The UCI elections for the next president of the spots international governing body will take place during the World Championship in Bergen in September 2017, where current president Brian Cookson will be looking for a second term. Cookson beat the incumbent Pat McQuaid at the last elections, in Florence 2013, to step up and take his first term in office.
In his original manifesto, Cookson laid down his plans for women’s cycling, such as a minimum wage, the Women’s Commission, better television coverage, new races and ensuring that women were a part of all of the governing body’s commissions. Cyclingnews spoke the UCI president about women’s cycling in Paris, shortly after the finish of La course, which was won by Wiggle-High5’s Chloe Hosking, to discuss his manifesto points and his plans for women’s cycling if he is elected for a second term.
Cyclingnews: One of the big points on your manifesto was a minimum wage that is yet to happen, when will we see it?
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Brian Cookson: I still remain committed to getting a minimum wage for women as soon as we can. What I was advised, by the women who became involved in the UCI both before and after my election, was that the women’s scene wasn’t strong enough for that. And that the net result would be, if we passed a rule that there had to be a minimum wage, we would lose a lot of teams. So, we adopted an alternative approach. That was to try and make the economy of women’s cycling stronger first, which I think that we are in the process of doing. Then we can think about introducing a minimum wage. It’s an important first step, to make the sport stronger first of all before bringing in that rule.
CN: How long do you think it will be before it can be implemented?
BC: I don’t want to put a timescale on it. I want to be guided by the women who are running women’s cycling very effectively. What I’m seeing now is that women’s cycling is getting stronger every year. The women’s WorldTour is an innovation for us this year. I think that it has had a really galvanising effect on the women’s scene. We’re seeing more events coming in and wanting to be part of it for next year. Already we’re talking to people at Amstel Gold, who want to do a women’s race.
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