Coinciding with the UCI Road World Championships in Richmond, Va., USA Cycling has launched a new membership level to appeal to the grass roots rider.
USA Cycling are pitching the new category of membership as for everyone who loves to ride and are selling it as a way to both support the elite racers of Team USA and benefit from a range of perks.
"USA Cycling as an organization is about more than just traditional racing. We want to support the growth of cycling more broadly," said USA Cycling CEO Derek Bouchard-Hall. "Gran fondos and fun rides are growing in popularity, and this is a fantastic trend we want to continue by supporting these events in the same way we do traditional bike races."
Ride Membership includes $25,000 of accident medical coverage at fun rides and gran fondos; a year-long Bicycling Magazine subscription; Team USA t-shirt, phone pouch and sticker, and a one-day racing license.
It will be interesting to see how many gran fondo riders use the free license to try a sanctioned event and then go on to upgrade to racing licenses.
The optimism is there in USA Cycling's explanation: "If you only want to try racing out, though, you'll get a one-day racing license included in your Ride membership starting on January 1, 2016. Plus, if you fall in love with racing (don't worry, you will!), you'll be able to add on a Race license for a discounted price starting December 1st." The standard annual domestic racing membership is $70.
USA Cycling can trace its origins back to the formation of the Amateur Bicycle League of America in 1921 and has existed in its current form since 1995. It has around 60,000 members with 2,700 affiliated clubs and over 3,000 sanctioned events annually.
The official vision of USA Cycling "is to make the United States of America the most successful country in the world of competitive cycling".
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