The Go-Ride tour has taken place with our network of clubs across Wales over the month of July with 12 events taking place to encourage & engage new riders into the sport.

339 riders took part in coach lead races with a road, MTB and Cyclo-Cross feel. The events were open to all abilities and the coach led element of the racing allowed the coach to adapt the racing rules by such as implementing handicapping to allow for tighter racing and the personal development of all riders.

A secondary benefit of the racing was that it gave those club officials who haven’t organised an event an insight into how to promote a race, which could in the future lead to more events in the future. Alison Young, who organised Maindy Flyers event has been well & truly bitten by the bug and is looking to integrate a monthly go-ride race into the clubs activities.

The series of events have been so successful that we are looking at creating a co-ordinated coach led competition structure to support the growth and development of the network of Go-Ride clubs.

South Wales Development Officer, Dan Coast said “Introducing young people to the sport of cycling is obviously one of our main goals as a department and the addition of Go-Ride racing in our clubs artillery will certainly make a huge difference to introducing young people to the sport. You only need to look at the number of our Welsh Athletes who completed for Wales at the Commonwealth Games to realise that starting their cycling in a Go-Ride club, who knows a future superstar, even Tour de France champion could have emerged from one of the Go-Ride tour events.”

The Development officers across Wales are busy consulting with our Go-Ride clubs to look at options to allow us to ensure Go-Ride racing remains firmly on the portfolio of events supported by Welsh Cycling.

Click to read the full Go-Ride report produced by British Cycling