Winners of the 2025 Cycling Champion of the Year Awards have been announced, with Katherine Cory and Phil Noble celebrated for their impact in helping to enable more people, of all ages, to cycle in Scotland.
Now in its ninth year, the awards are organised in partnership between Cycling Scotland, Cycling UK, Scottish Cycling and Sustrans. Following a public nominations process earlier in the year, the judging panel has chosen Katherine and Phil as unanimous winners of the 2025 award, in recognition of their personal efforts to support positive change and break down barriers to cycling.
Cycling Champion of the Year – Katherine Cory
Katherine Cory, Cycling Champion of the Year 2025 (centre), pictured with Clare Skelton-Morris (Cycling Scotland, left) and Paul Jones (Scottish Cycling, right)
Katherine Cory is co-organiser of Shawlands Bike Bus, a parent-led initiative to help children cycle to Shawlands Primary School in the southside of Glasgow on roads without protected cycle lanes. Launched in 2021 with five families, the bike bus has grown substantially under Katherine’s guidance, with more than 60 children now joining the rides to school each Monday and Friday morning.
Katherine led a recent effort to establish a bike lending library at the school, helping children and families without bikes to participate in the bike bus and experience the joy of cycling, often for their first time. These bikes are also now available for use by children over the school holidays, helping to embed cycling habits outside of school.
Through the Shawlands Bike Bus, Katherine has led local successful campaigning efforts with parents and children to make the case for the development of safe cycle routes to their school in coming years, and provided advice and support for other communities and schools to set up their own bike buses. In 2024, Katherine was a lead organiser for Ride Bright, a women’s cycle ride which saw over 100 women cycling through Glasgow on International Women’s Day to highlight the need for safer streets for cycling.
The awards panel commended Katherine’s passion, determination, her impact in effecting positive local change and helping to break down barriers to cycling for woman and children.
Katherine Cory, Cycling Champion of the Year 2025
Katherine Cory, Cycling Champion of the Year, said: “I want to thank everyone who nominated me for this award. As soon as I started getting around on my bike again four years ago with friends and neighbours through the bike bus, it was a lightbulb moment. Cycling makes me feel so free and able to get around easily as a parent.
“With the bike bus, it has been about children and families showing they want change, but it’s something that’s also really fun and joyful, and that has created a community at the same time. I think it’s possible to make change if you support others and ensure that fun is also part of the way of getting there.”
Cycling Champion of the Year – Phil Noble
Phil Noble, Cycling Champion of the Year (centre), pictured with Cecilia Oram (Sustrans, left) and Suzanne Forup (Cycling UK, right)
Phil Noble is former Strategy and Development Manager for Active Travel at City of Edinburgh Council, having retired in August 2025. Over a 40-year career, which began in York as one of the first local authority cycling officers appointed in the UK, before moving to Edinburgh in the 1990s, Phil has influenced positive change and led the development of policies and projects to create safer streets for cycling.
Nominations highlighted Phil’s role as a key driving force for change in the capital, including the advancement of strategies to prioritise street space for active travel, such as Edinburgh’s Street Design Guidance, and its School Streets programme, first trialled in 2015 as one of the first of its kind in the UK.
The awards panel commended Phil’s energy, enthusiasm, and impact in advocating for and shaping improvements to make it easier and safer for more people to cycle.
In accepting the award, Phil Noble, Cycling Champion of the Year, said: "I feel extremely honoured and proud to have won this award, and wish to thank everyone who nominated me.
“I passionately believe cycling is key to making the places we live more sustainable and better places to be. There's just so much to love about it: it gives you freedom, it's cheap, environmentally friendly, and a gateway to independence. And with the right environment, it can be accessible to everyone."
"I've been so privileged to work with an outstanding team delivering improvements in Edinburgh. I want to thank my colleagues for their support over the years, and wish them well as they continue to make the city a better place to walk, wheel, cycle and live."
Phil Noble, Cycling Champion of the Year 2025
A spokesperson for the awards panel said: “We are thrilled to celebrate Katherine and Phil’s hugely positive impact in supporting more people to cycle. Nominations strongly emphasised the personal impact that both winners have had, and their determination to ensure that more people can access and enjoy all the benefits of cycling in their communities."
