Big Interview: Former president of the UCI and British Cycling Brian Cookson

Brian Cookson has pretty much been there, done that and worn the T-shirt when it comes to the sport of cycling...well administratively speaking.

As somebody who headed up British Cycling for more than 15 years, the Preston-born father-of-three laid the foundations for his country to become the superpower of the sport in the world.

Over the last three Olympics, Team GB has accumulated 22 golds, not to mention several silver and bronze medals.

And over the past decade, British riders have dominated the Tour de France – the pinnacle of endurance racing in the world.

Sir Bradley Wiggins became the first ever Brit to win the Tour in 2012 and he was followed onto the podium at the Champs-Élysées by Chris Froome, who won it a remarkable four times out of five while Welshman Geraint Thomas claimed victory in 2018.

Cookson’s formidable mind was then utilised by the Union Cycliste Internationale – the world’s governing body.

He was elected as president of the UCI in 2013 and tasked with guiding the sport through a particularly challenging time when it was mired in controversy amid the Lance Armstrong doping scandal.

The 68-year-old has been credited as something of a pioneer of the sport and many cyclists – professional, club level and grassroots – can turn to the former Hutton Grammar School pupil and thank him for the immense work he has done. Now semi-retired and living in the Ribble Valley, Cookson can look back with some satisfaction at his accomplishments.

There is not too much he would change in his life – well perhaps he may be tempted to swap it all for just one stage victory at the Tour de France.

For while Cookson is proud of what he was able to accomplish governing the sport, part of him wishes he was more known for his abilities in the saddle rather than off it.

The pure joy of being out in the fresh air on two wheels is what made him fall in love with the sport as a boy .

And it is that feeling which compels him to ride out on his bike around Lancashire on a daily basis.

Cookson admits he would have loved to have followed in the footsteps of his hero, the late, 
great British cyclist Tom Simpson.

However, he was not quite good enough to make a living out of the highly-competitive sport, although he did have some talent.

His greatest achievement was winning the Lakeland and Lancashire Championship in 1971 – at the age of 19 .

It is an achievement he remains proud about to this day.

“What captured my imagination with the sport was watching the late Tom Simpson win the World Road Racing Championships in 1965,” said Cookson.

“Watching him made me want to get involved more and more in the sport and I joined the Preston branch of the CTC and Preston 
Wheelers.

“I did some racing and found that I really enjoyed it.

“So I did road racing quite seriously at a good club level for about 20 years or so.

“At the same time, I started to get more and more involved in the governance of the sport.

“In fact one of the very first things I did was start writing a weekly cycling column for the Lancashire Evening Post . I enjoyed 
racing and I did once win the Lakeland and Lancashire Championship in 1971 which is the best thing I ever did as racer.”

Cookson revealed that it was the colourful figures within the sport and the almost super-human nature of their abilities which captured his imagination from a very early age.

“I fell in love with the drama of cycling,” said Cookson. “The colourfulness, the ugly side of the sport.

“There’s plenty of history of cycling in this country, but it was the continental-type cycling races, the Tour de France – the big races on mainland Europe – which really captured my imagination.

“They were always so dramatic, historical.

“You would read about them – probably a week or so after the event, as it were back then, in the cycling newspapers.

“Cycling was not on television in those days.

“It was an intriguing, exciting sport which somehow was different to the traditional sports which were popular in the UK. That was the attraction for me.”

Cookson ambition of becoming a professional cyclist was fierce – even arranging his educational needs with the sport in mind.

“I obviously dreamed of one day competing at the Tour de France when I was younger,” said Cookson, who lives in Whalley with his wife Sian. They have three children Oliver, Sophie and Jack.

“I remember taking French at A-level because I thought it would be useful when I joined a professional team and started riding 
over there. I had that ambition going through school, sixth form.

“Once I had abandoned the idea of being a world 
famous rock guitarist, 
becoming a world famous cycling champion was my long-term goal.

“Eventually realism sets in and you realise you’re not quite as good as you would like to be, but I enjoyed my time racing.”