British Cycling Mountain Bike Leadership Award courses have commenced in England since Saturday 4 July and will resume in Wales and Scotland from week commencing Monday 20 July in line with British Cycling’s The Way Forward guidance.
Following a huge effort from course providers and venues new guidance has been produced on the delivery of courses, with changes including:
• A reduction in the number of course participants where required
• All courses will begin with an online introduction session beforehand, including prevention and control measures
• Time spent indoors is reduced or eliminated, with additional online group video calls and increased use of practical outdoor environments.
British Cycling’s Leadership and Off-Road Lead, Dan Cook, said:
“MTB Leadership has always been about creating safe environments to deliver fun rides. The relaxing of lockdown means that we have reshaped our courses using the same approach, and the use of online discussions before the course should improve the learning experience too.”
British Cycling Tutor, David Windebank, said:
“WyeMTB are thrilled to be able to offer British Cycling Mountain Bike Leadership training courses from Pedalabikeaway from July. We have reviewed the venue, routes and British Cycling guidance for courses to ensure we are Covid-19 compliant. As a result we have lowered the number of learners on the course, made arrangements to have an outdoor classroom and invested in some digital conference software. We are really hopeful that we will see more people wanting to lead groups of people on off-road trails.”
Course providers in all countries are hard at work gearing up for a return.
From Scotland, British Cycling Tutor and Ridelines owner Andy Weir said:
“Now that restrictions are being relaxed in Scotland, Ridelines are excited to be planning a range of mountain bike leadership courses again in the Tweed Valley. There's a huge joy to be had from helping develop the next generation of mountain bike leaders and with the recent uptake in cycling due to lockdown, this is a fantastic opportunity for everyone to be involved in the bright future of mountain biking.”
In Wales, PedalMTB and British Cycling Tutor Al Seaton said:
“It’s been four months but we've taken the necessary Covid precautions, developed innovative training sessions, obtained Natural Resources Wales approval to use the facilities and we're looking forward to the time for us all to ride together. PedalMTB are ready to restart the delivery of British Cycling MTB Leadership Courses from the world renowned Coed y Brenin Trail Centre.”
Further British Cycling courses will resume from Friday 4 September. To express an interest in training with British Cycling, please complete our Expressions of Interest survey to be the first to hear when courses are announced.
