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British Cycling hits 100,000 members (©British Cycling)British Cycling hits 100,000 members; doubles in two years
Cycling's national governing body British Cycling has passed 100,000 members for the first time in its history, the organisation has announced today — and half of those members joined since the 2012 London Olympic Games.
British Cycling credits that growth to the high profile of cycling since Team GB's success in the Beijing and London Olympics, and the organisation's collaboration with Sky which extends from the pro team of Bradley Wiggins and Chris Froome, to local guided and social rides. A total of 360,000 people have taken part in town centre Sky Rides and local and guided rides.
A large part of British Cycling's growth from about 15,000 members in 2005 has been a big increase in junior riders, which CEO Ian Drake says puts the body in a good place for the future of racing.
“In Sydney 2000 we had just over 1,000 under-18s,” Drake told the Telegraph's Tom Cary. “That was the entire talent pool. Fast forward to today and we have more than 13,000 under-18s regularly competing. I’m confident that if you’re a young person with talent, the system will pick you up.
“That is no guarantee that we will produce another Wiggins or another Hoy or another Pendleton, but the law of averages says that we will give ourselves a better chance of doing so.”
Drake said reaching a six-figure membership was "hugely significant for British Cycling."
“It cements our position as the largest cycling organisation in the country and provides us with a solid platform in our efforts to transform Britain into a true cycling nation.
“We are supporting our membership activities at all levels – from the Great Britain Cycling Team and our talent pathways to entry level racing, young people’s coaching, club racing and our recreational cycling programmes which are helping people to start and stay cycling with British Cycling.
“Critically, we are standing up for all cyclists in our efforts to persuade national and local government to invest in cycling. From lobbying for safer roads and junctions to campaigning for all children to learn to ride a bike at school, we are working on behalf of our members to ensure that cycling’s full potential is realised."
British Cycling president Bob Howden hailed the contribution of the organisation's grass roots to its growth.
“Our volunteers, clubs, and organisers at all levels have done an amazing job in supporting the growth of our sport to ensure that the inspiration created by our athletes has translated into record numbers of members and participation at all levels," he said.
To mark the occasion, BC has created quite a tidy infographic. Click for a larger version:
John has been writing about bikes and cycling for over 30 years since discovering that people were mug enough to pay him for it rather than expecting him to do an honest day's work.
He was heavily involved in the mountain bike boom of the late 1980s as a racer, team manager and race promoter, and that led to writing for Mountain Biking UK magazine shortly after its inception. He got the gig by phoning up the editor and telling him the magazine was rubbish and he could do better. Rather than telling him to get lost, MBUK editor Tym Manley called John’s bluff and the rest is history.
Since then he has worked on MTB Pro magazine and was editor of Maximum Mountain Bike and Australian Mountain Bike magazines, before switching to the web in 2000 to work for CyclingNews.com. Along with road.cc founder Tony Farrelly, John was on the launch team for BikeRadar.com and subsequently became editor in chief of Future Publishing’s group of cycling magazines and websites, including Cycling Plus, MBUK, What Mountain Bike and Procycling.
John has also written for Cyclist magazine, edited the BikeMagic website and was founding editor of TotalWomensCycling.com before handing over to someone far more representative of the site's main audience.
He joined road.cc in 2013. He lives in Cambridge where the lack of hills is more than made up for by the headwinds.
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16 comments
Wow, I only signed up for the first time last night, reckon I'm the 100,000th member?
@ MaxP
Re BC's treatment of women generally (and specifically the pro scene); apart from fulminating about it online, what are you personally doing about it?
That gonna equate to some amount of responsible Insured Cyclists
Okay, I'll take the keyboard warrior bait!
I got my first BC racing license in 1985 (back then we had a Tour Feminin) and currently live and race in the USA, now holding a USAC license. I race road, track and cyclo-cross, sometimes with women!
You're wrong in believing that BC (or any national body) have any influence on pro-cycling, male or female. The sport is not structured that way; it's why the only time you see pros in a national jersey is the Worlds and Olympics. Is that hard to understand?
I think MaxP is refering to the 10% reduction in prices you get at Halfords if you are a BC member, so really - to be fair - he or she ought to have included boycotting Wiggle seeing as BC members also save 12% on top of Wiggle's already great prices and they also save 40% on the cover price of 'Cycling' magazine subscription and that's hardly being fair to other magazines such as 'Womens Cycling' is it.
I do think more needs to be done for womens cycling, but how much of that is under the influence of BC is debatable. I do think that the massive success of the Friends Life Womens Tour seems to have not been capitalised upon - except by Matrix-Vulpine who are stepping up to pro-level based on their experiences.
It is a shame that ASO feel the need to go to the US for sponsors for the Womens TdF.
I'm talking about the way British Cycling treats there female pro cyclist. Has no one noticed that females get the dregs while male cyclist are treated like kings.
Has no one read articles by female cyclist of there treatment and pay level.
Maybe not! Can't blame people for limited knowledge of female pro cycling, even Road CC hardly refers to any female cycling races or teams, and it's not like anyone would search online regarding female ro cycling events and riders.
Like I say. BC is good at supporting males in pro cycling but abysmal when it comes to female pro cyclist.
Its a fact (which is a downright dreadful fact)
This is going to be quite blunt, no one cares about female cycling, the spectators, the sponsors etc. this may not be the politically correct truth, but it is the reality. You only have to ask why the ASO are looking to the US to find a sponsor for the womens race in France next year, sponsors simply aren't that interested.
No spectators, no sponsors, no coverage, all three are interlinked and BC is a minor part of the problem.
What's the chance of big name sponsors if the race is not going to get broadcast on television?
If BC is all about promoting cycling, why do women get the dregs? You say that no one cares about women pro cycling yet there will be many that disagree with you.
Shame that BC keeps the sexist attitude towards women alive. How do they expect a new generation of women to take part when the pay and treatment is thoroughly shameful.
I know that it's not just the fault of BC the UCI has to shoulder as much of the blame as well. Considering a lot of countries England looks down on manage to support and promote and broad as women's cycling, it says a lot about the so called 'Modern Mindset' of the current people in charge.
It also says a lot about people who dismiss women's cycling because they themselves only have a interest in male cycling
http://prowomenscycling.com/about/
Congratulations on spotting the problem, now do you have a couple of million pounds handy to sponsor a race, buy TV coverage etc.
As said, no spectators, no sponsors and no tv coverage. you can't fix the problem without dealing with ALL three. Also there is only so much money to go round, you can sponsor a womens team or a mens team, most of the money goes where the coverage is, not really surprising that. Where else do you think the money for both is coming from? Also throw into the mix that so many teams are now sponsored by bike companies and you might realise that money is VERY tight. Finally how many spectators want to watch both mens and womens racing? There are only so many hours in the day and days in the year. If you look at the men calendar it is pretty full, now fit in womens racing and where do you put tv coverage?
This isn't meant as anti Womens racing, just with the current system I have real difficulty in seeing how you fit womens races in. This isn't just a cycling problem though. Golf, Soccer,Rugby, etc etc etc. There are very few sports where there is any coverage, let along equal coverage.
Offhand I think tennis is about the only sport where women get the same level of coverage as men. And even there the prize money isn't (quite as) as high.
You show your own "limited knowledge of female pro cycling" when you post comments like this. BC have as much to do with female or male pro cycling as the RAC have with Formula One!
All they or any other national body can do is issue a UCI racing license. Yes, there is a link with Team Sky, but it's not like they can pressurize Sky, or any other sponsor, to run/fund a women's pro team.
How about sitting back a moment and considering that the membership of an organization that works to encourage cycling at all levels where they have influence, has doubled its membership; pretty cool eh?!!
Read some posts, articles, reports from 'Pro Female Cyclist' and amateur female cyclist then explain at which point I am wrong about BC
You have actually read posts from Female Cyclist complaining about the conditions and treatment and not just jumped in as a keyboard warrior right!
I'm a BC member and so are my kids. I know plenty of female BC members and I've no idea what Max is referring to. I'm not sure about the Halfords comment either.
Hats off to BC for building a decent membership. The insurance issue alone is a big plus. For competition cycling BC membership is a necessity, which was why I joined some years back.
I smell codswollop!
As long as your not female, then BC loves you!
Do these so called 'NEW' members include people who have renewed their membership, not via 'Direct Debit'?
BC really needs to get out of bed with Halfords.
I'm not a BC member; I would have no issue with joining and making the membership 100,001, it's just that as I don't race I get the main things I need (e.g. 3rd party insurance, legal support, campaigning) from CTC instead.
I'm really not understanding the point of your post MaxP.
Has BC upset you? Do you feel it's somehow more difficult for women to join?
It's difficult for an organisation to always keep all it's members entirely happy, especially when it has that many members. In general an organisation which encourages more people onto bikes and is growing its membership is not IMO a bad thing.