Moving Guam Road Cycling Championship Race Date from Tour of Guam to a Dedicated Race Date in 2025
3 July 2024
Background:
Historically the Guam National Road Cycling Championship has been held concurrently with the Tour of Guam in December. There are some reasons why this timing may not be ideal:
The GCF Board has voted and approved keeping the date of TOG in December (tourism, proximity to Hell of the Marianas) but this race will no longer serve as our Guam national road championship race. GCF will move the road championship race to June or July, closer to the Individual Time Trial Championships. In this way we will be more consistent with the rest of the cycling world in crowning their road championships in the summer.
We recognize the possibility that during summer months some competitive riders (and board members) may have summer vacation plans that will not allow them to participate.
The final race route has yet to be determined, but initial consideration has been given to a longer variation of the Southern Discomfort route.
This change also means that the current Guam road race national champions from Tour of Guam 2023 will retain their titles until the road championships race in Summer 2025. As Tour of Guam registrations are beginning to open, we wanted to communicate this change as early as possible to our local cyclists who may already be planning a run at the national title. To be clear, Tour of Guam in December 2024 will NOT be crowing the national road titles for 2025.
Background:
Historically the Guam National Road Cycling Championship has been held concurrently with the Tour of Guam in December. There are some reasons why this timing may not be ideal:
- With participation of off island cyclists, the nature of road racing makes it impossible to remove the possibility these riders influence the local rider placings during TOG.
- The UCI Calendar ends in October each year. Thus, from UCI’s perspective, our December race crowns National Champions for the following year, not the calendar year of the race. Example: the December 2023 National Road Race Champion is officially the Champion for 2024, not 2023. Additionally, UCI points awarded to local riders are applied to the following year. This timing may not be ideal for future talent looking to compile points for participation in international events.
- A December championship race requires our most competitive riders to maintain fitness nearly year round, instead of having a typical racing season with most racing from the Spring to the Fall, and recovery and base building in the winter months.
The GCF Board has voted and approved keeping the date of TOG in December (tourism, proximity to Hell of the Marianas) but this race will no longer serve as our Guam national road championship race. GCF will move the road championship race to June or July, closer to the Individual Time Trial Championships. In this way we will be more consistent with the rest of the cycling world in crowning their road championships in the summer.
We recognize the possibility that during summer months some competitive riders (and board members) may have summer vacation plans that will not allow them to participate.
The final race route has yet to be determined, but initial consideration has been given to a longer variation of the Southern Discomfort route.
This change also means that the current Guam road race national champions from Tour of Guam 2023 will retain their titles until the road championships race in Summer 2025. As Tour of Guam registrations are beginning to open, we wanted to communicate this change as early as possible to our local cyclists who may already be planning a run at the national title. To be clear, Tour of Guam in December 2024 will NOT be crowing the national road titles for 2025.