Read about the seemingly insurmountable obstacles facing British cycling, a once-Gold medal winning machine.
The 2012 London Olympics thrust cycling into the national spotlight. However, just four years on, Brexit created a wealth of challenges for cycling’s emerging talent. As we enter 2026, British Cycling have confirmed that much needed government intervention remains “limited”.
When Bradley Wiggins became the first Brit to win the Tour De France he made sporting history. When he won Olympic gold weeks later he became a national celebrity. Wiggo-mania gripped the nation, and those famous side-burns inspired thousands to cycle. By 2015 Sport England reported an increase of 100,000 in regular cyclists while in the following Olympic games in Rio, Tokyo and Paris, cycling was solidified as a Gold-medal machine both for Team GB and the UK cycling industry.
However, in 2016 another phenomenon gripped the nation, Brexit. The referendum and its economic fallout dominated headlines, debate rampant across the political divide. Yet for the world of sport, potential ramifications remained on the fringe of the public imagination. Nonetheless, to British Cycling and many other sporting national governing bodies (NGBs), the threat remained very real. For British Cycling, Europe had been the gateway that took their pathway riders from playground to podium, but with Brexit, a labyrinth of fiscal barriers emerged.
Costs of importing material from European sponsors alongside the cost of reaching the major European races soared for UK based teams. This was largely due to the ‘Carnet’ system. Through the system teams are forced to place a bond of 30% of the value of their items with an insurer in order to temporarily export and then reimport equipment. With the average cost of a race bike leaning towards the £10,000 mark, it is easy to see how the cost of a full team, with mechanical equipment quickly adds up. That’s before accounting for rider wages, travel costs and entry fees.
In 2024, key British development team Fensham Howes Mas stated the extra time and money added due to Brexit could be “fatal to their project”. Although the team has continued, by the end of that year, the last remaining British professional and continental level teams were forced to close their doors. This included British Cycling’s own under 23 road racing development academy. This was the first time since 2004 in which there has been no registered pro teams at the continental level in the UK.
On the rider side, barriers remain equally high. Brexit imposed 90 in 180 day restrictions that not only limits the exposure riders have to professional European teams but also to their earnings. A sacrifice made even harder by the lack of rider protection or a minimum wage across the development level.
From the European side of things the situation appears no better. Former Spanish Olympic coach, Jaume Más, puts it lightly when telling us the increased cost for UK riders and teams is “obvious” to Europe. However, it's not just cycling with many other sports key to our Olympic success facing similar fates. A situation that Head of Press & Media for European Movement UK, Andrew Plant, has highlighted “needs much more attention”.
However, that attention seems at best far off. Head of Talent Development and Sport at British Cycling, Joe Malik commented that “despite sustained effort” with the government “there has been limited progress”. It is as he puts simply “not high on the government's list of priorities”, despite the “sustained impact” he highlights it has had on British development pathways.
Although Malik confirms he is due to speak with Sport England about other NGB’s facing the impact of similar policy inaction, it may be too late for the once prolific medal machine. Whilst Chancellor Rachel Reeves is actively pursuing an "ambitious" youth mobility scheme with the European Union and help for the music industry touring in Europe, there remains no mention regarding young sportspeople wanting to train or compete in the EU.
In addition, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport declined to comment on any change from the previous government’s approach. The stance remains that there is ‘no scope for negotiation of differential agreements or specific waivers’ for ‘visa-free movement’, for aspiring young athletes beyond the 90 day restriction.
Malik argues the only action that remains is to raise the issue through any “available channels”, a far-cry from any firm government intervention. In the meanwhile, new bike sales have plummeted to levels as low as the early 70s, and British Cycling membership has declined by 15% over the last two years. Even if British Cycling have announced a new financial model, a glimmer of hope in a bleak landscape, the gold-machine’s next generation may have already been forgotten before they arrived.
Title Image Courtesy of PaisleyOrgUK. URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/