International Cycling Association

The International Cycling Association (ICA) was the first international body for cycle racing. Founded by Henry Sturmey in 1892 to establish a common definition of amateurism and to organise world championships its role was taken over by the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) in 1900.

The ethos at the end of the 19th century and the increasing influence of the Olympic Games made amateurism an issue in many sports. It was especially relevant in cycle racing because riders had begun travelling internationally to compete in track, or velodrome, races. Riders from one country would complain that they were at a disadvantage to those from another, that they were riding against what they considered to be professionals.

The world's dominant cycling association was the National Cyclists' Union (NCU) in Britain. The historian Jim McGurn said:

The NCU's championships were considered the unofficial championships of the world. It was because the sport needed world championships independent of any national body that Henry Sturmey of the magazine The Cyclist and later founder of the Sturmey-Archer gear company proposed an International Cyclists Association in 1892. Having secured the co-operation of British officials and writers such as George Lacy Hillier, he approached other countries' national associations through the NCU.

They met in the Royal Agricultural Hall, London in November 1892, listed as representing the NCU (Henry Sturmey and W. M. Appleton), the Union des Sociétés Françaises de Sports Athlétiques (A. E. Kemplen), German Cyclists Union (Heinrich Kleyer), Dutch Cyclists Union (Franz Netcher), Italian Cyclists Union (G. Bonetti), Belgian Cyclists Union (A. Choisy), Canadian Cyclists Association (Dr P. E. Doolittle).

Trouble was already in store because the Union des Sociétés Françaises de Sports Athlétiques was not the French national body. The national body, the Union Vélocipèdique Française, sent observers but was not allowed to take part because the NCU had broken off relationships with it over the question of amateurism. Scottish Cyclist reported:

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