Georgia Cycling to Split into Two Conferences for Race Series
The new format aims to enhance the race day experience and reduce time commitment for athletes, parents, and coaches.
Georgia Cycling has announced that starting with the 2022 season, the race day competition field will be divided into two separate conferences. Each Georgia Cycling team will be assigned either to the West Conference or the East Conference. These conferences are for race series competition purposes only and do not impact the overall program experience.
During the 2022 Georgia Cycling Race Series presented by Northside Hospital, each conference will race on a single weekend day. For example, if the East Conference races on a Saturday, both middle and high school students will run their races on that Saturday. This means the East Conference teams do not race on Sunday in that given week.
The race schedule will adjust so that each conference has two Saturday race days and two Sunday race days. Pre-ride opportunities will be made available on Friday afternoon (for teams racing on Saturday) and on Saturday afternoon (for teams racing on Sunday).
Georgia Cycling is making this change to maintain event capacity and plan for future growth. “As an organization, we recognize that as our membership numbers grow, we need to take proactive steps to manage our field size. Not only does this improve safety, but it keeps the experience enjoyable,” said Kenny Griffin, Georgia Cycling Executive Director.
You can download the 2022 Conference Lineup by clicking here.
Below you will find answers to some questions you may have. Just click on the question to display the answer. Coaches were briefed on this change a couple of weeks ago so families should feel comfortable asking their Head Coach or Team Director a question. You can also reach out to Georgia Cycling directly to share feedback or ask questions, just click here.
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A: The growth of Georgia Cycling is tremendous! That’s the good part. But growth can bring challenges for our racing events. We want to stay ahead of that growth to maintain an excellent race day experience. By splitting our association into two separate conferences we will decrease our racing field size and allow for future growth. You never want to wait until things become uncomfortable to make a change, so we are being proactive in planning for the future!
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A: One conference will race on Saturday and the other conference will race on Sunday. This means both middle school and high school riders will race on the same day. This single day of competition means a reduced time commitment for students, parents, and coaches.
Of course, everyone is invited to be a spectator on the day your team isn’t competing. Everyone loves a cheering crowd, so try to make plans to attend at least one day of competition for your opposing conference.
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A: Our conference line up was based on geographic location: a collection of teams on the western part of the sate and a collection of teams on the eastern side of the state. It isn’t a clean line down the middle of the state because teams are different sizes (see next question). But we want to be clear that we did not align teams to create a “better” conference.
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A: Not necessarily. Each year, Georgia Cycling will review the conference lineup and issue a new lineup for that season. As the number of participants continues to grow, we anticipate having to move teams to keep our conferences balanced. Our goal is to keep changes to a minimum each year.
Having said that, we suggest teams refrain from printing any clothing or signage with your 2022 conference because it could change in the future.
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A: The conferences are based on number of participants, not the number of teams. Therefore, one larger team might equal two teams with a smaller number of team members.