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Reaction To The Results Of Sport England's Active People Survey
Posted: 17 December 2009
Following the release of the results of Sport England's Active People Survey (link: Sport England's release), Ian Drake, CEO of British Cycling welcomed the findings:
"We are delighted with the results of the 2008 - 2009 Active People Survey, published today by Sport England, which shows a significant rise in the number of people participating in cycling over the past 12 months.
Thousands of cyclists on the Mall - The Mayor of London's Skyride
"At the beginning of this year we set ourselves the target of getting 125,000 more people cycling at least once a week by 2013. Today we have almost reached this target three years ahead of schedule with 113,000 more people cycling at least once a week (total of 1.88 million) in the first six months of our 2009 - 2013 Whole Sport Plan.
"Our vision to inspire participation in cycling through achieving worldwide success is clearly working as our athletes continue delivering impressive performances and establishing themselves as sporting role models.
"Our success in the 2008 Beijing Olympic and Paralympic Games has prompted a new wave of interest in cycling and we expect it to continue growing as we look ahead to London 2012 and as Team Sky competes at the top level of international road racing from 2010.
"Earlier this year we launched a major intervention, with the backing of Sport England and our principal partner British Sky Broadcasting, aimed at harnessing our elite success to deliver grassroots results and today's figures show we are succeeding in getting more people on their bikes.
"The Skyride initiative of mass participation cycling events across Britain's major cities, fronted by British Cycling athletes, attracted over 100,000 participants throughout the summer 2009 and we look forward to building on the success of the programme in the years to come.
"Critical to our success in 2009 has been our whole sport approach and the unique alignment of public and private sector funding and expertise which has enabled us to be effective and efficient in what we do.
"Together with UK Sport, Sport England and British Sky Broadcasting, our principal partner, we are working towards one vision for cycling - to deliver the single biggest sporting and physical activity legacy of London 2012.
"We will continue to evolve, develop and expand our programmes in 2010 to ensure we maximise the return on investment for our key partners and be the first sport to replicate its high level of elite success in terms of wider participation.
"I am confident that, with the continued backing of our partners, we will further broaden the appeal of cycling over the next three years and make our sport an elite and grassroots success story."
