In het weekend van het WK veldrijden mocht voorzitter Wouter Bos het management Committee van de UCI welkom heten bij in Hoogerheide. Dit is uiteraard een mooi moment om aandacht te vragen voor verschillende ontwikkelingen binnen de wielersport, zoals het groeiende aantal reisbewegingen en de daardoor groeiende druk op het klimaat.
Onderstaand is het welkomstwoord van Wouter Bos terug te lezen.
Cher David, dear fellow cycling fans and members of the UCI management committee,
Thank you for allowing me to welcome you today to the Netherlands and more in particular to the UCI World Championships Cyclo Cross.
We are proud we are able to host these championships in one of the fastest growing cycling disciplines in the Netherlands.
Cyclo cross is especially popular amongst youngsters because of the relatively short races and the explosivity it requires but it clearly is also popular with audiences because of the way races can be watched both on the ground and when broadcasted.
And yes, of course it is also popular because of some of the great riders from the Netherlands we are expecting to shine here over the next few days.
You may or may not know that the father of one of those famous Dutch riders, Mathieu van der Poel, his father is called Adrie van der Poel, was a great cyclist himself. He married the daughter of Raymond Poulidor who was one of the greatest French cyclists so when Mathieu was born out of that marriage, we knew the gene package would be promising.
Interestingly, Adrie van der Poel, the father and former cyclist, is responsible for designing this week’s World Championship race track. And not for the first time because over the last 20 years World Cup races were organized here on the tracks he designed. And as for World Championships, it is already the third time in those 20 years that we are able to welcome the Championships here on this track in Hoogerheide.
Is that coincidence? We believe not.
And apparently neither does the UCI because they repeatedly called this race the best organized race in the World Cup series. I can therefore state without any doubt that I am confident this weekend’s races will not disappoint you and this great championship will deliver great champions!
All that will happen in the next few days.
Today I believe you will have your management committee meeting and discuss issues that regard cyclists and cycling all around the world. I wish you will deal with all the issues at hand with all the wisdom it requires in times that our cycling community is torn apart by aggression, war and misery.
I would finally like to share a few thoughts with you that you may touch upon in your meetings these days.
The UCI has succeeded in making cycling popular all over the world and has attracted and helped to establish a wide variety of national federations trying to promote cycling in countries all over the world. I believe in seducing the Vatican to become a UCI member we may even have succeeded in seeing one day a cycling Pope…
I believe this great wave of enthusiasm on cycling is inspiring and it is good to see the many new athletes we are able to welcome into our cycling community from all over the world.
And I applaud the UCI for that achievement.
At the same time though, it does present us with new challenges so I would like to leave you with two bits of unsolicited but free advice.
First, with more and more countries involved in cycling, we also witness an increase of events and races all over the world.
This creates a travelling circus of athletes, staff and equipment travelling all around the globe. To be more precise: flying in airplanes all around the globe. The downside of the growing international popularity of cycling is therefore that our CO2 or ecological footprint is growing which does not match our ambitions on sustainability. Dealing with sustainability, I therefore hope that you prioritise designing a smarter international calendar in order to minimize travel movements all over the world.
My second and last bit of unsolicited and free advice I would like to give you is to keep the balance between the old and the new. I believe in spreading cycling enthusiasm across the globe and welcoming new member federations, new athletes and new events. But we should not forget that at the same time the majority of riders, the majority of events, the majority of champions and the majority of finance still come from a relatively small number of long-time-member-countries. I therefore believe it is important at all times to organize a balance in the UCI in a way that attracts and rewards both new members and at the same time recognizes and rewards the contribution of ‘old’ members.
We as the Netherlands are happy to make that contribution just like we are happy to host this week’s World Championships.
I wish you a good meeting and inspiring championships. Thank you.