By Special Correspondent
Kerry Purget
  
  There was a huge sigh of relief from the international cycling community last night as the OCM lockout was finally lifted after two days.
  
  Intense closed-door negotiation sessions finally broke the deadlock between the Union Cycling Professionale (UCP) and OCM bigwigs.
  
  While details of the groundbreaking settlement are still sketchy, it is believed that the professional cyclists finally gained an upper hand in talks to improve safety standards in the sport and gain riders a bigger slice of the profits from race wins.
  
  Players representative Gregory Levis was on record as saying that the agreement represented

a victory for common sense, stating that OCM would be nothing without its riders.
  
  "Let's be honest here, we race hard for 90 days of the season and the least you expect is for them to look after us in return.
  
  "We're not asking for too much at all and we hope the fans understand that we do this so we can continue entertaining in the future," Levis told assembled reporters.
  
  Retired cycling great Keegan Shiable also hailed the agreement as a boon to his fellow veteran cyclists, mentioning that given the short professional lifespan of riders the world around, it made sense for them to be financially stable once they were done with the sport.
  
  "I've had mates who've had to take up postal routes, or gone back to live with their mothers,"

Shiable said.
  
  The PCI had been campaigning for improved safety measures after injury figures spiked over the past season. While calls for inflatable safety devices and rubber racing suits were dismissed as ludicrous, OCM administrators appear to have given in to some of the demands.
  
  It is certain that more details will be released over the next few days as the lawyers sort out the paperwork, but for now the professional riders are happy that their grievances have been heard.
  
  Races on the OCM circuit have tentatively gone ahead, as teams began welcoming back their riders.
  
  Meanwhile, calls to OCM had not been returned be press time, while an official press release simply stated that more information would be made available in the near future.