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. Background 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 National Cyclists' Union [known until 1883 as the Bicycle Union], made itself unpopular in the early 1890s for its stubborn and seemingly nit-picking opposition to riders who professed themselves 'amateur'". "The national organisations which governed cycle sport were often in dispute, largely as a result of their varying attitudes to the spread of professionalism. The Bicycle Union, having quarrelled with the Amateur Athletics Association over