Cycling chiefs who sanitised bullying report face the chop

THE British Cycling board members accused of ‘sanitising’ an internal report into bullying and discrimination allegations will effectively be removed when a new set of reforms is voted on at an extraordinary general meeting next month. The constitutional changes, being brought in so that the governing body complies with the new code for sports governance that was instigated by the Government in March, will also mean British Cycling’s new chairman, Jonathan Browning, has to step down and re-apply for what will now be an independent position should he wish to continue. Sportsmail understands July 22 has been pencilled in for the EGM after a series of regional meetings and it will lead to a major overhaul of an organisation that came under fire from MPs earlier this year over a series of scandals. When it emerged that British Cycling’s doctor had not kept a record of medication administered to Sir Bradley Wiggins in June 2011 after being couriered by a coach in a jiffy bag, a parliamentary committee concluded that the credibility of British Cycling — and Team Sky — was ‘in tatters’. But in March Sportsmail also revealed the contents of a draft report of the independent review into British Cycling. Most damning was the claim that the findings of an internal investigation into allegations made by Jess Varnish about the then technical director, Shane Sutton, had been ‘sanitised’. Board members were accused of ‘reversing’ the original findings of their own grievance officer, Alex Russell and the board’s handling of the controversy was branded ‘inept’. The reforms being forced by the new code of governance do, however, mean the majority of those who are likely to come under fire when the final independent report is published — June 14 is a possible date — will be gone from British Cycling by November. Terms of office will in future be limited to a maximum of three three-year spells, which six of the seven England-based board members already seem to exceed.