British Cycling is among several cycling-related nominees at the 2014 Sport Industry Awards, it was announced on Friday. The UK's national body for cycling has been shortlisted in the Sports Governing Body of the Year category, alongside British Athletics, the ECB, England Netball, the FA and the RFL.
British Cycling won the Sports Governing Body of the Year award in 2013, and success at this year's awards would mean that the national governing body for cycling would retain the title as the country's top performing sporting body.
British Cycling and Sky's national programme for recreational rides - Sky Ride - has also been nominated in the Community Programme of the Year category. Almost 150,000 people of all ages attended Sky Ride cycling events across 16 cities in 2013. One million more people than in 2008 are now cycling regularly thanks to the efforts of British Cycling and Sky.
Reacting to the news, British Cycling's chief executive, Ian Drake, said:
"I'm absolutely delighted that British Cycling is once again in the running for the Sports Governing Body of the Year award.
"As last year's winners, we would be thrilled to retain this title after another 12 months of increased participation and continued growth across all forms of the sport.
"2013 was a fantastic year for British Cycling as Team Sky's Chris Froome followed in the footsteps of Sir Bradley Wiggins to become the second consecutive winner of the Tour de France, our GB track cyclists topped the medal table at the World Championships, and we scooped three gold medals at the Para-cycling World Championships. Liam Phillips had an amazing win at the BMX World Championships and Rachel Atherton and Tahnee Seagrave won Senior and World titles in Mountain Bike Downhill.
"Our elite success has continued to inspire hundreds of thousands of people to get on bikes - both for leisure and to race - and we now have a record high of over 85,000 members. Last year also saw the launch of our ambitious plans to get one million more women on bikes by 2020.
"The strength of our membership has also afforded us influence at the highest levels of government and we were pleased to work alongside Prime Minister David Cameron at the launch of his £94million Cycling Cities announcement."
Drake also paid tribute to the national network of volunteers for their work promoting cycling in local communities:
"This nomination is testament to the hard work of everyone involved with British Cycling from staff, sponsors, members and riders. The support we receive from UK Sport, Sport England, the National Lottery, and Sky is invaluable. Most importantly though I'd like to thank the hard-working volunteers at both regional and club level, without whom our sport simply could not function."
British Cycling and the Sky Ride campaign were joined on the shortlist by the Prudential RideLondon festival, which is nominated in the Participation Event of the Year category. More than 65,000 riders took part in last year's weekend-long programme, with over 15,000 cyclists completing the first Prudential RideLondon-Surrey 100 sportive.
The winners in each category will be announced at the BT Sport Industry Awards ceremony on Thursday 8 May.
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