Obstacles block hunt for next Nicole Cooke

They returned from Britain’s most successful Olympic Games in 100 years as heroes, garlanded with medals, to inspire thousands to get on their bikes. But now cycling is facing up to the home truths of a bureaucracy that seems determined to block the progress of a new generation of champions.
For the message that has gone out from government ministers encouraging families on to their bikes to take up a sport in which Britain leads the world has not yet reached the corridors of officialdom.
Amateurs should have been taking to the roads in droves this weekend, with many youngsters hoping to emulate the success of Nicole Cooke, the world and Olympic road race champion, and Mark Cavendish, rated as the world’s fastest man on the road racing circuit, who has lit up the Giro d’Italia this month with his raw speed.
But a lack of police co-operation and bureaucratic obstacles erected by the Highways Agency are taking their toll of the sort of events in which Cooke and Cavendish learnt their trade. Four of 12 scheduled amateur tour events this year have been cancelled, including the Tour of Wessex road race, which was to have taken place on Bank Holiday Monday.
Although a fun cycle event will go ahead, plans for the road race were scrapped after police wanted about £140,000 to provide and train motor-cycle outriders.
“Nicole Cooke and Mark Cavendish started their careers in these kind of events,” Nicholas Bourne, director of Pendragon Sports, the organiser of the Tour of Wessex, said. “But where will the new riders get their experience? Sport for the grass roots is organised by volunteers but there is no encouragement, just these blockages.
“We simply wanted to encourage cycling by bringing a national event to the West Country. Somerset County Council were right behind it, even sponsoring the event. But then the Highways Agency stepped in and the police wanted us to pay for training motorcycle outriders for almost a week before the event. The result is that we couldn’t go ahead.”
The timing of cycling’s problems could not be more frustrating. Membership of British Cycling has jumped by 10,000 in three years to more than 25,000, cycling for pleasure is enjoying an unprecedented boom and there are ambitious plans to launch a road race team next year, possibly with Cavendish leading a strong line-up of British racers to spearhead an assault on the Tour de France.
While praise is heaped on British Cycling, Peter King, the executive director, who established the organisation as a world leader in little more than a decade, fears that the messages from Government for Britain to get on its collective bike fall on deaf ears in the boardrooms of officials who are responsible for giving the green light to events around the country.
“These road races put on by volunteers all over the country are the lifeblood of the sport,” he said. “They are the feeder system for our Olympic champions. We listen to the encouraging words of ministers and agree with them, but it is difficult to square that with what is actually happening.
“The Olympic team have brought thousands of people into cycling but they need to be encouraged, not put off. It is time to think through what exactly we want to do about cycling.”
The Tour Series will begin tomorrow, although the events will be limited to city streets easily controlled and closed off and will be exclusive to professional riders. Milton Keynes hosts the first of the series, featuring Olympians such as Ed Clancy, Chris Newton and Rob Hayles, before the tour moves on to nine other venues, including Exeter, Woking and Blackpool.
Gerry Sutcliffe, the Sports Minister, has promised to get cycle racing back on the roads, while British Cycling is training dozens of volunteers who can help to marshal roads. But it is too late for the Tour of Wessex and other events that are the victims of the sort of bureaucratic roadblock that could cost Britain medals at the Olympics.
Source:The times