Improve working conditions in WorldTour
The AIJC (Association International des Journalists du Cyclisme) elected a new board last autumn. Its primary aim will be to improve the media’s working conditions in WorldTour races. Apart from producing several newsletters a year, we want to maintain more contact with all cycling journalists, the organizers and the teams in the coming years.
On this site we are going to publish relevant news and information for all cycling journalists. In recent months the AIJC’s new board has already held several meetings with the UCI, the management of the Giro d’Italia and the Vuelta a España and with some other organizers and teams. Everybody is upbeat about improving their level of collaboration with the AIJC to improve the media’s working conditions. But there is still a lot of work to be done.
One important new change for 2013 in the UCI regulations is that journalists driving cars and motorbikes in races also need a UCI license. This is a result of the incident in the Tour de France in 2011 involving Juan Antonio Flecha and Johnny Hoogerland. This insurance license will be mandatory during the upcoming Tour de France.
The AIJC is now in talks with the UCI to try to smoothly introduce this scheme. The AIJC and UCI will jointly organise courses to obtain this license. The first will be on Saturday, April 13 at 13.00 in the permanence of the Amstel Gold Race in Maastricht. Those interested can register via info@aijc.org. We keep you updated about this process in the coming months.
The first mass meeting of the AIJC will take place at Liege-Bastogne-Liege. At Sunday, April 21 around 13.30 we hope to organise a meeting in or near the pressroom in Ans.
We hope to see a lot of our members there. For suggestions and information you can always contact us by mail.
Best regards,
Raymond Kerckhoffs (President)
Gregor Brown, Alasdair Fotheringham, Giles Le Roc’h and Guy Van Den Langenbergh (board)