"WHEELS OF CONFUSION"*

 

ENDING FREEDOM OF MOVEMENT AFTER BREXIT STYMIES RIDERS HOPES TO LIVE AND RACE ON THE CONTINENT

The Dave Rayner Foundation which funds British riders to live and race abroad has been thrown into disarray since Britain quit the European Union in 2020, ending freedom of movement (BREXIT).

Before Brexhit you just packed a case, took your bike, showed you passport, and off you went.

No longer.

The Brexhit effect didn’t immediately become apparent because the impact of Covid pandemic closed borders anyway.

But now, with covid restrictions eased, the end of free movement has swung into place with the rules only allowing riders to stay in Europe visa-free for 90 days in a rolling 180-day period. It means riders having to travel back and forth, to calculate time away so as to stretch the 90-day period across the season.

The Rayner fund is battling to make sense of the bureaucracy to allow them to continue their work.  The fund is famous for launching Tao Geoghegan on the road to stardom – he won  the 2020 Giro d’Italia - one of a number to make the top grade.

Tao Geoghegan, former Rayner rider,  winner of the 2020 Giro d'Italia.
Here he takes part in the 2021 Paris - Nice.

At present 12 Rayner funded riders are having to travel back and forth between races instead of living and racing and training abroad full time with their new teams.

The story made a full page in a recent edition of The New European by Tom Epton.

His story recalled how the untimely death of British star Dave Rayner in 1994 led to the creation of the fund to pay the way for youngsters to race live and abroad, to give them the chance to emulate young Rayner before he was cruelly denied.

It has been a major success story for British cycling ever since, established before the Lottery funded program in 1996.

The Fund’s annual dinner and auction to raise funds soon became the biggest social occasion on the home cycling calendar, rivalling British Cycling Federation’s annual bash.

Few can have foreseen how ending of free movement would lead to so much strife.

Many who voted to leave the EU saw the ending of free movement as a means of controlling the flow of foreigners coming here and “taking our jobs”.  The irony is that low paid agricultural work, such as flower and fruit picking, has always traditionally been done by migrants. 

(As many as 50,000 to 70,000 seasonal workers, according to the National Farmers Union because home labour shunned such jobs. Brexit and Covid, saw migrants return home. Britain has since made attempts to remedy the situation by making available 30,000 visas for 2022, possibly increasing this by another 10,000).

However,  ending free movement was a double edged sword for it applies also to many Britons seeking to work in the EU post Brexhit, including riders travelling to live and race in EU countries.

 The New European article recalled how last  year top British Tour winners Chris Froome and Geraint Thomas and inaugural women’s Paris-Roubaix winner Lizzie Deignan signed a letter to the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport – Oliver Dowden – to argue that the travel restrictions presented a serious obstacle to the development of British talent.

What was needed, they said, was a visa to allow them unrestricted travel.

The whole issue became side lined by Covid, which halted all movement at home and abroad.

So how do matters stand now?  I called Dave Rayner Foundation Trustee Keith Lambert to find out.

He gave me the general outline of how the Fund has really struggled and referred me to rider liaison Joscelin Ryan who explained how they are working to best overcome the problems, hoping matters will improve. In the meantime, she gave me the current situation concerning the 31 funded riders for 2022.

Ryan:

 “10 have Residency in an EU country – this was restricted to anyone who was living there before Brexit. Normally lasts for a few years. Not available to anyone moving there in future (not low or non-earners anyway).

“Five have a VISA for an EU country – this has to be applied for in the UK before they go to EU. Has to be applied for every year.

“2 have DUAL nationality

“2 have a work permit for the Netherlands. (Unique to the Netherlands, it seems)  Has to be arranged by their Dutch team. Has to be applied for each year.

“12 are still trying to arrange something – if not successful they are restricted to 90 days.”

Ryan explained that those who are sorted are all abroad and should be ok to stay for the season. Those with visas are still restricted to a maximum six months stay abroad. Applications have to made each time. Riders can however, use their 90 days in addition each year.

 “The 12 that are not sorted are finding it very stressful, says Ryan. “They must try to save days and only travel when they have races. Returning to the UK  out of a **Schengen country.

“This is costly in terms of time, effort and money. Also not beneficial in terms of team integration. This is not something we would have countenanced before Brexit. The point of the RF was to encourage riders to fully integrate into a community and team abroad.”

 The success of the Fund cannot be denied. This year there are 11 former RF supported riders in World tour, Pro tour and Women’s World Tour teams.

*Wheels of Confusion is a Black Sabbath song; track one on the album Volume 4 (1972).

** The Schengen Area comprises 26 European countries that have officially abolished all passport and all other types of border control at their mutual borders.