Scottish Cycling

Scottish Cyclists' Union
SCU
Sport Cycle racing
Formation date 1952
Affiliation British Cycling
President Alasdair MacLennan
Coach Graeme Herd
Official website
www.britishcycling.org.uk/scotland

Scottish Cycling, legally the Scottish Cyclists' Union (SCU), is the national governing body for bicycle racing in Scotland.

Scottish Cycling is at Caledonia House, South Gyle, Edinburgh. It covers road bicycle racing, track cycling, mountain bike racing, cyclo-cross, BMX racing and time trialing.

Scottish Cycling introduced the (Scottish Mountain Bike Leader Award), qualification in the UK for leading organised groups on mountain biking rides. This award is now simply called the Mountain Bike Leader Award.

Scottish Cycling has a performance department to help train and develop Scottish athletes. It also enters Scottish teams for events such as the Commonwealth Games and Tour of Britain.

History

In 1931, Scottish cycling clubs formed a loose association named the Scottish Amateur Racing Association (SARA), which concerned itself with organisation of amateur road time trials. In 1936, a meeting of all Scottish clubs resolved to form a new body to represent all road time-trialling. This body, the Scottish Amateur Cycling Association (SACA), took over from the SARA in 1937.

In the same year, the National Cyclists' Union (NCU) formed a Scottish section to regulate mass-start road and track cycling. Racing on the open road had been discouraged by the NCU since the 19th century for fear that it would jeopardise the place of all cyclists on the road. Mass races were held on private circuits and consequently there were few races.

A desire to race on the open road led some clubs to affiliate to the rival British League of Racing Cyclists (BLRC) in 1945. The following year, the Scottish section of the NCU reformed itself into an autonomous body affiliated to the NCU, the Scottish National Cyclists' Union (SNCU). In response, in 1947, the Scottish BLRC reconstituted itself into the Scottish Cyclists' Union (SCU), an automous body affiliated to the BLRC.

In 1952 the SCU, SNCU and SACA amalgamated into a single body, which retained the Scottish Cyclists' Union name.

More recently, the Scottish Cyclists' Union changed to Scottish Cycling (SC)..

See also

External links