British Cycling will host a three-day training session at the Manchester Velodrome this weekend. The event comes after the UK moved to a nationwide lockdown and stay-at-home advisory on January 5 amid a surge in cases of the coronavirus.

It will bring together 90 athletes participating in the Olympic Games Podium Program or Talent Pathway, along with coaches, timers, officials, and mechanics for three days.

Stephen Park, British Cycling's performance director, explained that the training sessions are exempt from British Elite Sport. "As part of our preparations for the upcoming Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics, and as an opportunity to develop Pathway athletes, we are using our regular training venue, the National Cycling Center, which we have been using since it reopened last May, during training sessions to conduct race simulation activities."

Some on social media have called the gathering a "secret national championship," but Cycling News understands that no titles will be awarded and British Cycling has stated that it is not an official race. The competition, which takes place this weekend in Manchester, will attract riders from all over the United Kingdom, but the riders will practice physical distance whenever possible. According to Cycling News, athletes will be required to leave the velodrome between competitions.

However, it seems disingenuous that such a gathering would be held just three weeks after COVID-19 infections in the UK reached a record peak of 68,000 new cases in one day on January 8.

This week's seven-day average of 28,000 new infections per day has eased the surge, but the rate of new infections is still well above the first epidemic last April. Since the pandemic began, more than 100,000 people have died of COVID-19 in the UK.

The UK has closed most indoor sports facilities, as well as golf courses and swimming pools, but for elite athletes under the age of 18, their coaches, parents, or those with official elite sports pathways, large group gatherings for training or competition exemptions to allow them to do so.

Hotels would be closed for holiday stays but allowed to open for elite athletes who need to train.

"Under current government guidance, elite training and competition can continue and strict COVID protocols will be followed at all times, as they always have in our training sessions," Park said.

"We acknowledge that as an elite sports team we are in a very privileged position to continue our activities. The race simulation activities form part of our strategy to ensure we are on track to achieve our ambitions in Tokyo and Paris."

The large contingent of athletes and staff from the UK highlights the same conundrum that Olympic Games organizers faced in 2020. Athletes and national Olympic committees complained that the different national lockdowns created an unfair playing field and put pressure on athletes to take on the risk of contracting with COVID-19 to prepare for the Olympic Games.

The lockdowns also affected anti-doping activities, causing the cancellation of many qualifying competitions and making the 2020 Games impossible.

The IOC rescheduled the Tokyo Games for July of this year, hoping that rapidly available vaccinations and pandemic control measures would be successful. Instead, this month saw protests and riots in the Netherlands, Lebanon, Bulgaria, Denmark, Canada, and Austria similar to those that occurred in 2020.