Autumn started with good news: Five companies including SHIMANO became members of the Cycling Industry Club (CIC) and sent a strong message in favor of cycling advocacy. ECF has a waiting list of opportunities so this welcome news meant we could bring forward much needed support for a new Cycling Master Plan for Spain.

Spain is a staggering €5 billion per year behind its competitors in terms of potential revenue from cycling.  In a speech at the UNIBIKE trade show I showed that the biggest potential for growth here is in cycling tourism. Spain is the third most-visited country in the world and has a rich bicycle heritage.

These conditions create excellent opportunities for growth. Currently, Spain brings in €1.6 billion annually from cycle tourism when it should rival France's €7.5 billion. This growth will not just be foreign tourists, there is a large domestic market for leisure and urban cycling that will help bike sales too.

Using extra money from our new CIC members, ECF acted immediately to give an advocacy grant to our Spanish counterparts who are creating the National Cycling Plan based on successful international examples. ECF members AMBE and ConBici have been the driving force behind bringing this National Cycling Plan to the political foreground. We are really excited by this advocacy coalition in Spain, just like our successful EU model it brings together the industry, advocates, cities and policy experts in support of a common goal. Spain has more potential for new cyclists than almost any EU country so growing bike sales will benefit everyone in the industry.

There are many other countries like Spain where a relatively small injection of support and money can have a huge impact. To continue our work, we rely on more companies supporting the CIC.

If you want to support ECF, contact myself, Kevin Mayne at k.mayne@ecf.com or visit our webpage at  ecf.com.