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Birmingham School Hosts First Sky Ride Schools Event
Posted: 11th June 2010
On Thursday 10th June, Sky, British Cycling and the Youth Sport Trust staged the UK's first Sky Ride Schools event at Birmingham's Hamstead Hall Community Learning Centre. Over 100 Birmingham primary and secondary school children attended the Specialist Sports College to try out a range of cycling activities such as sprint and endurance events, bike maintenance and group riding. They met Olympic gold medallist and GB track cyclist Jason Kenny, and watched the UK's best trials rider and Double Guinness World Cup holder Andrei Burton perform world-class cycling stunts.
The Sky Ride Schools events are launching in five schools around the country and are the latest addition to the national Sky Ride campaign, which aims to encourage more people to cycle in Britain. Each school that takes part will host a cycling event for the whole school, offer led bike rides throughout the summer, and receive inspirational visits from world-class competitive cyclists.
The initiative aims to help schools build on existing links, or to grow new links, with local cycling clubs giving young people a pathway into the cycling. They will also encourage ongoing cycling participation by leaving a legacy of stronger club-school links and after-school cycling clubs.
Sky Ride Schools is just one element of Sky and British Cycling's wider Sky Ride initiative. Twelve Sky Ride events will take place in 10 cities across the UK this summer and each of these events will have traffic-free streets, enabling cyclists of all abilities to enjoy a day of bike-based entertainment and to explore their city on two wheels with family and friends.
The Sky Ride events take place up and down the country starting in Ealing, in west London on 18 July and then moving to major towns and cities across the UK: Bath and Southampton (25 July), Manchester (1 August), Middlesbrough and the London Borough of Redbridge both (15 August), Glasgow (22 August), Leicester (29 August), Bradford (29 August), Blackpool (31 August), Mayor of London's Sky Ride in central London (5 September) and Birmingham (12 September).
This year's events will build on the success of 2009, which saw over 110,000 people take part. Since last July, Sky's national cycling activities have encouraged almost 300,000 people to start cycling more frequently (cycling more than before Sky Ride 2009) and 92,000 of these people have become new regular cyclists (cycling at least once a month or twelve times a year).
Sky Ride is being backed by a line-up of celebrities and pro-cyclists this year who will be attending the events across the country. Participants will be able to ride alongside the likes of Sir Chris Hoy, Victoria Pendleton and Bradley Wiggins.
A series of Sky Ride Local events will also be taking place across the country. Trained cycle leaders from British Cycling will guide small groups of cyclists on routes in a number of the Sky Ride cities every Sunday throughout the summer. The local rides will offer a selection of routes at different levels of difficulty ranging from Ride Easy and Ride Steady for any age or ability, to Ride Well and Ride Strong for adults and teenager who want a slightly harder challenge.
People interested in Sky Ride or cycling can visit www.goskyride.com for news, information and online registration for each of the Sky Ride events. The site will also feature tips and expert advice on how to ride safely and look stylish plus views from Sky Ride's cycling ambassadors.
