To say that I’m proud to have been president of British Cycling between 1997 and 2013, and to have overseen bike racing’s unprecedented success and subsequent growth in Great Britain, would be a bit of an understatement.
At the end of 1996, after decades of underachievement in our sport, albeit illuminated by occasional sparks of brilliance, my colleagues and I were elected to bring about a major change in the way things were done. We set about comprehensively restructuring the sport, adopting a bold new strategy and setting new standards of governance and management. In doing so, we were able to invest the influx of money so gratefully received from the National Lottery wisely. But the results – both in terms of the sport and in the growth of cycling in general – surprised even us and resulted in an astonishing uplift in the sport’s profile.
Our strategy had three simple elements: to make cycling Britain’s most popular and successful sport; to boost membership of the federation to 100,000; and to put Great Britain at the top of the UCI’s rankings. It is perhaps worth remembering that it was received with disbelief and derision in some quarters! Yet who would argue with that now?
On the sporting side, first Peter Keen, and then Dave Brailsford, with the help of Shane Sutton, Steve Peters and their numerous expert colleagues, brought the best out of what would prove to be an immensely talented crop of young British riders, many of whom had come through our newly established development programmes, and it was at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing that that talent overflowed, impossible to ignore any longer by the British press and public.
Looking back to when I first joined a cycling club in 1965, we had already had a number of top riders flying the flag for Britain – world champions such as Beryl Burton and Tom Simpson, Tour stage winners like Brian Robinson and Barry Hoban – and I can remember following their exploits in magazines like Cycling and Sporting Cyclist. Meanwhile home-based riders like Les West and Hugh Porter put up world-class performances whenever the opportunity arose.
Then, later, we had riders like Robert Millar, Mandy Jones and Sean Yates, and successful pursuiters and team-pursuiters, too. All of these ploughed something of a lonely furrow in their racing careers, certainly without anywhere close to the kind of support that they deserved and that today’s top British riders enjoy. A different era, a different approach, though of course we should not forget that many people worked hard behind the scenes with the resources available at the time.
Now, as well as the elite-level successes, there are two other things of which I am proud. Firstly, the grass-roots activities that show people of all ages and ability the joys of our sport and pastime. And secondly, those development and coaching programmes that are ensuring an ongoing stream of talented young men and women, and providing a sustainable level of success – over half the GB Olympic cycling team at London 2012 came directly from those programmes.
So, from right back in 1868, when British cyclist James Moore first put his country on the bike-racing map, British cycling has enjoyed more than its fair share of ups and downs, and I’m immensely proud to have played a role in one of those ups and to have been part of the amazing journey so wonderfully told in these pages.
In the modern era, Dave Brailsford, as Performance Director, became the media face of British bike racing’s success, but I’m sure he won’t mind me saying that none of it would have been possible without the help of so many others, whose efforts truly were invaluable.
Alongside me at British Cycling, I always enjoyed the support of an excellent board and expert commissions, and a highly professional management team, led first of all by chief executive Peter King, and then his successor, Ian Drake, both of whom played vital roles in steering the ship firstly into a safe harbour and then onwards to exciting voyages of discovery.
And that’s without having mentioned people such as Chris Boardman, Doug Dailey, John Mills, Jonny Clay and Rod Ellingworth, and the hundreds of others who worked so hard to develop the sport and to push British riders to the top of the medal tables. In fact, there are so many people behind the scenes who deserve huge recognition – but who humbly and uncomplainingly worked, and continue to work, so hard for the good of cycling in Great Britain – that I’d run out of pages were I to name them all.
Despite leaving my post with British Cycling to become president of the International Cycling Union (UCI) in 2013, and although my office is now at the UCI headquarters in Switzerland, I’m proud to maintain an active interest in both British cycling and British Cycling – that is, the sport’s growth in the UK, and the federation that continues to nurture burgeoning cycling talent.
And where next for British bike racing? I’m thrilled to now be in a position in which I can witness – and hopefully help – other burgeoning cycling nations as they play catch-up to a federation that is truly at the top of its game. But I’m entirely confident that British Cycling, under its new president Bob Howden, will continue to thrive, be it continuing to introduce more youngsters to the sport, helping newcomers to take part in races and sportives, encouraging more people to ride their bikes to work, or bringing through talent capable of winning even more Olympic medals, world championships and Tour de France titles.
The future’s brighter than it’s ever been for cycling in Britain, and I was honoured to be in Yorkshire when the Tour de France came to town for its 2014 Grand Départ, while all the towns along the route – from Leeds to Harrogate, from York to Sheffield and then from Cambridge to London – gave the race such an overwhelming reception that Tour director Christian Prudhomme was left in no doubt that he was witnessing the confirmation of Britain as a bona fide cycling nation.
Onwards and upwards.
Brian Cookson OBE
President of the International Cycling Union (UCI)
Aigle, Switzerland
July 2014