British Cycling nominated for Sports Governing Body of the Year award

World cycling's governing body may be coming across right now as a case study in how not to handle a crisis and engage with other organsiations, but at national level British Cycling is being held out as an example of how to get it right, being named today on the shortlist for the Sport Governing Body of the Year category at the prestigious Sports Industry Awards 2013.

Other cycling related nominees include Team Sky in the Sport Brand of the Year category, and three60 Sports Management and Wasserman Media Group in the Best Management of a Sportsperson category for their representation of, respectively, Victoria Pendleton and Mark Cavendish.

BSkyB, meanwhile, gets two nominations related to cycling - one for Best Sponsorship of a Team or Individual for its backing not of Team Sky, but the GB Cycling Team, the other for Sky Ride 2012 in the Best Community Initiative category.

You can read the full list of nominations here.

Also making the shortlist for Sport Governing Body of the Year are the British Horseracing Authority, the British Olympic Association, England Hockey, the Rugby Football League, and UK Athletics.

Ian Drake, chief executive of British Cycling, commented: “The past year has undoubtedly been the biggest and the best in British Cycling’s history so it is fantastic to hear that we have been nominated for this prestigious award.

"Cycling is the sport that redefined our national sporting identity last year – we saw the first British winner of the Tour de France and took 16 gold medals home from London 2012 but, equally, we have seen some amazing achievements at the grassroots.

"British Cycling reached its target of getting one million more people on bikes a year early, almost two million people are now riding regularly, our membership is booming with over 65,000 members, and over 20,000 people are now taking part in competitive events.

"We are also making real strides in representing this growing membership on issues that matter, like better provision for cyclists on our roads.

"On behalf of everyone involved with British Cycling, we are delighted that our hard work at all levels is being recognised by the sports industry.”