UCI Africa Tour conference and the inaugural World's View Challenge

The annual UCI Africa Tour Conference took place on November 9 after the time trial events of the African Continental Championships. International Cycling Union (UCI) President Pat McQuaid and CAC Vice-President Julius Mwangi opened the conference. In addition to the countries present for the Championships, delegates from the National Federations of Congo-Brazzaville and Lesotho attended the meeting.

Philippe Chevallier, Manager of the UCI's Road Department, represented his department and reported on the state of cycling affairs in the world, in particular in Africa. Of note was the positive development of the calendars, with a 30 percent increase in the number of events on the Continental Circuits since the introduction of the cycling reform. The UCI Africa Tour calendar now includes 17 events compared with four in 2005. The African continent will be represented by four countries (South Africa, Libya, Namibia and Algeria) at the Olympic Games in Beijing, three more than at the Olympic Games in Athens.

The next event on the calendar of the UCI Africa Tour will be the Tropicale Amissa Bongo which will take place from January 16 to 20.

World's View Challenge

A new international cycling event is heading to Pietermaritzburg – the inaugural World's View Challenge, South Africa's first UCI 1.1 event. The six-day race takes place from February 2 to 7 in the KwaZulu-Natal province of South Africa and will have four UCI ProTour teams competing as well as seven additional international teams.

The five races (with a rest day in between races three and four) all start and finish in Alexander Park, but every day the parcours will differ.

The event is organised by Cape Town based Treble Group. Director Alec Lenferna, who spent two years in Switzerland working for the UCI, explained that "each of the races will see a professional race leading off the front of the field with a limited field of recreational riders also competing. The professional racing field will see a total of 15 international teams competing with four of these teams being UCI ProTour teams and the rest of the field being made up of UCI Continental Teams or National Teams."

Team Liquigas and Team Milram will be competing as part of their build up to the 2008 season.