2030 Winter Olympics: Cyclo-cross wants to believe in its Olympic destiny

It was a short sentence from Michel Barnier in the daily newspaper L'Équipe that got the machine going again. Asked about the additional disciplines that could complete the Olympic program for the 2030 Games, the former Prime Minister , who was tasked with a one-year mission to help organize the event in the French Alps, said on February 19: "We can imagine that cyclo-cross is a demonstration sport."

Cyclo-cross joining the fortnight of the great white? The idea had already been put forward by David Lappartient, the president of the French National Olympic and Sports Committee (CNOSF), also president of the International Cycling Union (UCI), on the sidelines of the world championships of the specialty held this year in France, in Liévin (Pas-de-Calais) at the beginning of February. He had praised cyclo-cross and cross-country, the two sports having a double advantage: " being able to put them on the same site", and "opening up the winter Olympic sports to other nations, I am thinking in particular of Africa for cross-country. And for cycling, it is an opportunity to bring in big stars" , the leader had supported.

With or without snow on the slope

It is true that cyclo-cross has been booming for several years, driven by the performances of two-wheel giants Mathieu van der Poel , Wout Van Aert and Tom Pidcock. These are ambassadors that the discipline did not yet benefit from in 2014, at the time of the first contacts between the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the UCI on the possibility of an Olympic cyclo-cross. Discussions that have hardly led to any results, the main obstacle being rule 6.2 of the Olympic Charter, which clearly states that only those "which are practiced on snow or ice" can be classified as winter sports.

This condition did not prevent other disciplines from believing in their Olympic chances at the beginning of the century. Bridge, for example, really campaigned for its inclusion, to the point of organizing an IOC Grand Prix in Salt Lake City in December 2001, a few weeks before the 2002 Games in the capital of Utah. Let's admit that bridge, whose leaders never really gave up on the idea of ​​inviting this "brain sport" to the Olympic party, has a much longer history than cyclo-cross.

Snow is not incompatible with cyclo-cross. To demonstrate this, its promoters have organized a World Cup event in Val di Sole, Italy in Trentino, in the heart of the Vermiglio ski area perched at an altitude of 1,300 m, starting in 2021. Won for the first edition by the Belgian Wout Van Aert, the race has been included in the World Cup calendar for three years in a row. A calendar that also legitimizes the status of cyclo-cross as a "winter sport" by extending from October to February.

Snow or not, cities like Besançon (Doubs) are already in the starting blocks to host the competition . "Cyclo-cross can be organized at a lower cost, because a circuit does not require crazy expenses, and on this question of snow, let's take advantage of it to highlight this need for the mountain to transition in the face of climate change, with a discipline that does not require covering its track with artificial snow," argues François Trarieux, the coach of the French cyclo-cross team.

A popular discipline, but one that needs to be structured

Cyclo-cross has an additional advantage: its popularity, which Michel Barnier also highlighted. The atmosphere is guaranteed around the circuits. The World Championships in Liévin demonstrated this (60,000 spectators in three days), as did the competitions in Belgium in particular which draw crowds, particularly young supporters. An argument to which the IOC is far from insensitive.

The discipline is obviously counting on the Olympic spotlight to enhance its reputation, which is still below that of the road race. However, cyclo-cross represents 24 % of the cycling events organised in France (54% for the road), much more than mountain biking or BMX, which benefit from the Olympic exposure. "The Games could really change the situation for us, by allowing a real structuring of the speciality around equipment and competitions that are much easier to set up and secure, particularly for young people, than road events," stresses François Trarieux.

The president of the Organising Committee for the 2030 Games (Cojop), Edgar Grospiron , cited in the regional daily Le Dauphiné on Monday 24 February six sports that are contenders for the Olympic programme: alongside cyclo-cross and cross-country, speed skiing, ski mountaineering, telemark and ice-cross (skating on a track with obstacles). The Cojop should choose and the IOC will decide within a year.