British Cycling Federation bans transgender athletes from competing in female events

Transgender riders will be unable to compete in competitive women’s races under a new policy issued by British Cycling today. The decision comes after a nine-month review and consultation process.

The national governing body has created two new policies that cover the participation of transgender and non-binary athletes in competitive and non-competitive events. The previous testosterone-based policy was suspended by BC in April last year pending a full review, following fears trans athlete Emily Bridges would have an advantage competing at the National Omnium Championships.

Under the new policy competitive events will no longer have male and female categories but a female and an "open" category. Transgender women, men and non-binary athletes can compete in the “open” category moving forward.

This comes not long after Austin Killips' victory in the female version of Tour of the Gila, which caused a huge controversy that is still on-going. UCI confirmed, that it'll look into the issue deeper and try to come up with a solution by August.