Centre and delivering this exciting initiative next week."
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