British Cycling

PROJECT CHINA UPDATE

Many of you will already be aware of Project China, British Cycling's ambitious plan to overhaul the racing and competitive cycling scene in the UK - for details of the original brief, see lower down this page. The latest meeting of the PC workgroup was held last week and to keep you up to date with the group's activities, here a few of the items discussed. We'll be keeping you uin touch with more from the group over the coming weeks and months.

PROJECT CHINA MEETING DEC 2003

A new competition is to be launched in 2003 following the UCI 4X format. The new national series will consist of 5 events and organisers are already identified. A paper detailing the series will be prepared and a press release issued in January.
The possibility of formalising a summer series of cyclo-cross events to produce competition and revenues all year round was discussed. There are already some events but only locally. A paper will be prepared.
A new national series for 4th category Road riders will be specified along the lines of the Surrey League format of groups of 10 contesting 4 short events of 8-12 km. The first five move into next round with the other 5 moving into a losers race.
The meeting was told that agreement had been reached with 10 organisers to hold a national criterium series in 2003. It was agreed that selection criteria would be defined for the 2004 series.
A UK Premier Division concept was discussed and the ‘blueprint’ for the league to be completed by early in 2003 for consultation with teams and divisions.
A special type of event to attract Time triallists/ Triathletes was discussed and a format along the lines of the cross country skiing pursuit race was proposed: an individual time trial of between 20 and 25 km., followed by a handicap or reverse handicap based on the times for the ITT. Competitors could draft and work together to pull back the leaders. Plans were to be prepared to run a trial event in 2003.
Preparations for wider consultation with riders, organisers, officials etc are ongoing

PROJECT CHINA: THE FUTURE OF CYCLE SPORT IN THE UK
British Cycling is to undertake a far-reaching review of cycling's competition structure in the UK. Christened "Project China", the review embraces the whole of competition cycling from elite level racing through to mass participation and grass-roots events.

Project China is so named because it aims to ensure that the competition structure of cycling in the UK is able to create a base of competition by the Beijing (China) Olympics of 2008, which will guarantee that Great Britain is the number one cycling nation in the world by 2012, a consistent long-term goal of the organisation. The revised structure will be expected to make cycling Britain's fastest growing competitive sport by 2006.

A team of British Cycling staff will be driving the project forward under the chairmanship of Stuart Hallam, of the organisation's Executive Board.

Project China: Scope
The project will consider all aspects of competition, including but not limited to, Road Racing, Circuit Racing, Track Racing, UCI-style Time Trialling, MTB, Cyclo-Cross, BMX And Cycle Speedway. The competition structure of all age and ability groups will be reviewed and every attempt will be made to dovetail them into the activities of Start and Great Britain Cycling Team.

Project China: Phasing
The project will have two distinct phases: Phase 1 will run from 12th November 2002 to 31st March 2003). During this time, the project team will analyse the strengths and weaknesses in the current structure using a programme of consultation with competitive cyclists (both BC members and non-members), BC divisions, Organisers and other cycling bodies. Former national track manager, Heiko Salzwedel will be working with the project team and will lead analysis of best practice in other countries, in particular France, Germany, Belgium and Australia.

The Team will then create a blueprint of an alternative structure for presentation to Divisions and organisers by 29th February 2003. Finally, they will plan to pilot a defined set of new competitions during the 2003 season and plan the roll-out for the 2004 season.

Phase 2 will run from 1st April 2003 to 30th September 2003. During this phase, the aim will be to review and amend the Phase 1 plan in the light of the pilot scheme experience and complete the implementation of the project outcome for the 2004 calendar in consultation with all parties.

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