The U23 Gap

Recently BTG director Kev Field contributed to a much-needed article on cyclingnews.com about the need for a U23 Women’s Category at the Road World Championships. The story was filled with data. Shortly after we hosted a #conversation on the business of cycling. We realized we have a lot of interesting data. And we should publish it – call it: Charting Journeys to Pro. We’ll keep the posts short and sweet, a chart, some quick insights. We will publish one every two weeks.

← CHARTING JOURNEYS TO PRO

Canadian U23 men race
30% less than top Global Peers

Over four years of U23 the best athletes in the world will typically race 140-150 days in international UCI competition. Contrast that to the very best Canadians who will race about 100 times.

Digging deeper Canadian U23 race much fewer U23 specific races (Nation Cups or *.2U category events) and they really trail in opportunity to ride Pro class races *.1, *.Pro.

Domestically, that means races like the Tour of Utah, Colorado (defunct), California (defunct) and/or Alberta (defunct) are really important to rider development. 🤞 New races emerge

Canada has a unique opportunity to enter the National Team in the World Tour races in Quebec & Montreal. In recent years those selections included more and more U23’s — a genuine benefit to developing U23’s.

SOURCE: Pro cycling stats. CAVEAT: The very, very best global U23’s are recruited to the World Tour by their 3rd year U23, sometimes earlier. These stats look at those who complete all 4 seasons U23. (Pro in this data is defined as – ProContinental or World Tour)

🇨🇦 Canadian athletes in this data include top-juniors selected to the World Championships, who went onto ride U23 and turn pro, like: Hugo Houle, Alex Cataford, Ben Perry, Nick Zukowsky, Pier-André Côté, and more…

cnvstn on twtr