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2012 British Cycling Annual Report

2012 British Cycling Annual Report

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British Cycling's annual report is a detailed look back at the organisation's activites, with in-depth reports from each major area of the business, compilations of winners and medallists, plus key financial details. It's available as a download.

 

Download: 2012 Annual Report (4MB PDF file)

And to give you a taste of the content and some of the themes of the last 12 months, here's British Cycling President Brian Cookson's foreword to the publication:

PRESIDENT'S FOREWORD

When I think about how successful the last 12 months has been for British Cycling I have to pinch myself. For the first time in our history we have a British winner of the Tour de France in Bradley Wiggins CBE and once again our Olympic and Paralympic athletes have been the success stories of a great British summer. It gives me a huge sense of pride to be President at a time when British Cycling and cycling is truly flourishing and becoming one of the nation’s leading and most popular sports.

Bradley’s achievement at the Tour de France was a truly sensational effort and a defining moment for our sport. About six or seven years ago I made a famous quote that a British rider could win the Tour in the next 20 years - and it was subject to some derision and scepticism from the wider cycling
community. How wrong they were!

It seems only yesterday that we were celebrating our first World Champion on the road for 46 years with Mark Cavendish’s (MBE) triumph at last year’s Road World Championships, and Dave Brailsford CBE and his coaching team must take huge credit for having worked tirelessly since then to ensure that it was just one of many accolades that our sport won on its way to achieving greatness this year.

The fact that I have barely even mentioned the word Olympics or Paralympics yet is testimony to what an unbelievable year it has been.

Our run of medals started with a gutsy and courageous ride by Lizzie Armitstead in the women’s road race to achieve her silver medal. Lizzie is a great example of the talent that can come up through the ranks from her beginnings on our Go-Ride programme.

The next day, and just ten days after he won the toughest race on the planet, Bradley did it again, not
just beating but outclassing the best in the world to win a seventh Olympic medal, his fourth gold - a truly
amazing record.

How do you pick a highlight from such a wonderful Olympics?

Newspapers, broadcasters and websites have been full of eulogies to Sir Chris Hoy and Victoria Pendleton MBE after another wonderful Olympics, and rightly so. But for me, the emergence of the likes of Laura Trott, Jason Kenny MBE and Annie Last is a sign that we have got things right as a sport - that our talent pathways have been working well, and that whatever happens in the future we have a system that can find, support and develop gold medal winning stars of the future.

To follow the success of the Olympians was no easy task, but we never doubted that our para-cyclists would come up with the goods. Over the course of a fortnight Sarah Storey OBE took an unbelievable four gold medals on the road and the track, and is now the most decorated British Paralympian alongside Baronness Tanni Grey-Thompson DBE.

Sarah’s performance was just one of a number of highlights during the Paralympics. Mark Colbourne, who only joined the team in June 2011, smashed the world record in the C1 Individual Pursuit to take gold, and added a further two silver medals to his tally. I must also mention the courageous performance of Jon-Allan Butterworth.

Jon-Allan took three silver medals in what was his first ever Paralympic Games and, alongside many of our cyclists and para-cyclists, is another star of the future.

The legacy of our success at the Olympic and Paralympics Games is already beginning to have a huge effect. Our membership is soaring and we’re continuing to offer people of all ages
and abilities a pathway into our sport, no matter how and where they want to ride a bike.

It gives me great satisfaction to see British Cycling continuing to inspire people of all generations to get into cycling, and the number of people now out either watching events or riding their bike, is testament to the hard work of everyone involved in the sport.

On that basis I’d personally like to say a massive thank you to our partners Sport England, UK Sport and Sky, and all our clubs, Regions and members, who are at the heart of everything we’re trying to achieve. And a huge thanks, of course, to the many, many volunteers around the country who make our sport happen.


Download: 2012 Annual Report (4MB PDF file)