British Cycling to announce athlete welfare 'action plan' next week

Riders and staff at the sport's Manchester base will be briefed on Wednesday, March 1, with a media conference to explain the plan more fully a day later.

The public announcement had been planned for next Wednesday as well, but that now clashes with the postponed appearance of UK Anti-Doping boss Nicole Sapstead before the Culture, Media and Sport committee.

Joining Sapstead will be former British Cycling coach Simon Cope and current British Cycling doctor Richard Freeman as the trio face questions from MPs on UKAD's investigation into "allegations of wrongdoing" related to the delivery of a mystery package by Cope to Freeman at a French race in 2011.

British Cycling, however, was under the microscope even before UKAD started its inquiries in October as it was already under investigation for alleged bullying, favouritism and sexism.

These claims surfaced in April when former Great Britain cyclist Jess Varnish accused ex-technical director Shane Sutton of using sexist language . She also claimed she was dropped from the Olympic programme because she criticised coaches following the failure of the women's team sprint to qualify for the Rio Olympics.

First reported in the Daily Mail, Varnish's allegations were soon backed up by similar claims from six-time Paralympic champion Darren Kenny and double Olympic champion Victoria Pendleton.

These claims led to Sutton's resignation and prompted British Cycling and funding agency UK Sport to co-commission an independent review, led by British Rowing chair Annamarie Phelps.

Sutton, former performance director Sir Dave Brailsford and British Cycling have strongly denied the claims, but Sutton was found guilty of one charge of using inappropriate language by an internal review led by British Cycling board member Alex Russell.

Phelps' wider investigation was initially intended to publish a summary of its findings and recommendations by November, but the sheer volume of testimony it has heard - and the legally sensitive nature of some of it - has seen the plan change and the final report delayed.

Phelps gave British Cycling and UK Sport a draft version of her report before Christmas. British Cycling's board has met three times to discuss the report and UK Sport's board has talked about it at least twice. Both boards have also discussed how to proceed together.

It is understood British Cycling has decided it would be better if as much of the report as is legally possible is published. Phelps, however, has pointed out she gave all those who spoke to her panel the promise of confidentiality.

But when Phelps' panel provided British Cycling with a redacted version of the full report, the governing body pointed out that pages and pages of blacked-out text would look like it was hiding something.

The independent review panel is now in the process of going back to each of its witnesses and asking them how much of their testimony can be revealed, but also giving those who have been criticised an opportunity to respond. These two processes have only just started and could take another month.

But with a new chief executive set to be announced, a new chairman in place and a new performance director due to start work soon, too, British Cycling is determined to regain the initiative.

So it has effectively decided to announce its response to the report, which is believed to be critical of several aspects of the programme, before the report itself is published.

This is partly to lift morale at the National Cycling Centre and partly to alleviate concerns from the governing body's new sponsor HSBC about the tide of negative headlines.

A senior source at British Cycling told Press Association Sport that the "action plan" will involve bringing the elite set-up more closely under the governing body's umbrella so every athlete and coach has the same level of human-resources support that other British Cycling staff enjoy.

More attention will be given to athlete welfare and how athletes are prepared for the rest of their lives. There will also be commitments to more transparent selection processes, with proper rights of appeal, and a beefed-up code of conduct.