Life of Brian 10 - January 2008

British Cycling's President, Brian Cookson begins the New Year dispensing, amongst other things, some much needed common sense on the battle to make cycling safer on the roads in the face of some pretty brainless journalism and a seemingly endless stream of cycling tragedies.

 

Old But Enigmatic?

Well, that's what my wife suggests the letters 'OBE' should stand for...any other ideas please let me know and I'll put the best ones in the next blog (providing they are printable, that is).

But seriously, I want to say a personal thank you to everyone who has sent me letters, cards, e-mails, or texts, or has offered handshakes, continental-style kisses on the cheek (steady...), or given me a cheery wave as we passed on the bike, since I was awarded the OBE in the New Year's Honours List. I've tried to reply to everybody individually, but there have been lots, so if I have missed anyone, I'm sorry.

I've already made some formal remarks in the report that appeared on the website news pages earlier, but I just thought I'd say a few more personal things here in the blog.

Obviously I was pleased to receive the award, though I guess like many of the people on the list, it's not something I've ever sought or worried about myself. But when it happens it's nice. It's nice for everyone around you, because they have supported you in all sorts of ways, have participated in the effort you have put in and thereby they too share the award. And it's nice for you because it's an endorsement of what you have been doing by, in effect, the nation.

It means that people have looked at what you have been doing and assessed it as being important, as having made a difference. It wasn't just some stupid obsession you had about some irrelevant activity that no-one cared about, it was, and is, important to the life of the nation. I hope that doesn't sound too pompous, it isn't meant to be, because I think it really does reflect on the amazing progress that British Cycling has made over the last eleven years. Progress in which so many people have participated. That progress has been noticed and this is one of the ways in which it has been acknowledged.

I have to admit I was a bit stunned when the letter arrived from the Prime Minister's office telling me that he was minded to recommend to Her Majesty the Queen, who may in her gracious discretion, etc, etc. I wanted to tell everyone. But then you read on, and are told that this is all confidential and there will be no further correspondence until the list is published, so you can't tell anyone. You get the impression that if you did start to tell someone, then a squad of crack SAS commandos would come crashing through the window and stun you into silence before you could blurt it out! Or worse, you could tell people and then the Queen might decide you weren't worthy after all. Definitely not worth the risk.

So then you have a waiting period of six weeks or so before you can tell the world or, rather, the world finds out before you, as the list is released to the press, including the local papers and media, who then start to contact you for comment. All rather exciting and definitely ego-boosting, so it's a good job you have the family and friends to keep your feet on the ground!

Not sure yet when I'll be going to the Palace to receive the award, but I'll tell you all about it when I do.

So the main thing is thanks again to everyone, and especially to those people who over the years have been a big help to me, to those who influenced me in my formative years and beyond, and to those who have put so much into British Cycling over so many years. Far, far, too many to name, but you know who you are. Thank you.

Doug Dailey

I was also really, really pleased that Doug Dailey's lifetime achievements and huge contribution to our sport was recognised in the Honours List. When I started cycling in the mid-sixties, Doug was already the "Golden Boy" of cycling, protege of the great Eddie Soens, and achieving fantastic things in international amateur racing. Though we were both Division Road Champions in 1971 (him Merseyside, me Lakeland), on the few occasions when I raced against him, it was clear to me (and everyone else) that he was in a different league altogether, not to say on another planet!

Doug won so many races he made it look easy, including two National Amateur Road Race titles, and one at Veteran level too. I remember riding the Leyland Grand Prix in 1971, when Doug and others set a frantic pace from the gun, blowing out half the field within the first lap (or in my case the first quarter lap). Later that year I rode the Raleigh-Dunlop Tour of Ireland which Doug won - my strongest memory is of finishing the notorious Gap of Mamore stage so far behind Doug and the rest of the field that by the time I got to the finish everyone was in the after-stage banquet.

The next year the Leyland event was the National Championship and, not being good enough to secure a place in the field myself, I had blagged the job of lead car announcer. I remember looking back and seeing Doug applying the coup de grace to Phil Griffiths with a mile or so to go, after the two of them had been the survivors of a virtual race-long break. Doug came home up Longmeanygate Lane that day as a very, very popular winner in front of a huge crowd, just a few miles from his Merseyside home.

Later, Doug became our National Coach in the pre-Lottery years and achieved many great things in a far more challenging financial climate than we have today. Not least was the role he played in Great Britain's first Olympic Gold medal for 76 years - Chris Boardman's fabulous performance in the pursuit at Barcelona. I was lucky enough to be at the trackside that night as one of the UCI Commissaires, and I'll never forget it. In my view it was the beginning of the modern era for us.

Then more recently Doug has become the epitome of the "backroom staff", sorting out the many logistical and organisational challenges that the modern era has brought us.

Of course all the above is a very truncated version of a long career in cycling, and I hope Doug or perhaps some enterprising author will do it greater justice in the fullness of time. Meanwhile, I am proud to know Doug and proud that he has been such a major contributor to our organisation and our sport over so many years.

So, the plan unfolds

A couple of years ago, when I said there would be a British Tour de France winner within twenty years, there were those who thought it was worthy of some scorn.

Last year, when we first started to discuss the possibility of a professional road team based around what we were doing as a national federation there was, again, some scepticism. Since then, circumstances have moved on considerably, and we now have the first major step in that direction - the establishment of the Halfords women's team, with two associated male riders.

Make no mistake, the Women's team is a vital and essential entity in its own right and will take even further the progress made in women's racing, led by the phenomenon that is Nicole Cooke. That is how it should be. I am certain it will be successful and that it will raise the profile of women's cycling. Those are the primary objectives of the initiative. I think there are several other women in the team who will surprise a lot of people this year, including of course the excellent Emma Pooley, on the occasions when she is drafted in to join the team.

Exactly when and how a parallel initiative will develop into a men's road team competing at the highest level remains to be seen, of course. There are one or two more planets to come into alignment, perhaps more, it all depends. It may have to wait until after the big objective of the 2012 London Olympics. On the other hand it may come before. Don't bet on it not being sooner.

It will happen. And I tell you what, I'll put my head up even higher above the parapet, twenty years is too long. I reckon we'll have one or more serious contenders for the men's Tour de France within ten years. OK, I'm hedging my bets a bit, because you can never guarantee anything in elite sport, but I have not the slightest doubt it will happen.

More tragedy on the roads

I picked up the terrible news about Jason MacIntyre's death from the internet browser on my mobile phone on the way down to a meeting in London with the BOA Executive. The people there had also heard and were as stunned as I was, asking to pass on their condolences. How could this terrible thing have happened, they asked? Sadly I had to tell them that it was not a unique occurrence. It seems almost every week there is some tragedy involving death or serious injury when a cyclist is hit by a vehicle.

I do not know the circumstances yet which led to Jason's death, and I'm presuming there will be a court case and a claim for compensation, so I cannot comment on the actual incident. You will notice however that I do not use the word 'accident'.

It seems to me that the basic problem in all these matters is that too many drivers simply don't take their responsibilities seriously. They don't think about other road users and don't feel they have any duty of care towards them. They regard themselves as being in some sort of battle zone in which their own protection is their only responsibility. Manufacturers encourage this by surrounding them with air bags, reinforced safety cages and so on, none of which does any good for the poor cyclist or pedestrian who might inconveniently get in the way.

I don't know how we can change these patterns of behaviour. I don't think there are any magic solutions. Lots of other people have come up with all sorts of ideas, many of which seem quite sound. For what its worth, here are my contributions.

One thing we could do is to stop glorifying those who break the law by giving them free publicity on television shows like 'Police, Camera, Action'. These programmes seem to be all over the satellite and cable channels these days, and whilst they give lip service to road safety and the consequences of the stupidity of the drivers they feature, they do so with a macho sort of commentary that the people featured must love. Rather than being shamed, these idiots probably keep the videos of their misadventures as proof of their status amongst their mates.

A few days ago, the BBC broadcast a programme about the "battle" on Britain's roads between pedestrians, cyclists and vehicles. Again, macho language, encouraging the attitude that it's a tough world out there and you've got to get them before they get you. Of course there is only ever going to be one winner when flesh and bones are hit by a ton or more of metal.

Sadly, though, a sizeable proportion of cyclists, or rather people on bikes, featured in this programme seemed to think that it was acceptable to ride straight across red lights at junctions or on pedestrian crossings, with hardly a second glance. Frankly these people cause me to despair. Can't they see that for every motorist or pedestrian that sees them disregarding the rules of the road in this way, they give them the excuse, consciously or perhaps even subconsciously, for doing the same thing in any situation involving a cyclist?

Of course drivers break the law all the time, that doesn't make it right. And it doesn't make it right for cyclists to break the law either. Didn't their mothers teach them that two wrongs don't make a right? Didn't they ever do the Cycling Proficiency Test? Well of course I know the answer to that last question is probably no, since the system was allowed to lapse many years ago. But the pathetic attempts at justification by the "cyclists" caught were feeble and embarrassing. A red traffic light does not mean "carry on if you think it is probably OK and you are prepared to take a risk and don't care about pedestrians". It means "Stop". You idiots.

Even more upsetting though, was the case of the poor young woman riding perfectly safely up a London street who was crushed to death by a concrete mixer lorry. CCTV clearly showed the sequence of events. The lorry clearly overtook her and turned in front of her, trapping her beneath its wheels. Astonishingly, it was reported that when the case came to court the magistrate considered that the woman had been in the driver's "blind spot". What nonsense! He came from behind. She must have been clearly visible in his windscreen, if he was looking. If there was any blind spot it was the magistrate's.

And then we have the latest of the Clarkson-style "journalists" with their "amusing" anti-cyclist rhetoric. Over Christmas, The Times columnist Matthew Parris suggested a new tradition of putting up cheese wires to decapitate cyclists because he believes we scatter energy drink bottles and other debris in the roadside verges near his Derbyshire home. Oh, my aching sides. Good festive fun. Laugh? I almost did.

There were hundreds of complaints and he was forced to apologise. He was only joking he said, claiming he had been misjudged. To see if you think he should be let off the hook that easily, try deleting the word "cyclists" from that sentence and substituting, well, just about any other group of people you can think of. There are several I can think of that would get you put behind bars for a while, and quite right too. Here's a message for Matthew and his employers; I won't be buying The Times for a while, and next time I hear Matthew's voice on the radio, I'll be switching off.

Closer to home, the moron who knocked down one of British Cycling's valued Coaching Officers, Simon Doughty, leaving him with serious injuries that have left him unable to work, has finally come to court. This person has at least received a prison sentence and a driving ban. Neither were long enough in my opinion, but at least the culprit was brought to some form of justice, after the gutless drongo drove away from the scene of the accident.

So what can we learn from all this?

That we need Governments now and in the future to take this whole issue much more seriously and start doing practical things to change motorists' behaviour.

That we need to do a lot more to educate drivers about the dangers of their behaviour.

That we as drivers need to take responsibility for the safety of everybody else on the roads, not just ourselves.

That we as cyclists need to take care on the roads, certainly, and that part of this means respecting the law and the rules of the road whether we like them or not.

That we need a lot more spending on cycle lanes and safe routes for cyclists.

That we need to get children riding bikes to school again, so that they have experience of what it is like to be on a bike, that they take with them through the rest of their lives. To this end we have just secured additional funding from Cycling England and the Department for Transport to expand our Go-Ride programme to train young people to ride to schools. It is something that the kids and schools we work with have been wanting for a while and it's great that we now have the support to do something about it.

Of course this is not a comprehensive and considered solution. These are just a few of my thoughts on a day when a tragedy is at the front of my mind.

World Track Championships

On a happier note, we are now just a few weeks away from the World Track Championships at the National Cycling Centre, Manchester Velodrome. This is your chance to see our greatest track stars up against the best in the world, as they attempt to equal or better last year's amazing medal haul of seven Golds. Of course this year is extra special - not only are we at home, but these are the final qualifiers for the Olympic Games and possibly your final chance to see most of our team before they compete in Beijing in August. Don't miss it. Tickets are on sale now, but they are running out fast.

I'll see you there!

Everyday Cycling and the exclusion of Recreation cycling from the new definition of Sport

Since the DCMS outlined their new vision for Sport England in December, which would have excluded recreational cycling and our Everyday Cycling initiative from funding going forward, there has been much ongoing discussion and activity to rectify the situation. It's become a big issue for everyone and, along with our direct discussions with the DCMS and Ministers, the support and actions from many of our members has been extremely welcomed and appreciated and it is making a difference.

 

Discussions are moving forward now in a positive way and since Everyday Cycling was launched we have seen a growth in membership by 47%, increased the number of events and participants in events by 22% and 56% respectively and increased the number of licence holders by 35%. On the back of this growth, it's clear to everyone that Everyday Cycling is a critical stepping stone into the sport for an increasing number of people and I think everyone is realising that it would be pretty silly to now stop it given the contribution it's making to growing participation in the sport.

And finally?

If you have any comments on any of the above, or there are any other topics you'd like me to cover, please don't hesitate to let me know via info@britishcycling.org.uk. Next time I'll try and do a piece on your feedback.

Brian.