British Cycling great Sir Bradley Wiggins is hoping to help unearth cycling stars of the future after making a donation of £5,000 to five Go-Ride clubs.
Go-Ride is British Cycling’s development programme for young people. There are 300 Go-Ride clubs across the country in communities and schools, giving young people the opportunity to give various cycle sport disciplines a try.
Currently over 60% of the Great Britain Cycling Team across all disciplines started out at Go-Ride clubs. Three time Olympic champion Jason Kenny and double Olympic champion Laura Trott are notable graduates of the programme.
To announce his donation, Sir Bradley visited Liverpool Mercury CC Go-Ride club at Litherland Sports Park, one of the clubs who will benefit from the donation.
Sir Bradley Wiggins said:
“It was great to take a break from training to meet the young riders down at Liverpool’s Mercury Cycling Club this morning.
"I’m proud to donate the money from the Foundation to good causes like this. Local cycling clubs need our support and British Cycling's Go Ride programme does an invaluable job in getting young people started in cycling as a sport.
“I’m in the process of winding down my Foundation now as I concentrate on preparations for Rio 2016. I’m a racer not a fund raiser you know.
"I’ll always support the grass roots and encourage young people to take up healthy sports like cycling and I want to thank everyone who’s helped me raise fund for the Foundation over the last couple of years; I’m looking forward to delivering a great result in Rio next year.”
The Go-Ride programme provided over half a million opportunities for young people to get involved with cycle sport in 2014 alone. Around 90,000 of these opportunities were provided by Go-Ride coaches, with a further 410,000 being provided by 6,000 Go-Ride volunteers.
The programme is further enhanced by Go-Ride Racing - a calendar of entry-level, local racing events that that help young riders make the transition from coaching sessions into club and open regional competitions.
The five Go-Ride clubs that will benefit from funding are:
- Liverpool Mercury CC
- Cycle Sport Pendle
- Ribble Valley Juniors
- Lyme RC
- Salt Ayre Cog Set
British Cycling’s coaching, education and development director, John Mills, said:
“It’s fantastic that Sir Bradley has made this donation. Our Go-Ride programme has proved to be an extremely successful first step on the ladder for so many of the current Great Britain Cycling Team and we want this to continue. Our army of Go-Ride coaches and volunteers do a great job and this financial support will go a long way to supporting the work of these clubs.”
