Sport > Cycling British Cycling sexism claims: Victoria Pendleton and Nicole Cooke support former team-mate Jess Varnish. She just had to look at my circumstance to see the consequences.What I did not know at the time was that British Cycling had been running a programme for several years geared around winning the men’s world road race and the men’s London 2012 road race and this event was seen as a part of that. I was certainly persona non-grata at British Cycling. What would have happened if she had spoken out?
“We shouldn’t just be promoting candidates just for the sake of having British people in these posts but to deliver on the objectives and values of sport in this country. The facts are they did nothing for the women.”“Brian Cookson ran for president of the UCI, he did so with a commitment to raise the minimum wage for women cyclists and that has not been done so I think UK Sport needs to look at this,” he said. So Lizzie Armitstead was in the invidious position of her boyfriend [Adam Blythe], a reserve on the men’s team having the latest bike, while she was left, like myself, without access to this advantage. Sponsors can demand that organisations actually comply with their own policies on gender equality. When I won the world road race championships, Sky sponsored a men-only team.
She began cycling at 11, starting at Cardiff Ajax Cycling Club of which she is a life member. British Cycling's technical director Shane Sutton denies claims he "vetoed" Nicole Cooke's plan for Delhi 2010 success.
L… At 17 she became the youngest rider to win the senior women's title at the 2001 British National Cyclocross Championships.
“It was a case of injection or surgery. In 2011 British Cycling was heavily involved when Locog and the UCI organised the test event for the London Games, a trial of the route and logistics. I am confident that it was not.In readiness for the 2012 Olympics, the McLaren Formula One team were commissioned to produce special bikes for the British riders to take advantage of every possible “marginal and aerodynamic gain”. But her evidence ended up being damning for some of the most respected organisations in British sport.Cooke was also fiercely critical of the efforts to tackle doping, saying that Ukad held a “chocolate sword” because of its lack of resources. Nicole Cooke has launched an excoriating attack on British Cycling and told MPs she has no faith in the UK Anti-Doping Agency’s ability to investigate cases or the testing they conduct And cycling is not alone.“The organisation of the test event for London 2012 was a matter for the UCI and LOCOG.
I had a further TUE for the same steroid in September 2007, and I would not race until five months after the injection. I am often asked, how can it be stopped? The rewards would follow the coverage, so the men would get the prizes and the girls some token gifts.
The spat between Jess Varnish and Shane Sutton should be ringing alarm bells in a sport that does not appear to have a level playing fieldHypocrisy and double standards in respect to gender are ingrained in cycling and many other sports but this is hidden in reports of events. Roger Hammond, Ben Swift, Jonny Bellis and Steve Cummings worked hard for each other and to represent Great Britain. She also questioned the former Team Sky head coach Shane Sutton’s testimony to parliament that he had not been involved in Wiggins’s TUE process, saying “that does not ring true with my experiences of coaches”.Throughout a one-hour appearance before the department of culture, media and sport select committee, Cooke was measured and convincing. Cooke was born in Swansea, and grew up in Wick, Vale of Glamorgan. She attended Brynteg Comprehensive School in Bridgend, . At 16 she won her first senior national title, becoming the youngest rider to take the senior women's title at the 1999 British National Road Race Championships. None were made available for the women’s road team.
Was Sky aware of the inequality of the distribution of its funds to the sport?
That would be sexual discrimination by design.
Clearly with cycling and Mr Cookson there’s a lot to be done.”Cooke also told MPs that doctors had told her that triamcinolone was “not the optimum treatment for asthma” and that she was “sceptical” of Wiggins and Team Sky’s account. Athletes with their Olympic dreams on the line are never going to be the source of information on ill treatment by those whose responsibility it is to select or administrate.Cookson and UK Sport have to be held to account and the best people to do this are the sponsors. Custom-fit bikes were produced not only for every British male road rider but also for every member of the reserves.