British Cycling extends suspension on sanctioned cycling activities to 30 June
Many of you will have already seen our statement from earlier today, where we confirmed that the suspension of all sanctioned cycling activity has been extended until 30 June, and in light of this, I wanted to reach out to you all personally.
These exceptional times have required us to take exceptional action, but I am certain that the character of our membership is up to the challenge. Therefore I am asking you today to join in me in three tasks:
Firstly, we must all do what we can to protect the health and wellbeing of everyone on a bike. That means all organised club activity must stop – from group rides to coaching sessions. It also means that whenever we go out on our bikes, we must remember our duty to ride responsibly. Following Government advice, right now we should only ride on our own, or with people we live with, and always keep two metres apart.
Secondly, we must do all we can to help those around us – and I have been inspired in recent days by stories about bike shops, clubs or just individuals who have put cycling to the service of their communities.
Thirdly, we must join together so that cycling can emerge from this with strength. Whether you’re a rider, club official, coach, event organiser, ride leader or a business owner, you’ll have felt the effect of the last few weeks. We are well aware of the challenges that our sport was facing before this situation took hold, and I know that – while the world as a whole is now facing a new challenge – the worries that we had before will have been added to, rather than replaced by, the Coronavirus outbreak.
Now, more than ever, I’d like to reiterate our commitment to you, as the people who ensure our sport continues to function. We’ll face the challenges head on, and together.
With that in mind, I’m sure you’ll understand that extending our suspension was simply the only course of action we could take to ensure that cycling plays its part in the nationwide effort to mitigate both the spread of the virus and the burden on our stretched emergency and public services.
At the moment, I can’t give an end date to this situation. All I can do is reassure you that between now and that day in the future when some form of normality returns, British Cycling will be working with Scottish and Welsh Cycling on your behalf to ensure that our sport can still thrive.
Following Government guidance, our staff are working remotely, but are on hand to answer any questions you may have about the continuing situation. Our most recent guidance is also available here. The team at Scottish Cycling are available to support and can be contacted here.
Those of you who run businesses in cycling will likely have seen the Chancellor’s announcements on economic aid. I want to reassure you we are working now with the respective home countries Government to interpret this for our sport and we will get more information to you.
In a matter of days we created the British Cycling Race Series in partnership with Zwift and we hope to announce further ways for you to stay involved in the coming weeks. If you’re looking for ideas to keep your kids entertained remember our HSBC UK Ready Set Ride series of activities.
None of us have experienced this before, and none of us have all of the answers at the moment. I would encourage all members of our community to share not only concerns, but best practice, messages of hope and encouragement over these coming weeks.
However, what I can say is that even this crisis will pass. I look forward to celebrating with all of you when it does and the first rider pins on a race number, the first HSBC UK Breeze ride sets off and the first BMX gate crashes down.
Yours sincerely,
Julie Harrington, CEO