British Cycling launch recruitment drive for performance director

British Cycling says it has begun the process of recruiting a performance director for the Great Britain Cycling Team, a position that has remained vacant since the departure of Sir Dave Brailsford in 2014.

In a statement released today, the governing body said that supported by UK Sport, the government agency that provides most of its finding via National Lottery money, it had appointed Positive Dynamics to recruit for the position.

It said that the appointment “is a part of the Tokyo strategy submitted to UK Sport in February and will enable the Great Britain Cycling Team to build upon the success the team enjoyed this year and provide greater support to performance staff and athletes.”

According to British Cycling, “an initial scoping exercise” will be followed “by an open recruitment process and further updates will follow in due course.”

The news suggests that if Shane Sutton, who resigned as technical director in April, were to become involved with the team again, he would not have overall control of the national team.

Sutton, who had worked beneath Brailsford prior to the latter’s departure to focus exclusively on Team Sky, resigned in April after allegations of bullying and discrimination were made against him.

Those allegations are being investigated by a panel set up by UK Sport that is due to report this month. The Australian, who has testified to the panel, is confident his name will be cleared.

> Shane Sutton appears before British Cycling review panel

 After Team GB’s dominant performance in the velodrome in Rio this summer, several of the country’s gold medal-winning track cyclists including Ed Clancy and Joanna Rowsell-Shand attributed their success to Sutton and said they would welcome his return.

Following Sutton’s departure, the national team has been overseen by programmes director Andy Harrison. British Cycling say he “will remain in overall charge until a performance director is appointed.”