Following on from a hugely successful course in 2014 and taking advantage of the dedicated mountain bike track at the National Cycling Centre, places are now available for this year’s Women’s Beginner Mountain Bike Course.
Consisting of progressive sessions held on Monday evenings throughout Spring and Summer, the course is ideal for women over 18 who want to have a go at mountain biking or build on novice skills.
The first session will be held on Monday 20 April starting at 6pm, costing just £3 for an hour and a half. Over the subsequent weeks, a small, focused group of six participants will undertake training with a qualified British Cycling coach to learn new skills in a fun and supportive environment.
Each session will introduce techniques such as position on the bike, braking and cornering, climbing and descending, manual front wheel lifts, powered front wheel lifts, small (rollable) drop offs and rear wheel lifts.
When the course comes to a close at the end of June, the aim is for participants to be at a standard where they feel comfortable riding the trails at the nearby Clayton Vale Mountain Bike Centre. There will also be a chance for the group to put everything they have learnt into practise with a day at a mountain bike centre.
Last year’s participants explored the terrain at Coed Llandegla forest in Wales where coach, Joe Malik, saw just how confident the group had become:
“Over the series of six sessions we worked really closely with each rider to make sure they were always pushing a little outside of their comfort zone.
"Mountain biking – and the track here at the National Cycling Centre – can appear a little daunting at first, but the group did an absolutely brilliant job of supporting each other and I felt incredibly proud seeing everyone tearing up the Welsh trails. They definitely held nothing back!”
Having attended the sessions as a rider in 2014, Kathy England said; “The sessions were pitched at the right level for the participants with some excellent coaching, and I think we all got a lot out of them.
"It’s also been really fun to have an all women group for this, with people willing to have a go without feeling under pressure to get it right.”
More information and online entry is available in our Events section, with each of the dates listed separately (see below). Participants will be able to use bikes from the centre if they do not have their own and sessions can be booked individually. If you would like to speak to the coach about the course, please contact Joe Malik, British Cycling Go-Ride Coach, on 07908 407 317 or joemalik@britishcycling.org.uk.
The full schedule of dates is as follows:
20 April – More information and booking
27 April – More information and booking
11 May – More information and booking
18 May – More information and booking
1 June – More information and booking
8 June – More information and booking
22 June – More information and booking
29 June – More information and booking
An intermediate course will follow in the Summer, beginning on 6 July. Further information will be available soon, but the sessions are now available to book online.
