British Cycling
British Cycling (shortened to BC, formerly known as the British Cycling Federation or BCF) is the national governing body for cycle racing for Great Britain. The federation is a member of the UCI and the UEC.
British Cycling controls most competitive cycling in Great Britain, the Channel Islands and Isle of Man, including road racing, track cycling, cyclo-cross, BMX, mountain biking (including trials riding), cycle speedway, and in Scotland, road time trials. The main exception is road time trials in England and Wales, which are administered by Cycling Time Trials (CTT).
Cycling in Northern Ireland is controlled by Cycling Ireland.
History
The British Cycling Federation (BCF) was formed in 1959 after the amalgamation of the National Cyclists' Union (the NCU, which had regulated Britain's track and closed circuit racing) and the British League of Racing Cyclists (the BLRC, which had led in promoting road races on public roads since its formation in 1942). The BCF also took over the NCU's international recognition by the UCI.
In more recent years, the BCF merged with the British Cyclo-Cross Association (BCCA), the British Mountain Bike Federation (BMBF), the English BMX Association (EBA), and the British Cycle Speedway Council (BCSC). Each is now a commission within the BCF.
The EBA had been formed by the amalgamation in November 1989 of the UK BMX Association (UK.BMX.A) and the British BMX Association (B.BMX.A).
In recognition of the mergers, the BCF was rebranded as British Cycling.
Only road time-trials in England and Wales remain outside of British Cycling, but Cycling Time Trials works with British Cycling in organising the time trial national championships.
General
Cycling clubs or cycling teams must affiliate to British Cycling before members can race in British Cycling events. Adult road racers are given a racing licence according to their excellence, ranging from fourth category to the top riders in first and élite categories. There are also licences for under-18 riders and for women.
While Britain has not produced many cycling greats and has few riders on the professional road circuit, there are a number of good British mountain bikers, BMX riders and track cyclists. Performances at international level have improved since lottery funding was introduced in the late 1990s, with three golds in the 2002 world track championships bettered by four golds in 2005. Internal amateur events are well organised and although cycling is a minority sport, recreational cycling is popular.
In September 2004, British Cycling helped organise the Tour of Britain, a five-day cycle race finishing in London in front of a packed crowd. This did much to improve the profile of road racing in the UK, although many teams did not send their finest riders.
British Cycling selects Great Britain teams for European championships, world championships, and the Olympics (including for road time-trials where applicable). The organisation is a member of the European Cycling Union (UEC) continental confederacy, the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI), and the British Olympic Association.
British Cycling has links with other cycling organisations in the UK, such as the London Cycling Campaign (LCC), Cyclists' Touring Club (CTC), International Mountain Bicycling Association (IMBA) and Sustrans.
Championships
British Cycling holds national championships in each discipline, as well as the BUSA student championships. Winners of a national championship wear a white jersey with red, white and blue horizontal stripes around the chest.
Regional bodies
| Nation or territory | Regional body |
|---|---|
 England |
no regional governing body |
 Scotland |
Scottish Cycling |
 Wales |
Welsh Cycling |
 Isle of Man |
Isle of Man Cycling Association |
 Gibraltar |
Gibraltar Cycling Association |
 Northern Ireland |
Cycling Ulster (part of Cycling Ireland) |
Home Nations
In Scotland and Wales, British Cycling operates with regional governing bodies: Scottish Cycling (Scottish Cyclists' Union) and Welsh Cycling (Welsh Cycling Union). Scotland and Wales run national teams.
There is no regional body for England. England is not recognised as a region by the UCI, and there is no English cycling team outside the Commonwealth Games. For those occasions, British Cycling selects and supports the England team.
Cycling is represented on the Isle of Man by the Isle of Man Cycling Association.
Northern Ireland
In 1878 the Irish Cycling Association (ICA) administers cycling.
In 1884, the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) was formed to resist British rule by segregating sport. Cycling began to feature at GAA meetings. Before long, the ICA was composed mainly of Unionists and moderate nationalists from urban areas, whereas the GAA cyclists were mostly from rural areas and tended to hold strong nationalist views. Conflict arose between the two rival groups.
Following partition in 1921, the differences were resolved by forming of an all-Ireland body, the National Athletic and Cycling Association of Ireland (NACA or NACAI). However, the new body suffered disputes between its central council representatives from Northern Ireland and those from the south.
In 1949 a breakaway group in Northern Ireland, the Northern Ireland Cycling Federation, successfully applied for official recognition to the UCI. It also formed an association with the British Cycling Federation.
The NACA refused to accept this division, and as a consequence was suspended from international competition by the UCI. Within Northern Ireland cyclists divided between the two bodies largely according to their social and political affiliations.
That same year, another group broke away from NACA, this time in Dublin. It too was recognised by the UCI, and became the Cumann Rothaíochta na hÉireann (CRE). In 1967 CRE changed its name to the Irish Cycling Federation (ICF).
There were therefore official national governing bodies north and south of the border, and the two bodies cooperated to enter all-Ireland teams in international competitions.
However, the NACA remained in existence, and its cycling branch, the National Cycling Association (NCA), continued to organise cycling north and south of the border, and continued its association with the GAA.
Participation at international events became a grievance of the nationalists. At the 1955 world amateur hampionships, an unofficial NCA team tried to line up alongside the official (CRE/NICF) Irish team, leading to fighting.
At the Munich Olympics in 1972, the ICF sent a team to represent the Republic of Ireland. The NCA sent a squad selected from the entire 32 counties, who ended up attacking some of the members of the ICF team during the road race.
In 1979 the Irish Cycling Tripartite Committee (ICTC) set up between the ICF, NCA, and NICF as a forum within which differences between the associations would be worked out and joint racing ventures organised.
The Northern Ireland Cycling Federation (NICF) continued to affiliate to the world body (now the International Amateur Cycling Federation or FIAC) as an independent entity and to pay its own fees. New regulations stated that only one fee would be accepted from each designated nation, and in 1986 the NICF's fee was rejected, with Irish affiliation to the FIAC passing to the ICTC.
This led to proposals for amalgamation of the three governing bodies. This proved acceptable to both the ICF and the NCA, but caused a split within the NICF. A vote to accept the merger was challenged in the High Court where it was overturned.
This caused those who supported the change (nearly 75% of members, and 70% of the clubs) to form a new body, the Ulster Cycling Federation (UCF), which affiliated to the new all-Ireland body, the Federation of Irish Cyclists (FIC), which was then admitted to the FIAC in September 1988 as the sole governing body for Ireland.
In Northern Ireland, cycling continued to be split between two groups. Funding from the Sports Council for Northern Ireland was channeled to the officially recognised UCF, whereas Unionist local councils chose to support the NICF, again illustrating how sport became bound up in Northern Ireland's political conflict.
The NICF members felt that, as British citizens, they were entitled to join the BCF. However, for several years the UCI blocked this, stating that the NICF riders should take licences from the FIC.
In 1992 the UCI relented and permitted NICF members to race under BCF licences. However, the NICF was not permitted to take any fuller part in the BCF, and had to occupy a semi-detached status. The UCI attempted to further reconcile the NICF and the FIC. This attempt was unsuccessful.
Then, in 1995, the annual meeting of the BCFederation granted the Northern Ireland Cycling Federation the same status as regional governing bodies in Scotland and Wales.Subsequently in November 2001 the BCF placed the Tour of the North, an Ulster-based race, on its Premier Calendar.
This proved too much for the UCI, which resolved at its 2002 congress in Zolder to restrict the actions of the BCF and NICF in Northern Ireland, and to restate that Irish Cycling Federation (or ICF, as the FIC had become in 1998) was the sole body for cycling in the entire island.
By September 2004, an agreement to implement this arrangement had been reached British Cycling (the new name for the BCF) and Cycling Ireland (the new name for the ICF).
To close the long running split, on 14 December 2006 the NICF held a special general meeting to amalgamate with Cycling Ulster in 2007. As a result all NICF clubs will switch affiliation from British Cycling to Cycling Ireland, and there will only be one body organising cycling events in all Ireland. Cycling Ireland members will still be able to opt for their preferred nationality on the licence, preserving political and cultural identities.
British overseas territories
British Cycling represents the cycling associations of British overseas territories in the UCI, if they are not themselves UCI members.
The Gibraltar Cycling Association is the regional body for Gibraltar.
External links
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