June looks very differently from all other prior years. Our main objectives GP Saguenay and Tour de Beauce have been cancelled. This year, for our riders, they are at home and riding casually while trying to maintain fitness. Building fitness toward a calendar that is coming together for the last part of the year is also important. This uncertainty can be very anxiety provoking as we have been in a start-stop mindset for months. The team participated in the last UCI race internationally before the pandemic (this will be a story our riders can talk about to their grandkids). At this point, everyone is allowed to ride outdoors in small groups of people with distance between themselves. It is hard to comprehend how it would be possible to race until social distancing is still the general guideline to stay safe. Mask wearing is also very complicated for a cardiovascular sport.
On a more positive note, the Tour de France is scheduled for August and will set a very important precedent on how international racing can proceed. The UCI has released the more relevant calendar of UCI 1.2 and 2.2 events to us. This is a great first step that we as management can use to start planning fitness and logistics. Logistics remain very difficult because we do not know how quarantine periods, borders and airlines will react in the next few months. The price of airfare will also be a concern, because of flights flying at 50% capacity. A lot of our team budget is also lying in the hands of airlines as flight credits-vouchers which are losing value by the day.
Social unrest is growing in our main cycling market North America. In fact, the protests linked to the "black lives matter" movement is not conducive to a restart of activities in US metropolitan areas. We do know that cycling has struggled with diversity for a long time and have started a thought process on how diversity can be a value we bring to the forefront in our foundation.
The speed of economic recovery will also impact race organizers, sporting federations and other teams with whom we compete internationally.
We have plans to compete in the following UCI races for the second part of the season : Canadian National Championships, Provincial Championships, Green Mountain Stage Race, Vuelta Guatemala, Tour of Trinidad & Tobago, Vuelta Costa Rica. We do not attach dates to these events, because they are in flux with the speed of the sanitary situation.
Stay safe and sane !
Alexandre Latil, Dominic Hamelin, William Goodfellow
Co-founders 4MIND Project
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