Approaching the mid point of the Tour de France Cycling is to the fore in terms of international sport as a performance activity of the highest order.
Closer to home the numbers moving up from commuting on two wheels to getting more involved in a sporting and fitness context are booming.
There are now 25,000 members of Cycling Ireland with over 6,000 competing regularly in races and competition. That is over ten times what the number was when Ireland hosted the opening stage of the Tour de France back in 1998.
Long since considered as the ‘new golf’ for middle aged men in Lycra, it has moved well beyond that with the number of women cyclists climbing across all levels and the sport now being the 4th most popular participation sport in the country.
The growth in participation has led to significant success in international competition as well.
Irish cyclists from Martyn Irvine and Caroline Ryan on the track to Mark Rohan and Colin Lynch in Paralympic events have won 60 World and European medals in the last four years including 23 at World Championship level.
In terms of value for money from Government funding through the Irish Sports Council, cycling is secondly to boxing in terms of delivery at the highest level and well beyond that sport in terms of getting the population active.
The next significant step in the progress of the sport is now on the near horizon with the construction of a national indoor velodrome one of the key next stages of development at the National Sports Campus.
A location on site has been identified and plans drawn up between Cycling Ireland and Badminton Ireland to develop a shared facility that will lead to growth in both sports at a time when they are poised to make big strides forward.
The potential stumbling block is as ever the capital investment required to build and yet the nature of the Sports Campus and how that has developed under the leadership of Sean benton and David Conway means even that is only a fraction of what it would be to develop on a new site.
The forecast cost of building a 250 metre indoor track, similar in terms of quality to the Velodrome built in London for the Olympic Games in 2012 would be €11 million.
Both Cycling Ireland and Badminton Ireland have committed to raising €1 million each to the project with the rest coming from the public purse.
The investment needed, or at least notice that it would be available could come as soon as the 2015 budget in the coming months.
Planning permission was granted by Fingal County Council in March of this year
Capital projects remain a winner for Government delivering infrastructure and jobs. If positive news was forthcoming it could mean work on the project starting in earnest next year and a velodrome being ready in time for 2018, two years out from the next Olympic and Paralympic cycle leading to Tokyo in 2020.
It’s an ambitious undertaking for the sport but it is based on solid growth, genuine world class potential and a business case for involving public access as well as for the elite that would make it self financing in operational terms.
That makes it a winner at enough levels for the Government to take a chance and perhaps lead to a new generation of cyclists on the road and on the track who will for the first time be able to hone their skills at home as well as benefit from some of the best natural road cycling terrain that Europe or the World has to offer.