The war of the governing bodies

Cycling is a game of bikes, bruises and pain. When compared with other sports it’s hard not to draw some rather stark comparisons. Whilst on the train back to university from a family gathering in Gloucester I stumbled across an article in the sports pages of the Sunday Times about the highly controversial Sepp Blatter, FIFA's long lasting and highly unpopular president. His most recent antics surrounding claims of racism in football have given football pundits and columnists reams of material and hours of filler; the article got me thinking: how would the UCI tackle such an issue?

Like many sporting bodies, the UCI seems to relentlessly come under fire for the actions of its athletes with little positive ever being reported by the press. The fact is, that racism is yet to rear its ugly head within the cycling world, and for this the fans and athletes should be congratulated. However, cycling is a highly euro-centric sport; the growth of the US as a cycling nation has only really become prevalent since the era of Lemond, with a succession of other great Americans following his example: Tyler Farrar and Levi Leipheimer to name but two.

The absence of both African and Asian cyclists within the top level of the sport is tangible and a trend which has only recently started to be addressed. The cycling world's touching response to the Japanese tsunami is a notable example of how the increasingly global cycling community is well and truly united through a love of the sport. A series of tributes were held at the start of major races in March this year, including at Milan San Remo, often led by Japanese cyclists in touching tribute to the victims.

The signing of Eritrean wonder kid Daniel Teklehaymanot to the GreenEdge cycling team for the 2012 season shows that the diversification of cycling is well and truly moving in the right direction. The UCI runs both outreach programs and races worldwide to try and attract youngsters to the sport and diversify the sport’s top echelons.

What I’m really trying to say is, despite FIFA’s repeated attempts to cover up this most recent in a series of embarrassing debacles football clearly is suffering from some serious problems both on and off the pitch. Cycling does not suffer from the same issues and this is, I feel, one of the great things about our sport that – instead of battling with downright intolerant and naïve comments by athletes – cycling is extending itself and empowering those without access to the sport and spreading away from its traditional European centre.

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