At the beginning of 2016, Scottish Cycling undertook a review of the Scottish Cycling and British Cycling technical regulations. To do this, the Scottish Cycling Technical Commission looked at the General, Road and Track sections of the British Cycling Regulations.
The BMX, cyclo-cross, mountain bike and cycle speedway disciplines are already in line with the British Cycling regulations, with the addition of Scotland-specific stipulations for Scottish Championships.
The aim of this review was to align the regulations of British and Scottish Cycling, whilst retaining a Scottish-specific regulation where appropriate.
What is the difference between the Scottish Cycling and British Cycling regulations?
Both sets of regulations cover the regulations of the sport across all disciplines.
As a home nation, Scottish Cycling is able to implement its own regulations as long as they don't contradict British Cycling or the UCI. For subjects not covered in the Scottish Cycling regulations, the stance will be the same as British Cycling or the UCI; for example, anti-doping. There are also some aspects of cycle sport in Scotland that are more prevalent in Scotland; Time Trial is the main focus for a great deal of Scottish Cycling members and as a result, there are more specific regulations for this discipline in Scotland. In the rest of the UK, Cycling Time Trials (CTT) look after time trial more actively and because of this, the British Cycling regulations don’t have quite the same level of detail. In the same respect, there are some regulations within British Cycling that aren’t covered to the same level of detail in Scotland.
What was the review process?
The regulations were reviewed in great detail by the Scottish Cycling Technical Commission;
Bob MacFarlane (Chair)
Sarah Macintyre (National Events Officer)
John Macmillan
David Miller
The first step was for each Commission member to read each set of regulations (more than once!), during which time all references to British Cycling (Board, HQ staff members, process, national, regional) were highlighted.
The context of each of these key references was reviewed to ensure that the relevant terms were used, for example, when the British Cycling Board should be notified and when the Scottish Cycling Board should be. Once this was completed, the references were updated to work for Scotland.
In particular, close attention was given to the reference to National and Regional. Scottish Cycling holds annual National Championships within its disciplines, however British Cycling refer to these as Regional Championships. National Championships in British Cycling regulations are British National Championships. Similarly, British Cycling will refer to the Scottish Cycling Board as the Regional Board. Time was taken to change these references during the review.
In addition to references, processes were also discussed and reviewed to stay in line with Scottish Cycling, for example, the annual calendar compilation process for Scotland differs to the one detailed in the British Cycling regulations.
An update on the review process was presented at the Scottish Cycling AGM in November 2016 and the updated regulations have since been ratified by the Scottish Cycling Board.
What about regulations not covered by British Cycling?
After the British anomalies were addressed, the Technical Commission identified the Scottish regulations that were not covered by British Cycling and ensured these were included.
British Cycling does not cover some regulations that are of high importance in Scotland. For example, Scottish Cycling has a kit rule that has some specifics for time trial, which British Cycling do not cover.
How do I know what has changed?
The Scottish Cycling technical regulation update uploaded to the website shows changes highlighted as below;
- Blue text: additions or changes to provide Scottish-specific context
- Red text: additions or changes accepted by Scottish Cycling and submitted as a recommendation for change to the British Cycling Technical Commission
- Grey highlights: changes or additions made by British Cycling for the publication of 2016 regulations
- Yellow highlights: changes or additions made by British Cycling for the publication of 2017 regulations
- Green highlights: Additional updates or changes made by Scottish Cycling Board to existing regulations
Will Scottish Cycling be printing more blue books?
Given the significant project that was undertaken and the changes administered thereafter, Scottish Cycling will explore options for a small print run of updated regulations for distribution to commissaires. There will also be the option to download the new regulations online for use on computers, tablets, phone and printing.
What about the Track Championship regulations?
The Track Championship regulations remain a separate document from Scottish Cycling’s general technical regulations as this is a very detailed and specific set of regulations, concerning the Track Championships in particular. Track discipline regulations forming part of the Scottish Cycling technical regulations are more general, which can be used for general track racing. Championship regulations help to support consistent event delivery and officiating from year to year. The 2017 Track Championship regulations have been updated with UCI regulations changes and can be found online here.
Are there any updates I should pay special attention to?
Scottish Cycling encourages members to review the new regulations in detail but would like to draw special attention to some updated regulations in particular;
- Kit regulation: 8.1.9
- Team Championship eligibility: 18.1.2
- Track Championship additions: 18.7.1
- General Track regulations: 24.0
- National Track Records: 26.11.3
- National Road Records: 26.12.4
This is not an exhaustive list of updates; it is the responsibility of the member to review the updated regulations. Therefore Scottish Cycling will not be responsible for any member missing a rule change.
How do I get in touch about a technical regulation question?
For all queries on this update or the Scottish Cycling technical regulations in general, please email events@scottishcycling.org.uk and a member of the team will get back to you.
Scottish Cycling would like to extend their sincere thanks to John MacMillan and David Miller for their wealth of knowledge, time invested and support during this process.
