British Cycling bars transgender women from competing in female category

Trans women remain eligible to compete in UCI events staged in Britain such as the Women’s Tour if they meet the terms of the global governing body’s policy. Photograph: Adam Davy/PA

British Cycling has become the latest governing body to bar transgender women from competing in the female category to “safeguard the fairness” of the sport. The decision, which ends the transgender cyclist Emily Bridges’s dreams of competing for Britain in the female category, followed a nine-month consultation and a review of the latest science.

Under the new rules, which were greeted with sharp criticism by Bridges, the men’s division will be replaced by an “open category” – which will now also include transgender men, transgender women and non-binary individuals. Meanwhile the “female category” for any form of competition from elite to grassroots will be preserved for those with a birth sex of female.