In order to qualify for the 2012 UWCT Final that will be staged in Pietermaritzburg from 23rd – 26th August 2012, riders need to qualify through one of the 15 x UWCT qualification events that are staged around the world.
Riders in South Africa and surrounding states were fortunate enough in 2011 to be able to take part in the 2011 Msunduzi Road Challenge – the only official qualification event for the 2012 UWCT Final on African Continent. This event was extensively advertised and promoted through various mediums and formats in South Africa and the top 25% of the field from this event has automatically qualified for the 2012 UWCT Final and have been notified of their status already.
Therefore, if participants from South Africa who wish to now compete in the 2012 UWCT Final and who did not compete in the official qualification event here in South Africa, or in any of the other qualification events on the UWCT calendar, the opportunity may have passed them by for the 2012 edition.
There are still UWCT qualification events taking place in other parts of the world and their dates and locations can be found at the official UWCT website at www.uciworldcyclingtour.com
However, the UWCT organisers have granted the LOC some wildcard entries into the 2012 UWCT Final for those people that under exceptional circumstances may still have an opportunity to compete in the event. The wildcard system is a privilege extended by the UCI and is not a right and should not be construed as such.
The process that will be followed as far as the awarding of wildcards is as follows:
- Applicants must hold a valid CSA license
- Those people who rode in and did well enough in the 2011 Msunduzi Road Challenge and who have qualified automatically have been notified and will have until the end of May 2011 to indicate whether they will be taking up their entry slot or not
- Once this process has been completed, wildcard entries will first be offered to people who competed in the 2011 Msunduzi Road Challenge but who did not compete but who would be worthy participants either through their position on the seeding ladder or who experienced problems in the race that may have led to them not qualifying
- Once this process has been completed, then decisions will be made on all other applications received for places in the 2012 UWCT Final relative to the number of wildcard entries still available to the LOC.
- Applications for wildcard places, together with motivations for a slot in the Final can be sent to Danielle Davids at CSA at events@cyclingsa.com
- This application process will be open from the present time until the end of May after which no further applications will be accepted
- All decisions on this matter will be taken by the end of June 2012
- Please note that no correspondence on this matter will be entered into until the end of May 2012 and the decisions of the selection panel for these wildcard slots is final and no correspondence will be entered into once the selections have been made
Visit the new website for the 2012 UWCT Finals, Pietermaritzburg http://www.uwctfinal.co.za
