UK clubs and organisers must keep working ever harder to preserve racing on the open road and stop it slowly slipping away – that is the view of Lancaster Grand Prix organiser and former UCI president Brian Cookson.
Changes introduced over the years have combined to make road racing far more expensive and onerous to promote than it once was, he points out, but it was a challenge that organisers and clubs need to rise to meet.
"We're going to have to keep working harder and harder to keep road racing as a thing in the way that we've experienced it in the past," Cookson told Cycling Weekly. "The highway conditions, traffic and people's expectations of what is acceptable in terms of disruption of their normal behaviour and their normal business, I think have changed immeasurably in the last 20 or 30 years."
With accredited marshal schemes and outriders from the National Escort Group and a police presence all costing money – as well as first raiders and insurance – putting on a big road race requires a serious spend. But with both individuals and companies still affected by a global cost-of-everything challenge, funding is harder to come by than ever, too. Cookson and the Lancaster Grand Prix organising committee of which he is the chair had to postpone last year's race for that very reason. This year, though, sustainable funding is in place and the race is back in the National Road Series for both men and women, and will run on July 12.
"If we want racing on the road to continue, we have to adopt new standards, we have to adapt, and we have to find funding sources to allow us to do it. Otherwise the future will be bleak…" Cookson said. "I think it's so true of so many things – if you want something to happen, you've got to make it happen. Don't leave it to other people. You know, get yourself organised into a group of people, get an organising committee.
He added: "We can all sit around moaning and whinging on social media about how things used to be and how things should be now, but they're not how they used to be. And if we want things to be different and better, we want our sport to survive, we've got to make it work and make it happen."
The full story of the return of the Lancaster GP to the National Road Series will feature in next Thursday's Cycling Weekly magazine (19 Feb).
