It’s fair to say that there has been more than a little animosity between some of America’s top cross-country pros and the organization that governs them. From the medical monitoring mess at last year’s world championships, to the single women’s Olympic start spot, to the way the U.S. berths in Athens are being chosen, riders have had plenty of reasons to point an angry finger at USA Cycling.

But there comes a time when it’s best for all parties concerned to move on, and it sounds like that is just what happened during an impromptu meeting at the Pan American Championships last weekend in Baños, Ecuador.

Among those present were eight of the country’s best XC riders — Adam Craig, Alison Dunlap, Jeremiah Bishop, Jeremy Horgan-Kobelski, Mary McConneloug, Shonny Vanlandingham, Sue Haywood and Todd Wells — and USAC’s athletics boss Steve Johnson and national mountain bike coach Matt Cramer. And according to just about everyone there, it was a fairly productive get together.

“I was actually really impressed,” said Horgan-Kobelski, who took gold in the Pan Am race. “They kind of owned up to some things that happened as far as losing Olympic spots.”

Haywood concurred, saying, “It was the first time we all really sat down and communicated. I was really impressed with Steve Johnson. He admitted that the fed messed up and that he feels terrible about it. And he promised to be more vigilant in the future.”

More importantly, Johnson and Cramer cleared up some of the confusion regarding this year’s selection. The biggest news is that the Grouse Mountain World Cup race from 2003 will count towards determining who races in Athens — and that’s a big break for Haywood. The Trek-VW pro finished third there last summer earning 120 UCI points, while neither McConneloug nor Dunlap scored any points (McConneloug was a DNF, Dunlap missed the race with an injury).

Initially, it was thought that race would not count towards selection because it is listed on the UCI site as taking place on July 12, the same day as when the UCI rankings from this year were to be used to determine selection, meaning Haywood’s 120 points would expire. But the race was actually held on July 13, 2003, meaning Haywood should end up keeping those points.

The impact is considerably smaller on the men’s side, because all four finished in the top 13, led by Horgan-Kobelski in ninth.

The other pressing issue centered on this summer’s world marathon championships, slated for July 11. That's just one day before the final selection. There had been some talk of trying to keep that race out of the mix, but Johnson said that since the UCI counts those points in its rankings he was not at liberty to ignore it.

As for the riders, the men talked about a gentlemen’s agreement where all would promise to take a pass on the race in Austria, but after hedging, Bishop decided that it was a deal he couldn’t make.

“Jeremiah was the only hold out,” said Horgan-Kobelski. “We were going to do the whole shake-with-witnesses thing but he balked.

“The way I see it, is that besides not wanting to fly back to Europe another time, I’m philosophically against it. It doesn’t make sense for this whole thing to come down to a race that is so unrelated to the Olympic race. But if I have to go, I’ll go.”

There was also plenty of talk about the future. Johnson said his biggest goal would be to make sure the U.S. qualifies a full team for the Beijing Games in 2008.

“I think we all came away with a better understanding about where we need to be headed to get this right next time,” he said.

MAYBE ONE MORE SPOT?
USAC’s Johnson says that though it might be a long shot, there’s still a slim chance the U.S. could get an additional women’s start spot. The deal would go like this: In mid-June there is a deadline when all the countries that have been awarded Olympic cross-country start spots must tell the UCI whether or not they plan on using them, and if any of them decline any spots they would become available again.“At that point the UCI would decide who would get those spots,” explained Johnson. “In the past they’ve given them to countries that don’t have any start spots, but if our women are going really well, we would make the argument that they should give us an additional spot. It’s almost too much to hope for. But at the same time we’ll do everything we can to try to make it happen. We’ve already started the dialogue, and we’ll try to make the case when the case is makeable.”

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