The regional event officers, who have been appointed in partnership with British Cycling’s regional boards, will report to Lisa Graham, Regional Events Team Manager, who will liaise directly with the Cycle Sport and Membership Department via Jonathan Day, Cycle Sport Events Manager. Over the next few months, the officers will carry out an audit of their regions to assess current event structure, identify gaps in provision and areas of opportunities. Working with regional boards, British Cycling will develop individual event programmes tailored to the regions, aimed at growing capacity and improving the quality of events.

Each programme will be supported by training courses for volunteers, race officials and commissaires that will equip them with new skills and improve their experience of hosting competitive cycling events.

Jonny Clay, Cycle Sport and Membership Director, said: “This initiative is a major step forward in securing a great future for competitive events in Britain across all cycling disciplines and I am delighted that we are finally able to roll out the scheme to an enthusiastic response from our regions. Once the new structure is established, not only will we be better placed to train, reward and retain those at the heart of event delivery but we will also be able to broaden the geographical coverage of races, inspire greater participation in competitive events and more effectively connect with local organisers such as local authorities and the police."

“As more and more people are attracted to recreational cycling events such as Skyride, the appetite for competitive cycling will grow. We want to make sure we can meet this demand and to do this we need to establish exciting competitive events across Britain that are enjoyed by organisers and participants alike to keep them within our sport."

“We have hired a fantastic team, all of whom have either competed themselves, organised races and sportives or worked as volunteers. We have former elite riders and talent coaches in the team and everyone is passionate about competitive sport and the potential the next few years holds for its growth in Britain.”

The following appointments have now taken place:

Yorkshire - Pete Sutton
North West - Phil West
North East - Andrew Johnston
West Midlands - Jo Lyons
East Midlands - Jenny Gretton
Eastern - Rachel Fenton
Central - Mark Doel
South West - Andrew Parker
South - Mason Thomas

Press Release: Download (899KB Word.doc)