United around our vision that everyone should have the opportunity to experience the thrill of events and achieve their best, the refreshed strategy outlines our three overarching priorities:
- Right Event, Right Place, Right Time
- Delivering the best rider experience
- Thriving volunteer community
We aim to achieve these through our five principles, which run through everything we do: to connect the community, to grow the sport, to develop and empower great people, make everyone welcome on the start line and to ensure that there are opportunities for everyone to achieve their best.
You can read the full update here.
So why the refresh?
Since we published the strategy in November 2022, a lot has changed. Principally, rider and volunteer behaviours have evolved, requiring additional factors to be considered when compiling the events calendar than was the case pre-Covid. In the time since the original publication, we have gained a much greater understanding of both the data of the sport and the likely future trajectory of different disciplines.
Of the 24 objectives in the original strategy, 7 of these had already been achieved by the time we came to the mid-cycle review, with 16 others in progress and 1 unlikely to achieve. The majority of those already achieved link to our improved use of the data underpinning the sport, and this has allowed us to develop fresh targets for the next two years.
A number of the targets have been removed: delivery of Ride the Worlds because this was time limited to the 2023 UCI Cycling World Championships, awarding a Scottish Cycle Speedway Championships as this is now in the calendar on an annual basis and a specific target around recruiting Young Officials, which has now been incorporated into our overall aim to grow the size of the Officials pool.
It is no longer our intention currently to introduce a Scottish Pump Track Championships. Instead, our focus for the next two years is to work in collaboration with local clubs and communities to continue activating the network of Pump Tracks up and down the country, encouraging more grassroots activity to take place.
Whilst we have seen growth in recent years, that remains fragile in some areas. With the sport becoming even broader with the addition of two new disciplines in the form of Enduro and Gravel, it has never been more important to ensure that the calendar compilation process takes account of how these disciplines intersect, and the crossover in deployment of Commissaires and Officials to ensure racing can happen.
With addition of Gravel and MTB Enduro, Scottish Cycling now supports 11 cycling disciplines. In the original version of the strategy, we made some reference to individual actions for some of the disciplines. We’re currently reviewing these and will take stock of other areas of work such as the British Cycling modernising the sport project and their discipline plan reviews. We will continue to work in collaboration with the SCX, SDA, SES and SXC to support the delivery of national series in their respective disciplines.
A lot has been achieved in the first two years of the strategy, and we are indebted to the many hundreds of event organisers, officials and volunteers who ensure that we have such a vibrant and varied domestic events calendar, which truly demonstrates the richness of our natural environment. No other sport can celebrate the vast range of settings cycling competition take place in, with some of Scotland’s most iconic landscapes serving as a backdrop.
In June, we welcomed the Tour of Britain Women to Scotland for the first time, with two fantastic stages in the Borders and Glasgow. Looking ahead we’re excited about the 2026 Commonwealth Games and the Tour de France Grand Depart in Edinburgh in 2027. Please be assured that in the context of these major events, we are always seeking opportunities to add value to our existing domestic sport offer, create rewarding opportunities for volunteer development and showcase our sport to a wider audience, in turn bringing new people into our events.
We have positive stories regularly being shared from up and down the country, and over the next two years, we look forward to continuing to work with you, the cycling community, as we ensure that everything we do as a collective contributes towards our vision: everyone having the opportunity to experience the thrill of events and achieve their best.
You can see the full data that informed the strategy here.