The CPA thanks the Uci and Aso for the concrete commitment shown towards the riders

from 08/03/21

Gianni Bugno, president of the International Association of Riders (CPA), would like to publicly thank the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) for the concrete support that the federation has approved in favor both of the Transition Fund and the CPA Women. Mr. Bugno also thanks the Amaury Sport Organization (ASO), which paid the prizes of the 19th stage of the Tour de France 2019 to the fund dedicated to the athletes at the end of their career.
«Thanks to our work we have managed to obtain important funds for the present and the future of our athletes, boys and girls. On their behalf, I thank the institutions, with whom we will continue to work to ensure the fund’s long life to which more and more athletes are requesting access. Careers are nowadays shorter than in the past, the peloton is larger and more global but despite the difficulties of maintaining this end-of-career fund, we want to continue to guarantee the riders a sum that can be useful to restart again towards a new experience of life. Some of them use it for either a training course or to give life to a new business or simply to for a personal gift such as a motorcycle, a trip etc. For us, what matters is to leave a mark, an incentive, a small but significant push towards a new chapter of their life. And all the riders seem to appreciate it, no matter what category they belong to» comments Mr. Gianni Bugno, two-time world champion and who leads the riders' union.

With ASO, which promptly and effectively managed the difficult situation on the Iseran when a landslide and a hail storm forced the race to stop 37 km from the expected finish line, the collaboration of CPA Women continues. «We had asked for frequent meetings to discuss strategies to enhance women's cycling and we received incredibly positive responses - says the coordinator of CPA Women Alessandra Cappellotto. ASO's interest in this sector is a priority. Over the last few months we have met several times the director of the Grande Boucle Mr. Christian Prudhomme but also the heads of the communication department Mr. Goupil, d'Avout and Galban. We asked the most representative athletes from all over the world to help us build the races of the future and all of them, led by the world champion Anna van der Breggen, have gladly accepted. Obviously one of the great goals is the Women's Tour de France, which will see the light for the first time in 2022. The vision of ASO's top management towards women racing and the strategy put in place is what I have always dreamed of: involvement, collaboration, exchange of ideas, common programming. All this should become routine, almost a "meeting between colleagues" and the last meeting seemed so: 4 world champions, the director Mr. Prudhomme and the general manager communication Mr. Goupil who planned common actions all together for a better cycling».
«This is what we want: to establish even stronger relationships and direct collaboration, to work together on important issues such as safety, media coverage of races and athletes but also the increase in the prize money, which needs to be more aligned to that of the guys - continues Alessandra Cappellotto, who shows the same fighting spirit in defending the rights of female cyclists that she had when she won the world championship in San Sebastian back in 1997.
We are working with all stakeholders for an increasingly safe and fair cycling thanks to the introduction of new rules and behaviors, but at the same time we are working on the ground to intervene with the different cycling families on urgent and specific problems. There is a lot to do but it is nice to see the commitment from all sides to improve the movement on all fronts and for the common good».

The world of women will be at the center of the CPA General Assembly scheduled in digital form today March 8, the worldwide Women's Day. On this occasion, important news for the association will be discussed, such as the introduction of the new electronic voting system for the next elections.
«We will restructure to keep up with new needs and the current times with remote meetings and working have shown us that also a remote voting is possible in a secure and democratic way. We will ask the riders for their opinion on our new statute and we will be ready to meet their requests. There will also be voted for the admission of new national associations of riders such as the one recently created in Colombia - Mr. Bugno concludes in saying. - As always, I invite all the riders to participate to have a transparent and clear discussion».

Images

Show all news