National Championships cancelled due to coronavirus
Mass-start events too problematic in current climate, writes Jonny Long
British Cycling has cancelled the National Series and National Championships in road, mountain biking, BMX and cycle speedway due to the disruption caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
With racing at National Series and National Championships level currently suspended until 1 September, the governing body said it was not feasible to hold any events that would have taken place in the spring or summer following consultation with teams and event organisers.
The UCI has confirmed current national road champions Ben Swift, Alice Barnes and Alex Dowsett will therefore be allowed to continue wearing their national champion jerseys until the next editions are held.
As for regional-level racing, which is currently suspended until 1 August, British Cycling does not currently believe there is a case to extend this suspension, and will be looking to reintroduce certain disciplines’ competitions at the earliest opportunity.
These disciplines include BMX, cycle speedway, track, circuit racing, road time trials, cyclo-cross, and cross-country and gravity mountain biking. Crucially, this list does not include road racing.
“We are keenly aware that road racing is the passion of a great number of our members,” BC said. “While we were able to reintroduce small club rides on 18 June, we believe there are particular challenges when it comes to reintroducing this discipline as well as other mass-start events on the public highway, including sportives.”
These concerns include the impact on the communities where races were supposed to take place, as well as the size of fields taking part and the support required by emergency services. BC says it believes that when mass-start road events do return, they will do so on closed circuits to begin with.
British Cycling integrity and compliance director Rod Findlay said it was a decision that had not been taken lightly: “After several months of exploring alternatives and discussions with the relevant authorities, today we have made the difficult decision to formally cancel all National Series and National Championship events in the disciplines of road, cross-country, downhill and 4X mountain biking, BMX and cycle speedway.
“This is not a decision we ever wanted to make; however, in the interests of providing clarity and certainty to our teams, riders and event organisers we believe it is the correct one. I’m pleased to say that the organisers who were to host events in 2020 will retain them for 2021.
“Our team is now working hard to lay the groundwork for resuming regional-level activity, and we remain hopeful that we will see some competitive racing next month.”
He added that plans for the “winter programme” of events were “going well”.