WHAT WILL HAPPEN IN THE UK?
While fans are holding their breath for the beginning of the rescheduled continental racing calendar, starting with Strade Bianche on Saturday (1 August), things have been a lot less cut and dried in the UK.
Glyn Durrant of the Surrey Cycle Racing League (SCRL) said it would take a month between being told a race could go ahead, to actually getting organised to put one on. At the time of writing, British Cycling was anticipating an 1 August resumption of regional racing, with national level competition resuming on 1 September. Details were still sketchy, but the plan was for closed circuit racing to begin first.
“People can see kind of a date, the beginning of August, when things might start to happen. But we’re only a month away from that,” Durrant said when we spoke to him at the start of July. “If we’re going to start then, we need to know right now. If it’s another two weeks, then it’s going to be the middle of August. You know, or it could be the beginning of September.”
Speaking at the beginning of July, Nick Sharpe of Cycling Time
Trials said that some police forces weren’t even accepting notice of racing for the future while gatherings of more than six are banned, which was proving an extra hurdle to overcome. Both open and club time trials have since been given the go-ahead following a pair of successful ‘demonstration’ events hosted by Newbury Velo cycling club – although that in itself doesn’t signal a packed calendar of races.
Both men also suggested that sourcing sufficient volunteers to run events could be a problem, as they often tend to be older and thus more vulnerable to Covid-19.
“Cycling Time Trials has sent out a message saying the younger people need to step up if they want events, because if those in the vulnerable category can’t help out, you’re going to have to help,” Sharpe said.
Durrant added: “They’re the important ones. And if we can’t get them, you know, they’re mainly the older generation. And we can’t keep them safe. There’s no point in starting either road races or time trials.”