Cycling Ireland’s shortlists for its annual awards have attracted much criticism. But now the system is being overhauled and has begun immediately (Photo: Stephen McMahon-Sportsfile)
Cycling Ireland overhauls annual awards after criticism
The 2018 Cycling Ireland riders of the year and volunteer of the year awards have been overhauled after criticism from some members in recent years.
In 2018 the overall winner of domestic male and female riders of the year awards and volunteer of the year will be voted on by Cycling Ireland members based on a shortlist of the monthly winners.
In the past Cycling Ireland has presented a shortlist of names for members to vote on to decide who wins the annual awards.
However, the shortlists for the male and female domestic rider awards and the volunteer award have come in for criticism.
In recent years a large number of people in the cycling community have taken to social media to complain at the apparent secrecy with which the rider and volunteer of the year shortlists are drawn up.
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Many have complained that very obvious candidates for the short lists have been overlooked.
But one of the main complaints has been the lack of transparency in how the short lists have been drawn up.
And in some cases cyclists have expressed bemusement at how short list selections are made, saying the selections are not reflective of the previous season.
Cycling Ireland is now changing the way these two awards are run.
Members of the federation will now have the opportunity every month to nominate their ‘rider of the month’ – separate awards for male and female – and their ‘volunteer of the month’.
The nominations, and reasons for them, can be lodged with Cycling Ireland online every month. And then a “selection panel” with assess the nominations and pick a winner each month.
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At the end of the season the shortlists for domestic riders and volunteer of the year will be comprised of the monthly winners from that year.
The winners of the male domestic rider of the year, female domestic rider of the year and volunteer of the year will be voted on by Cycling Ireland members from the monthly winner short lists.
“On the 1st of every month Cycling Ireland members will be invited to nominate the person who they believe are worthy recipients of each of these awards,” the federation said.
“(Members will be) asked to offer a rationale behind their nomination; voting will be open for one week.
“A selection panel will assess the nominations, and the monthly winner will be announced towards the end of that month.”
Cycling Ireland did not set out who will be on the “selection panel” that picks the monthly winners from members’ nominations. And it did not explain how the selection panel itself is picked.
However, we will bring you those details when we have them.
The competition for the January award is now open. You can check out the new system and nominate your riders and/or volunteer of the month for January, by following this link.
The new system means an end to the practice of Cycling Ireland’s various commissions directly nominating riders and volunteers for inclusion in these three annual award categories.
Cycling Ireland said the way the winners in the other categories are selected remains the same.
“In recent years the nominees in most of the categories of the annual awards have been put forward by our various commissions,” it said.
“This will remain the case for the other main categories in our awards; leisure event, competitive event, club and club coach of the year.
“In 2017 bike shop of the year and regional volunteer of the year were not nominations from commissions, but directly voted on by Cycling Ireland members.
"The international performance of the year is a category voted on by cycling journalists."
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