A Chat With Joan Hanscom

February 25th, 2010 by Ron Callahan View Comments

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We recently had the chance to talk to Joan Hanscom, one of the organizers of the very popular U.S. Grand Prix of Cyclocross, and now, one of the folks instrumental in bringing the 2013 Cyclocross World Championships to the USA. We chatted just after she had returned from making the USA’s formal presentation to the International Cycling Union (UCI). The meeting took place during this year’s Worlds, and she took advantage of being there to watch the races from an organizer’s perspective, checking out logistics, camera angles and the like.

Hanscom, who has been with the USGP since 2006, first looked at the possibility of bringing a UCI World Cup event to the states, but quickly found that the travel requirements made a bid for the Worlds more attractive. Bringing riders from Europe for a single event is cost prohibitive, as is the prize structure — organizers in Europe can charge admission for ‘cross events and still get a large audience to fund the purse, while that would be less likely to fly in the US. Because the competitors in the World Championships are sent by their national federations, the event is guaranteed to have a strong field and a large audience.

When I asked Hanscom if she specifically had Louisville in mind when starting the bid, she emphatically agreed, saying that the strength of the cycling community there, the city’s sports commission and the backing from local politicians made the city an easy choice. She added that the event will ultimately be a cooperative effort between her team, the City of Louisville, USA Cycling and the UCI. The city and the organizers conservatively estimate a combined economic impact of $5 million for the 2012 World Master and the 2013 World Championships.

The Pacific Northwest (and Bend, Oregon in particular) seems to have become the philosophical home of American ’Cross. When asked what ruled out Bend in favor of Louisville, Hanscom mentioned several factors: First, the National Championships are already held in Bend. Second, Bend is a smaller community and the West Coast location would make travel from Europe even more difficult. Third and most importantly, she wanted to support the community of Louisville, which has done so much to spur the growth of the sport in America.

We posted a couple of months ago about the permanent cyclocross course that was being built by the City of Louisville. With the river town not too far downstream from BWN headquarters in Cincinnati, we were excited about the possibilities this might bring. Honestly, though, we were a little bewildered that Louisville would invest money in a permanent course when so many good races are staged on temporary facilities. Of course, when the 2013 announcement was made, it was all quite clear what they were trying to achieve. Hanscom told me that there is still quite a bit of work to be done on the course. Brush and trees need to be cleared and earth needs to be moved to create some permanent elements for the course. Louisville will ultimately be marketing the facility as a multi-use bicycle park. There will be a pump track for the BMX and mountain bike crowd and there will be sand volleyball courts as well, both of which will likely see use as part of the cyclocross course.

While we are “enjoying” a very snowy winter this year in the Midwest, February weather in our region can range from snowy and miserably cold to breezy and somewhat balmy. Either way, we get plenty of precipitation, so the course is likely to be mucky. The course will incorporate elevation changes, so there will be some low lying sections with mud grabbing at the competitors’ tires.

Hanscom’s USPG organizing partner, Bruce Fina, used to manage the U.S. men’s cyclocross team. He founded the USGP series in part to raise the level of competition for our domestic riders and prepare them for international competition. While the USPG can’t take all of the credit, the U.S. has become a strong emerging market for cyclocross. The growing number of UCI races staged here, and the success of our men and women on the international stage, certainly attests to that. In the same vein, Hanscom hopes that the Worlds will continue to drive the growth of ‘Cross in the U.S. She adds that professional cyclists may see the race coming here as an opportunity to focus on cyclocross and gain some international recogition, and that Masters level racers may go after the opportunity to race at the World level.

Hanscom and Fina will continue to run the USGP series while working with the UCI, USA Cycling and the City of Lousiville to plan the Worlds. Hanscom added that the Worlds were really a totally separate undertaking from the day-to-day work involved in managing the USGP.

Louisville 2013 has already garnered a lot of interest from the world ‘Cross community. Hanscom received an e-mail from Erwin Vervecken the morning we spoke, and Sven Nys has already expressed interest in the race. He says that he will probably delay his retirement until 2013 in order to come to America for the race. Fans seem to be excited about cyclocross’ growing popularity in America as well: Joan added that she was wearing a USPG jacket while in Czechoslovakia for the Worlds and received many “thumbs up” from the fans there.

We’re obviously excited about the 2013 Worlds and will continue to bring you news about it. We’ll definitely be making a trip to Louisville for this year’s Derby City USGP event and hope to bring you a preview of the course.