British Cycling beneath scrutiny over allegations of ‘poisonous tradition’ in management group

British Cycling is going through additional questions after a former worker accused it of getting a “poisonous tradition” days after Matt Richardson was sent home from the World Track Championships in Shanghai.

Jack Lindsay, who labored as a industrial supervisor at British Cycling from 2024 to 2025, criticised the way in which he claimed it responded to his formal office bullying grievance spanning dozens of incidents. And he additionally questioned what he branded a scarcity of oversight from UK Sport, which has given the organisation £30m to organize for the LA Olympics.

“The grievance coated dozens of incidents over six months, spanning a number of classes of alleged bullying,” Lindsay wrote in a submit on LinkedIn. “Most have been partially substantiated. There can be no apology, and I used to be informed of no motion towards the person I had sought to carry accountable.”

Lindsay additionally claimed that he had “repeatedly raised incidents of bullying by a member of the chief with members of the senior management group, and that administration had chosen to handle them informally”.

“It just isn’t acceptable to proceed subjecting employees to a management group which have perpetuated this poisonous tradition,” he mentioned.

Lindsay mentioned that after he resigned the-then British Cycling chief govt, Jon Dutton, informed him that he would fee an impartial survey of the management tradition inside the GB Cycling Team.

That survey, it was revealed by the Times newspaper this week, discovered that 31% of riders and employees have been requested whether or not they had “witnessed or skilled inconsiderate, inappropriate, or unacceptable behaviour” answered sure.

Meanwhile after they have been requested for 3 phrases to explain the tradition of their planet class programme, “pushed” was probably the most generally used phrase among the many riders however second-most outstanding, alongside “supportive”, was “poisonous”.

In response to a sequence of questions on Lindsay’s allegations, a British Cycling spokesperson mentioned: “The wellbeing of our individuals is prime to every thing we do at British Cycling. Any grievance is taken severely and dealt with by means of our formal procedures and the place acceptable, motion is taken.

“Out of equity to everybody concerned, we don’t touch upon particular person circumstances, and the small print of any motion taken are stored confidential,” he added. “We recognise that elevating issues might be troublesome. There are established routes accessible to report issues and we proceed to strengthen how we hearken to and help our individuals.”

Lindsay additionally drew parallels with how British Cycling’s governance and tradition had been closely criticised by Annamarie Phelps in an impartial overview in 2017, saying that “nearly a decade later, management is taking this system in the identical course”.

“This displays a wider drawback in elite sport, the place organisational status and relationships with funding our bodies and the people inside can change into entangled with questions of accountability,” he wrote.

“The high-performance programme receives tens of millions of kilos every year in public funding. Athletes, employees, sponsors and the general public have a respectable curiosity in whether or not the organisation upholds the requirements it promotes.”

However a UK Sport spokesperson mentioned that the organisation did correctly maintain sports activities accountable and that its method was “basically and materially completely different to 2017”.

The spokesperson added that funded sports activities have been required to “full a cultural assurance train on an annual foundation,” and to develop cultural motion plans to strengthen and enhance their tradition. UK Sport mentioned {that a} group of advisers was additionally in place to “present assurance on our asset placement”.

“It is vital to us that the sports activities we put money into have a protected, wholesome and excessive performing tradition the place athlete voice is included in choice making,” the spokesperson added. “We prioritise assuring tradition inside the efficiency programmes by which we make investments as a key pillar of our method to successful effectively.”