The Track Cyclists' Association (TCA): Giving competitive track cyclists a clearer voice in the decisions that shape international track cycling.
Decisions about competition formats, international calendars, qualification systems, technical regulations, safety and the Olympic and Paralympic programmes can have a direct effect on riders. Yet it can be difficult to establish what the wider track cycling community actually thinks about those decisions.
The Track Cyclists' Association (TCA) is a rider consultation initiative intended to create a simple and credible way for competitive track cyclists to contribute their views.
Track cycling has rider representatives, national federations, athlete commissions and other established structures through which athletes can contribute to the development of the sport.
The TCA is not intended to replace those structures. Its purpose is to complement them by gathering views from a much wider group of competitive track cyclists and turning those responses into useful evidence.
Regular surveys can combine measurable responses with riders' own comments and experiences. This makes it possible to identify where opinions are widely shared, where riders disagree and which issues may deserve further consultation.
Each TCA survey will contain a set of questions covering the wider health and direction of track cycling, together with a smaller number of topical questions about issues affecting the sport at that time.
This allows changes in rider opinion to be measured over time while also providing a way to consult riders about specific proposals, regulations and developments.
The Track Cyclists' Association is independent of cycling's governing bodies and is not affiliated with the Union Cycliste Internationale.
The objective is not to create a complaints platform or to assume that every change within track cycling is unpopular. Where riders support the direction of the sport, that is valuable information too. Where concerns exist, gathering responses from a wider rider population can help establish whether they are isolated views or issues that deserve greater attention. The value of the TCA should come from the quality of the evidence it gathers and the credibility with which that evidence is presented.
What Riders Told Us
The first TCA rider survey ran during August and September 2026 and covered representation, international racing opportunities, communication of regulations, safety, competition formats and the future direction of track cycling.
The strongest finding concerned rider representation.
The average score for how well riders felt their views were represented in international track cycling was just 3.8 out of 10, with 47% rating representation between zero and three.
Seventy per cent said they did not believe there was an effective way for them personally to raise a concern, suggestion or idea with the UCI. Among Senior/Elite respondents, that increased to 94%.
Technical and equipment regulations were the area riders most frequently believed required greater rider input, selected by 64%. Competition formats followed at 38%, communication of rules and decisions at 36%, international racing opportunities and the calendar at 34%, and athlete safety at 30%.
Satisfaction with the communication of rule and regulation changes averaged just 3.8 out of 10.
International racing opportunities received an average satisfaction score of 4.5 out of 10. Written responses repeatedly raised access to international racing, opportunities outside national programmes, calendar coordination and the difficulty of combining road and track competition.
When riders were asked about priorities for the future of the sport, 62% selected increasing participation, 45% more velodromes and better facility access, and 43% greater television and broadcast coverage.
Not every subject produced agreement.
Changing the Omnium by replacing the Tempo Race with the Kilometre received the greatest support among the alternative formats offered, but the existing Omnium remained close behind. There was no clear mandate for wholesale change.
Olympic quota allocation was similarly divided. Forty per cent supported giving track cycling a greater share of cycling's existing Olympic athlete quota, while 30% opposed doing so and 30% were unsure.
Those differences are as relevant as the areas where opinion was more consistent. Rider consultation should establish what riders actually think, rather than begin with a position and look for support for it.
Raising an Issue
One of the clearest findings from the first survey was that riders often do not know where to direct a question, concern or suggestion about international track cycling.
As a simple starting point, riders wishing to contact the UCI Track Cycling department can use:
For matters involving Para Track Cycling:
Riders may also have access to their national federation athlete representatives, UCI Track and Para Track Cycling Rider Representatives or other athlete representation structures.
The TCA is not intended to become an intermediary for every individual complaint or question. Where a wider issue appears to affect a number of riders, however, a focused consultation may help establish whether the concern is more widely shared and provide useful evidence for those responsible for the relevant area of the sport.
What Happens Next?
The first TCA survey was deliberately broad. Its purpose was to understand which subjects riders considered important and where further consultation might genuinely be useful.
That does not mean surveys need to be run simply to maintain a schedule.
Future TCA consultations will therefore be occasional, shorter and more focused. They will be used where there is a specific issue on which gathering rider opinion could add something useful to the discussion.
The first survey suggests that representation, technical regulation, communication and access to international racing are particularly suitable areas for further consultation.
Findings will continue to be published openly through TrackCycling.org and, where relevant, can be shared with the UCI Track Cycling Commission, UCI Track and Para Track Cycling Rider Representatives or others involved in the subject being considered.
The objective remains straightforward: when an issue directly affects track cyclists, provide a credible way of establishing what riders themselves think.
Privacy: The survey does not ask for your name, email address or contact details. Results are reported in aggregate, and individual survey responses are not shared with the UCI, rider representatives or other organisations. Any free-text comments quoted publicly or shared externally are reviewed to remove names or other identifying details.
The survey platform may process limited technical information such as an IP address to operate the form and help prevent duplicate submissions. These are not used by the TCA for marketing, sales or to identify individual respondents. Please avoid naming other riders, coaches, staff or third parties in free-text answers.
Funding and administration: The Track Cyclists' Association is independent of cycling's governing bodies and is operated and funded by Velodrome-STS Ltd, the company behind Velodrome.Shop and TrackCycling.org. Velodrome-STS Ltd covers the operating costs of the project. Survey responses are not used for Velodrome.Shop marketing, sales or customer profiling, and findings are reported according to the responses received, including where those findings do not align with Velodrome-STS Ltd's commercial interests.