British Cycling puts plans for women’s trade team on hold

British Cycling has shelved plans to create a professional women’s trade team, with chief executive Julie Harrington questioning whether it makes sense for the national governing body.

Last autumn, at the Bergen Road World Championships, British Cycling’s performance director Stephen Park described plans to create a women’s team with similar founding aims to Team Sky as a “real aspiration”.

Park said it would be good from a performance point of view if the majority of Britain’s brightest female talent could ride for the same team.

Harrington, however, admitted to The Daily Telegraph that no progress had been made – and also suggested that potential conflicts of interest might prove an issue.

Speaking ahead of the Ovo Energy Women’s Tour, Harrington said: “No, we haven’t made any progress. Largely because our focus, probably since we last talked about it, has really been along the lines of ‘Let’s get our own house in order first’. We need to look at every level within the sport, as well as the GBCT [Great Britain Cycling Team].

“In terms of whether it’s the right thing to do or not, I think we need to learn very serious lessons from what happened with Sky. Making sure there aren’t unintended consequences. It is an opportunity. But there is also an opportunity to work a lot more closely with existing trade teams.”

Harrington said that could include encouraging men’s teams such as Sky to fund a women’s outfit, adding: “I’m from a football background. It’s taken Manchester United until this year to get with the programme and have a women’s team as well.

“So, before we run off and make one of our own, we need to explore that whole pyramid.”