Motor. Cycle. Racing?

To see who can use a motor to best advantage during a race? Do not motorcyclists already have an organization, at national and international levels (either or both), to govern racing and sport? Maybe it was inevitable progression but I can't help but see an ironically circular return to the incorporation of combustion engines on racing machines. Before the advent of motor-driven bicycles used as pacing machines in races, and then being raced on their own, before people realized that automobiles could go fast with little, to no effort, there was bicycle racing. Developing in tandem were various groups tasked with ensuring rules were followed, tracks and races were sanctioned, and allowing racers to develop and progress along a path from novice to accomplished professional. So, when motorized racing began in the early 1900s, those organizations which governed bicycle racing controlled the game, and motorcycle races during track meets became commonplace; on larger tracks (think horse-racing tracks) the same groups attempted to bring auto racing before the assembled spectators.

While I still cannot process a picture of myself ever riding an e-bike, let alone an e-mtb, my antipathy toward them has softened over the past couple years into a sort of pillowy ambivalence. The few e-mtb'ers I know have never deluded themselves into a deception of competition against their purely leg-powered counterparts, they simply want to keep doing the two-wheeled thing where they might otherwise have not been able to.

Outragious. That was my immediate thought when I read that the UCI was going to allow for a category of e-mtb racers. I didn't like the idea; a motor is a motor, whether it provides 100% of the power or just a little boost. Since then I have gone back and forth on the matter - the other side of the coin being that the separate category would have no bearing on the others. Or would it? Would it further dilute the sport, or broaden its appeal? I don't know but, for good or bad, I think we are going to find out.

Its a brave new world out there folks, apparently, even on the trails. I do have to wonder, though, how long before the UCI sticks its business into the world of vr-bike races?

If you have not read about it yet, get the scoop on the UCI's decision at the VeloNews.