British Cycling celebrates £10 million invested in cycle sport facilities

With the announcement that Leeds University is to benefit from new cycling facilities, British Cycling’s chief executive has hailed the investment milestone of £10 million spent on cycle sport facilities by the organisation.

Since 2009 and with Sport England’s backing, British Cycling has been able to assist in funding 24 new and refurbished cycle sport facilities, as well as upgrading 7 existing locations. These have been visited some 1.5 million times to date. Sport England Exchequer funding was first awarded directly to national governing bodies in 2009 to support facility developments.

Drake said: “This £10 million investment milestone in facilities is hugely significant, and gives us the opportunity to reflect on just how far our sport has come. In recent years, our elite athletes have excelled on the world stage, providing us with both a challenge and an opportunity – to use their fantastic success to facilitate an increase in participation at grassroots level.

“Thanks to the support we have received from Sport England, we have been able to invest in facility developments across the country, which are enabling people of all ages and abilities to get involved in the sport in safe, traffic-free environments.

“We are also very grateful to the local councils, authorities and organisations which have recognised the benefits of building new – or upgrading existing – cycling facilities. We recognise that there is still work to do in order to create a comprehensive network of facilities, but we will continue to work with Sport England and partner organisations to support projects  which are helping to contribute to not only producing athletes of the future, but making our nation a healthier and more active one.”

The number of closed road circuits in England has risen from 14 in 2009 to 25 today, providing traffic-free environments for both cycle sport and recreational cycling. British Cycling is currently working with partners to complete a further 5 facility projects by March 2017.

The organisation manages the allocation of funding for purpose-built cycle sport facilities for the six cycling disciplines: road, track, BMX, mountain biking, cycle speedway and cyclo-cross.