Interview Colorado Classic

Interview Colorado Classic

We had the honour to interview the organizations of North America's premier women race. Colorado had already a long tradition in organizing cycling races before but since a few years there is a new race in the American state. The Colorado Classic is even more than a race. You can read more about it in the interview below. Enjoy!

How do you evaluate last year? Are you satisfied about the 2019 edition? 

We wanted to create a race that challenged the norm for women’s pro cycling, while building a sustainable platform for the future of the sport. Our work is ongoing but we’re confident in calling our debut event a great success, despite early skepticism that the all-women format would be unpopular or unsustainable. 

In terms of team support, media attention, free live TV coverage and quality race courses, there was no race like the Colorado Classic, and the response and recognition around the event was truly inspiring. 

The racers love it, and so did the fans with more than 30,000 of them lining the streets and several hundred thousands watched the world-wide race broadcast live from start-to-finish each day 

The Colorado Classic became the Premier women's race in North America. How do you see the future of the race?

We are really proud of what our team accomplished in 2019; we reimagined our business model by focusing 100% on women and set our sights on making an impact on the sport of cycling. As a result we created a re-energized model for pro cycling. But our 2019 debut as a women’s-only race was only the beginning. For 2020 we will build on our fundamental pillars of team support, media attention, storytelling, and free live race coverage. 

We are more than a race, we are a movement that is changing the world through the power of women’s sport. This spring we’ll be launching a year-long initiative centered around exposure, opportunity and equity. The initiative will include media appearances, community engagements, corporate dialogs, a Women’s Advisory Committee, targeted engagements with business and community leaders, and this innovative global streaming network. (More details here)

 

We saw many beautiful locations during last year's race, how do you choose the locations and the parcours?

Colorado is a truly beautiful state with wonderful roads and trails everywhere you look. We work closely with the Colorado Tourism Office to showcase the best this state has to offer. Behind the scenes, this process is a lengthy and complex one involving permits and police, local governments and community groups. So though our past host cities have been nothing but generous and welcoming, the search often starts anew each year. With that said, we are gearing up to announce our 2020 host cities in March and we are very excited about where we’re taking the race this year.

Last year, the participating teams came mainly from the US. Will we see more European teams taking part in 2020? 

With a UCI 2.1 classification, the Colorado Classic is the only women’s standalone UCI stage race in North America as well as a participating event in USA Cycling’s Pro Road Tour. Last year’s race saw participation from around the globe, including world-class teams such as Canyon-SRAM, Cogeas - Mettler Pro Cycling Team, Rally UHC Cycling and Team Tibco. The competition was fierce and interest from teams is high. However, we have just 16 team invitations to extend, one of which is reserved for the domestic elite team that leads USA Cycling’s Pro Road Tour after the first eight races, and hasn’t already received an invitation. (See link for more details)

Invitations have already been sent out, and this year we anticipate an even stronger international, world-class field of teams and riders.

It's hard to organize a cycling race. Many big American races disappeared. Is Colorado Classic mainly depending on sponsoring or also looking forward to alternative incomes like other races are doing already? (merchandise, bike tours for fans)

Yes, it was hard to see the Tour of California take a hiatus for 2020, and indeed, the US road race calendar is smaller than it’s been in the past. Still, we do recognize that women’s sports in general are growing and this momentum fuels our commitment to producing the best women's race in the world.

While we sell some merchandise online and on site, that serves more as a fan engagement effort than income. We rely on our generous sponsors for financial and marketing support, while also exploring new ways to make the race financially viable and sustainable, such as our innovative TV streaming approach. Details here.

The race is currently on 2.1 level. Do you have the ambition to promote the race to the World Tour level?

Being designated as a UCI 2.1 category status in its first year of a stand-alone women’s event (2019) is already pretty significant. There are only 13 UCI 2.1 events in the world so the Colorado Classic is really important, especially for U.S.-based pros in terms of earning UCI points.

This being our fourth year (—and second year as a women’s-only event), we are still a very young event. During that time we progressed from domestic USA Cycling Event to Pro Road Tour and UCI 2.1. That’s pretty ambitious as is! Making the leap onto the WorldTour calendar would be tremendous, but that's a really big step and being where we are today is already a pretty big jump.

The race has currently 4 stages. Do you have the ambition to expand the race to more stages, even to a week for example?

That will depend on the demand of the racers and fans, really. If there’s significant interest, we will explore those options.

Last year's race had an excellent live coverage. Will it also be available this year?  

Yes indeed! Ahead of last year’s event, the Colorado Classic set out to explore and invest in new ways to create and stream content.

Pioneered and put to the test last season, the race organizers used cutting-edge and cost-efficient bonded cellular technology to capture the live coverage, which was streamed for free each day in its entirety, from the start line through the awards ceremonies.

The multi-dimensional live stream was distributed through 30 different outlets —including social media, strategic partners like Global Cycling Network, Altitude Sports, Kiswe simulcasts and the event’s TourTracker mobile app— and received more than 350,000 views from fans in 144 countries.

When viewed on social media, the live feeds had more than 35,000 engagements as fans liked, commented and shared the live coverage. Not only did fans get to see the live content when, how and where they wanted it, this model also eliminated costly airtime on networks. In 2019, the total production costs of the race broadcast were approximately one-third the cost of the TV production and distribution of past races.

The Colorado Classic will continue to evolve this model in 2020 and is committed to sharing their learnings with the industry to help reduce financial barriers for the broadcast of fan-based sports everywhere.

 

Are all people in the organization paid or does the Colorado Classic also have many volunteers during the races?

We do rely on our fantastic volunteers during race week to help with route marshalling, hospitality, spectator parking, info booth and hospitality

What would you like to wish the fans & participating riders for this year's race?

Pay attention, tune in and help us celebrate and empower female athletes while furthering conversations about social change.

Per Lucy Diaz, CEO of RPM: “Change doesn’t happen because someone wants it. Change happens when people commit all their energy to getting the world to take notice. Our entire organization and business is focused on delivering and demonstrating our message of opportunity and equity. We are proud to lead the charge and will look to like-minded organizations and individuals to join us in this powerful change to culture.”

Want to join the movement? Engage with us on social media, or shoot us a note!

I  would like to thank Lucy Diaz to make this race and this interview possible. I also want to wish a bright future to this beautiful race and all people involved.