Jon Dutton interview: British Cycling chief on Paris Olympics success, driving social impact and bringing Tour de France back

For all the success British Cycling has enjoyed at recent Olympics - “61 medals from the last five Games and 11 medals in Paris,” says Dutton, proudly - and for all the golden moments in Yorkshire in particular with the Tour de France and Road World Championships, the sport has not been without its controversies.

A special report was published in 2017, jointly commissioned by British Cycling and UK Sport, into allegations of bullying in the pioneering GB squad, while a controversial deal with Shell which conflicted with the organisation’s drive to net zero, further fanned public disenchantment.

On top of that, the cycling bubble had seemingly burst with the Tour of Britain collapsing last year and riders within the professional peloton questioning the direction of the sport amid a significantly reduced national series.

A year and a bit into taking on the role, Dutton is slowly but surely addressing all of the above, something an Olympic and Paralympic summer in Paris can accelerate.

It starts, for Dutton, with culture.

“The medal target is something that people will always talk about but for us it was about creating a culture, making sure everyone was happy, looking after people’s well-being,” Dutton tells The Yorkshire Post in his thick Lancastrian accent.

“The job Stephen Park, our performance director, did, was remarkable. We talk about the words winning and winning well, and if we have the right culture, which for us is about making sure people are happy, healthy, enjoying what they’re doing, feel that sense of of togetherness, but more so are supported by the organisation, then we get the best out of our riders.”

To help foster a greater spirit, British Cycling eschewed the athlete’s village in Paris and housed the entire squad together.

“We did that purposely,” says Dutton, “mainly because the spread of the venues across Paris, but what that allowed us to do in camp was create a cross-pollination of riders who wouldn’t necessarily be put together, from road to BMX freestyle etc.

“Culture is so, so important to us, not just in the workforce but also among our riders.

“For us it’s about learning the lessons from what’s happened in the past, behaving in a contemporary way, it’s about understanding people have lots going on in their lives beyond coming to ride around a velodrome.

“It’s using the experience of Katy (Marchant) and Lizzie (Deignan) who have appeared in multiple Games and passing their guidance and knowledge on to the athletes making that first step.

“We’ve seen it in Paris, we’ll see it again in the Paralympics. I’m really proud of the fact we have a fully integrated programme, I think we get the benefits of that.

“We’ll never lose sight of winning, we want to win, but we also want to win well.”

Cycling is the most handsomely resourced sport in the Olympic programme, more than rowing, more than athletics. In the Paris cycle the sport received £28.7m. With greater government funding, comes greater responsibility.

“One of the things I’m most interested in is delivering social value,” says Dutton.

“We get a significant amount of investment from central government, we’ve always been well supported and we want to do those three things; win, win in the right way, but also deliver something beyond medals. We are a sport that is a form of travel, that is a life skill, that can get people healthy not just physically but also from a mental wellbeing perspective.

“We want to take that even further than we have done in the past.”

To help do that, he refers back to his days in rugby league. “I’m very proud of what we did in the RLWC,” says Dutton. “Rugby league is a sport that has a lot of resonance in the communities, across Yorkshire in particular. With cycling we know that 27 million people got on a bike in Great Britain in the last 12 months, that’s a third of the UK population.

“So we want to play a greater role in some of the agendas in government that address inactivity, mental wellbeing and reach more people.

“We’re launching an initiative working with people in social care. Hopefully this is the golden thread of joining it together - continue to win with all those great athletes but also deliver a social return back to the communities we serve.

“I think we can deliver even greater value beyond winning medals if we can contribute to the health agenda, contribute to productivity growth. Cycling is one of the few sports that can do that.”

Addressing the gap in the competitive market was also important.

Dutton’s arrival at the Manchester Velodrome last Spring coincided with much criticism of the governing body for the increasing number of holes in the national racing calendar.

Pro rider Tao Geoghegan Hart led the discourse and while Yorkshire-based race organisers Marc Etches and Giles Pidcock offered counter arguments to this newspaper that it was an over-reaction, something needed doing. So Dutton set up a taskforce led by Olympic track cycling legend Ed Clancy which came back with 18 resolutions the governing body is working through.

“There was a need to bring together lots of the conversations that were happening and Ed was fantastic,” says Dutton.

“One of the resolutions was bring back the Tour of Britain. We’ve done that.

“I went to the board with a plan last year and credit to them, they backed us even though it was a risk to the organisation because hosting big cycling events is difficult.

“We did that with the help of a partnership with Lloyds Bank, which was another recommendation: get a big commercial partner on board.

“Fast forward to a few weeks time in Barnsley and Sheffield and beyond when the Tour of Britain Men comes to town. This year is about making sure the race happens and happens in a safe way. We’ve got some really exciting ambitious plans for the future.

“We’ve made a commitment to equalisation of prize money, going forward we want those events in harmony on every single level.”

Dutton continues: “And circuit racers are brilliant, like the one last month in Sheffield. They’re more family events now because you’re closing a road without too much disturbance, you can let children ride it, junior riders.

“Point-to-point races are much more difficult because of policing costs, safety costs, the whole ecosystem.

“That’s why we set up the road taskforce. We have to be patient and realistic about what we can do to support going forward. But the women’s tour really did energise us in what’s possible going forward.”

So what is the future? The Tour de France Grand Depart was a huge success in Yorkshire in 2014 and bringing that back formed part of UK Sport’s vision for major sporting events in this country up to 2031, announced last year.

“We are supporting UK Sport and partners to see whether it is feasible to bring the Tour de France Grand Depart here for both the men and the women,” confirms Dutton.

“Events are expensive, we’ve got to make a business case back to government that it delivers more than those amazing moments.

“We have a five-year event vision that we launched in February across road, track and urban and we’ve seen with Kieran Reilly on BMX freestyle that that event in particular appeals to a younger, more diverse audience.”

And in the immediate term, it’s the Paralympics and supporting the likes of Leeds cyclist Kadeena Cox.

“We are absolutely ready to capitalise on those amazing people, the likes of Dame Sarah Storey and Kadeena Cox,” says Dutton.

“I was at a Para talent ID initiative at a facility in Bradford recently that’s delivering some amazing things.

“There’s no magic wand, things are more expensive than ever before so we have to take our time. But we have a vision and a determination.”