British Cycling Shows MP Secrets Of Go-Ride Success

 

News Posted: 16 April 2008

Tuesday 15th April saw the Secretary of State, Department for Culture, Media & Sport Andy Burnham MP attending a British Cycling Go-Ride coaching session at Lowton High School in his constituency of Leigh.

Above: Andy Burnham MP with the kids from Lowton High School

He used the opportunity to learn about how the Go-Ride scheme is getting children involved in cycling and how it is teaching them essential bike handling skills and providing access to quality cycle coaching.

British Cycling's Go-Ride scheme, which is part-funded by Sport England, has recently expanded its coaching team with the potential to coach up to 90,000 children in 2008.

Speaking at the session Andy Burnham MP said: "It is great to see how Go-Ride is working as a dedicated cycle coaching programme to get more children involved in cycling. It not only helps them to keep healthy and improve their confidence on a bike, but could also identify some of our Olympic stars of the future!"

Above: Andy Burnham MP (centre) races against British Cycling's coaching, education and development director John Mills (left) and Lowton High School's Head Teacher John Shanahan (right)

He was joined by British Cycling deputy chief executive Ian Drake and coaching, education and development director John Mills, who explained why Go-Ride is proving such a success.

Ian Drake said: "Go-Ride is helping British Cycling to meet its goals of getting more people cycling more often and to win more medals at international events. To have the support of Andy Burnham in meeting these aims is invaluable to us."

Go-Ride coaches are based around local cycling clubs and visit schools in their area to teach cycling skills. Children are then invited to get more involved in cycling through the network of Go-Ride accredited cycling clubs.

Above: The MP demonstrates a cycle-speedway technique with some help from the school children

Go-Ride also supports the creation of school-club links, which helps provide clubs with a constant influx of new young members and helps everyone work towards our shared vision of more young people, more active, more often in cycling. It allows children to pursue an interest in cycling once the initial sessions at school are complete. The success of Go-Ride is dependent upon partnerships between British Cycling, clubs, schools, local authorities and voluntary organisations.

John Mills commented: "The Go-Ride programme currently supports 150 community clubs and this number is growing all the time. All of these clubs are working to achieve Sport England's clubmark accreditation, with 64 of the clubs already accredited."

Set up in 2005, Go-Ride provided nearly 45,000 opportunities for children to receive professional coaching in 2007. By working with local cycling clubs, the scheme has also bolstered grass-roots involvement in the sport, with Go-Ride affiliated clubs reporting a 10% annual growth in youth membership.

 

For more information on Go-Ride and to find clubs in your area, click here