Just 10 months after announcing that its membership had attained 40,000, the national governing body has reached the 50,000 milestone.

The announcement comes at a time when an Englishman, Bradley Wiggins (pictured above), is leading the Tour de France, the world's most revered bicycle race, and little more than two weeks before the start of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

With medal prospects such as Mark Cavendish, Victoria Pendleton and Shanaze Reade (pictured below), another headline-grabbing Games for British cycling is in prospect, although a new limit of one team member per track cycling event will make matching the astonishing Beijing 2008 haul of eight gold medals, four silver and two bronze all the more difficult.

Beyond Olympic medals, British Cycling says it is helping to drive a "cycling boom" worth nearly £3 billion ($4.7 billion/€3.8 billion) to the United Kingdom economy.


Brian Cookson, British Cycling's President, said the body's latest membership milestone – which is up from 20,000 in April 2007 – "could not come at a better time for our sport".

Pointing to a "huge spike" in cycling participation numbers with "over 160,000 more people getting on bikes", Cookson attributed the body's success to a number of factors, including investment from Sport England, UK Sport, Sky and sponsors.

"There have never been more opportunities to cycle and our ambitions remain high," he said, acknowledging the role played by members, clubs, regions and volunteers in helping to get British cycling "in the best shape it has ever been in".

He added that the governing body was now looking ahead to the next four-year funding cycle, "where we hope to grow the sport further with more rises in participation, building of state-of-the-art facilities, and inspiring tens of thousands more members to join us".

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