Scottish Cycling, legally the Scottish Cyclists' Union (SCU), is the national governing body for bicycle racing in Scotland. Scottish Cycling is based in offices at the velodrome at Meadowbank Stadium, Edinburgh. It covers the disciplines of road bicycle racing, track cycling, mountain bike racing, cyclo-cross, BMX racing and (unlike British Cycling) time trialing. Scottish Cycling introduced the SMBLA (Scottish Mountain Bike Leader Award), which is the recognised qualification in the UK for leading organised groups on mountain biking rides. Scottish Cycling has a performance department to help train and develop Scottish athletes. They also enter Scottish teams in selected events, notably the Commonwealth Games and the Tour of Britain.
History
In 1931, a group of Scottish cycling clubs formed a loose association named the Scottish Amateur Racing Association (SARA), which concerned itself purely in the organisation of amateur road time trials. In 1936, a meeting of all the Scottish clubs, and it was resolved to form a new body to represent all road time-trialling. This body was called the Scottish Amateur Cycling Association (SACA), and took over from the SARA in 1937. In the same year, the National Cyclists' Union (NCU) formed a Scottish section to regulate mass-start road and track cycling. Racing on the open road was illegal, so all mass-start road races held on closed circuits, and consequently there were relatively few races. A desire to race on the open road led some cycling clubs split from the NCU to affliate to the British League of Racing Cyclists (BLRC) in 1945. The following year, the Scottish section of the NCU reformed itself into an autonomous body affliated to the NCU, the Scottish National Cyclists' Union (SNCU). In response, in 1947, the Scottish part of the BLRC reconstituted itself into the Scottish Cyclists' Union (SCU), an automous body affliated to the BLRC. Finally, in 1952 the SCU, SNCU and SACA agreed to amalgamate into a single body, which retained the Scottish Cyclists' Union name. More recently, the Scottish Cyclists' Union changed its name to Scottish Cycling (SC)..
