I've had a couple of emails from British Cycling regarding the Tour of Britain. The content is strangely similar to that of a set of emails between Richard Atkins and Paul Buxton from Sport England. These can be found here on the Campaign for an English Parliament. I think they may be talking to each other.
Thank you for the extra information. I understand where you are coming from this and I understand that it isn't an issue for you. I believe it should be. As I said, it is a matter of patriotism and pride. If I watch a cycling event I want to support my own team, England. I am not alone in this respect. Tour of Britain is, I admit, being made a scapegoat in some respects but it is a high profile event and it is a natural focus for peoples frustration.
Can I ask why you think it is reasonable for Scotland and Wales to have a team but not England? Forget all about funding and the historical inconsistency - why should England, 5/6ths of the population of the UK, be unrepresented in the field of cycling? I just want your personal opinion, not the official line.
Please don't take this personally.
Thanks.
-------Original Message-------
From: Philip Ingham
Date: 06/04/05 20:54:50
To: Stuart Parr
Subject: RE: English cycling team
Stuart
no need to be "blunt". Your zeal is admirable, but perhaps I can fill you in a little on the structure of cycling, the way representative teams are picked, and the nature of the races they take part in.
The funding issue, which I mentioned before, sits alongside the socio-historic context. Many sports have, in this country, developed over the years in somewhat illogical ways. Some have developed along home nation lines - football being a good example.Although even here the inconsistencies and idiosyncrasies bubble up immediately: at a domestic league level, whilst there is a Scottish team and a Scottish league (including English side Berwick) and a Welsh team, the top Welsh club sides participate in what is essentially an English league.
Cricketers have the odd situation where there is a full-blown Scotland team, yet being a part of it does not preclude players from playing for England. Meanwhile Wales has a cricket team, which (unlike Scotland) does not represent the nation in ICC (international) tournaments and on the few occasions it does turn out consists almost exclusively of players from the Glamorgan county side, irrespective of their Welsh heritage (Aussies have represented Wales in recent years). England, meanwhile, has been represented by Scots and Welsh alike, in some cases including players who have represented Wales or Scotland. This is all the result of the way the sport has developed over the years.
In Athletics, cycling, swimming and rowing, athletes have tended to represent GB as the world governing body (the UCI) have always recognised our country as Great Britain - as indeed does the IOC. Again, the context is an historic one. Going back to football, the international governing body recognises the home nations separately. These two stances seem completely at odds, yet they exist.
This strange inconsistency becomes even more complex when the Commonwealth Games come along. They are, for most sports involved, the only regular opportunity for their athletes to represent their "home" nations - England, Scotland, Wales etc - but adding further levels of intrigue, Jersey, Isle of Man etc also get to put out their own teams, despite being regarded as part of England in almost all other contexts.
The reason I goon at this length is to make it clear that the way sports' representative teams have evolved has no grounding in logic, or consistency.
Returning to cycling, the appearances of England, Wales and Scotland teams are few and far between. The only true appearances of "Elite" (in the sense of truly world class) representative teams in home nation colours in cycling is in the Commonwealth games (i.e. every 4 years). However, the athletes - who, because of their elite status, are funded by UK Sport, and regard themselves as part of the GB Team on a day to day basis - continue to share coaching and other support services throughout the Commonwealth Games just as they would if they were representing GB. GB being their "national" representative opportunity for almost every other event.
The Tour of Britain is itself - amidst this sea of inconsistency - something of a sporting oddity: it is the only race of its kind run in the UK (a world governing body sanctioned stage race) and is largely contested by international "trade" teams - in other words teams under the banner of a sponsor, and generally featuring riders from a number of nations. The Welsh, Scottish and GB teams which appear in it are generally contrived combines which will not see the light of day at any other time of the year. The best riders of all the home nations are likely to be riding for "Trade" teams within the event, or other concurrent events elsewhere in the world. The home nation and GB teams are therefore made up of largely "up and coming" younger riders who are unlikely to feature in the leading positions in the race, but who are gaining valuable experience and showcasing themselves to the "Trade" teams.
Such is the one-off nature of the race, that the Welsh and Scottish teams which appear in this year's race are unlikely to be similar to those put out by those nations in the 2006 Commonwealth Games.
This is the context in which is is somewhat futile to argue that the absence of an England team is in some way discriminatory. The Wales and Scotland teams will, as I said, almost certainly not appear in their Tour of Britain forms again this year and the GB Team likewise will bear no resemblance to the GB team which will contest the World Road Championships later in the year. All three are brought together for the one race and their riders will spend the majority of the rest of their seasons riding for domestic teams, lower level international trade teams and within the GB Team framework. For the riders, their ambitions will probably be to represent GB at the World Championships or get themselves into a better international "Trade" team.
Although Scotland and Wales receive funding to develop grass-roots athletes and up and coming talent, they do so by using the exact same programmes that the English riders access through British Cycling. When they reach senior elite status, their funding can only realistically come from "trade" (i.e. sponsored) teams or through the GB Team set-up. For all the riders, be they Welsh, Scottish or English, the opportunities to access governing body funding are not just similar, they are pretty much identical.
So, to summarise, the Tour of Britain, although high profile, is an event in which the home-nation representation is, in the context of the opportunities an athlete has to gain funding and develop their career, completely irrelevant. Ask almost any road racing cyclist what their main ambitions are and they will probably be something like
1) get myself into an international Trade team and therefore into the best races (where weak nation-representative teams only appear to "fill" places not claimed by other Trade teams).
2) win a medal in the World Championships (where they have to ride as GB)
3) win an Olympic medal (where again they will ride for a GB team)
Looking at the wider issue of equity, all sports are now required to fulfil a range of equity criteria, encouraging the offering of equal opportunities to all ages, sexes, races and to people with disability. Equity is therefore something which cycling, like all sports, is committed to, dedicated to and it is something we are held accountable for by the sports councils and ultimately the government. Until the government decides that discrimination against the English is an issue to stand alongside those of race, sex, disability and age, it won't be on the agenda of sports bodies in this country.
You are essentially making a political point and as such, would it not be logical to start by entering the political arena. The sporting arena in the UK is, as I have said, riddled with inconsistencies, but these do not and can not extend to equal opportunities. You are pinning your campaign onto a single event which, as I have pointed out, is itself completely unrepresentative of how the rest of its sport is run in this country.
I admire your strength of feeling and tenacity and I hope I've helped you to understand the situation a little better.
Regards
Phil Ingham
-----Original Message-----
From: Stuart Parr [mailto:stuart.parr@blueyonder.co.uk]
Sent: 04 June 2005 13:08
To: Philip Ingham
Subject: RE: English cycling team
Hi,
My apologies, I thought I had replied to you but I guess not.
There are quite a lot of English sports teams really, sport is one of the only areas where England gets an identity.
It's interesting that all the riders get access to the same coaches, etc. but when it comes to actual racing, only the English aren't allowed to race for their own country. According to the Tour of Britain website, the main sponsor for Tour of Britain appears to be Sport England, not Sport UK.
I believe there is discrimination involved. If you told the Scottish riders they had to race as Team GB but everyone else got their own teams there would be an uproar. I don't see why the English should be expected to forego a national team - it's not a matter of resources, it's a matter of patriotism and pride.
Would I be right in thinking that British Cycling lobbied the UCI for a Scottish and Welsh team? As British Cycling represents the interests of England as well as Scotland and Wales you should be interested in which teams the riders participate in. I don't see why the funding would come into it at all - you said all teams have access to the same funding, coaches, etc. If there was an English team, why would funding be affected? There's no need for a Team GB anyway - Scotland has a team, Wales has a team, NI is part of Team Ireland so that only leaves England. Why not just rename Team GB to Team England? If you cannot see a problem with this then, to put it bluntly, I can only conclude that you don't have the right attitude for the position you hold.
I have tried contacting UCI about this but they refuse to even acknowledge my email. This is the case for other people I know who have complained about this same issue.
-------Original Message-------
From: Philip Ingham
Date: 06/03/05 22:21:14
To: Stuart Parr
Subject: RE: English cycling team
Hi Stuart
didn't get a response from you on this one and what you thought of my response.
Regards
Phil Ingham
British Cycling
-----Original Message-----
From: Philip Ingham
Sent: 05 May 2005 12:40
To: 'Stuart Parr'
Subject: RE: English cycling team
Stuart
Not an easy one to answer - a lot of sports don’t have an England team except at the Commonwealth Games – Athletics, Rowing, Swimming spring to mind. In these sports and in cycling the home nation teams are largely either developmental (i.e. sub-elite) or irregular occurrences for occasional events where home country recognition is available (like the Tour of Britain). The main structure of support for elite cyclists in Great Britain is run under the GB banner – all Scots, Welsh and English riders have equal access to the same coaches and support etc and train and compete as GB, so there is no actual discrimination involved. We’re not interested in which home nation they represent and as our funding comes from UK Sport, there is no need for us to address the issue as it would only complicate matters.
If you want to look at the root causes of why this structure exists, you probably need to look at the funding sports like cycling receives – this comes from government and their sports council structure.
Regards
Phil Ingham
Communications Manager
British Cycling
0161 274 2035
www.britishcycling.org.uk
-----Original Message-----
From: Stuart Parr [mailto:stuart.parr@blueyonder.co.uk]
Sent: Thursday, May 05, 2005 11:45 am
To: Philip Ingham
Subject: English cycling team
Hi,
It has been suggested I contact yourselves about the lack of an English cycling team and the fact that English riders are obliged to ride in Team GB instead of representing their own country.
This is particularly of concern to me in the Tour of Britain. As Scotland and Wales are part of Great Britain, the English riders will be representing the Scots and Welsh but also competing against them as they are riding in their own national teams. In this race, English riders will be both representing and competing against their competitors.
The fact that there is no English team is clearly discriminatory against England. I fail to understand how a Scottish and Welsh team can be justified when, combined, they represent less than 1/6th of the population of the UK, yet no English team is allowed to represent the 5/6ths of the population of the UK that is English.
I have been told that this is the responsibility of the UCI so I have also contacted them but they have so far chosen to ignore correspondence from myself and other interested parties. If it is indeed the UCI that have the final decision, could you please let me know what the BCF have done in the past and what they will be doing to ensure that an English team is created?
Thanks,
Stuart