Would you like to learn more about group cycling in the workplace?

Whether looking to improve fitness, mental health or just getting a bit of fresh air over a lunchtime, introducing cycling opportunities for staff or colleagues has the potential to make a positive impact within your workplace.

At Welsh Cycling we have focused our efforts towards helping organisations create workplace cycling groups. We have a range of training courses, tools and workshops available to be delivered to workplaces in Wales, in most cases all we require is a few willing volunteers who are able to ride their bikes and give up a few hours of their time.

A range of packages to set up a cycling group within your organisation:

1. Set up your own Led Ride program for employees

A full bespoke package consisting of a course for 10 volunteer ride leaders being trained to run rides on a regular basis to, from or around your campus or workplace. Welsh Cycling could organise and facilitate the training of volunteers or staff members as British Cycling level 1 Ride Leaders, providing personal liability insurance and access to British Red Cross ride leader specific first aid courses.

Welsh Cycling could also provide template ride leader agreements for volunteers and support in the organisation of the team by delivering development workshops to introduce ride leaders to the tools needed to plan routes and market the rides.

In addition, Welsh Cycling could help your team to design Ride Leader clothing (Gilets and Jackets etc.) through our kit partners Primal UK, these would be printed with the organisation's logos and be worn by leaders whilst hosting rides.

Please contact us directly to discuss the costs of this option, and how we can tailor this package to meet your organisation's requirements.

2. Train up some ride leaders

If you don't have enough volunteers for a bespoke ride leader course, we can still help. Your organisation could opt to send volunteers on a public Ride Leadership course from British Cycling. In this instance, Welsh Cycling would provide a development workshop with the group in order to introduce ride leaders to the tools needed to plan routes and market the rides. The workshop would be free of charge under the assumption that the organisation would agree to run their rides through the Letsride.co.uk website.

There are from time to time publicly accessible courses organised by British Cycling that your ride leaders could choose to attend. More information on public courses is available HERE or, send us an email with your requirements.

3. Become a 'Hub' for HSBC UK Breeze

HSBC UK Breeze is a led ride program designed to offer free of charge cycling opportunities for Women and Girls, HSBC UK Breeze Champions hold the Ride Leadership L1 qualification from British Cycling and run rides across the country on a voluntary basis. Assuming there are courses available locally and your volunteers were willing to run at least 8 led rides over the following 12 months they may be able to apply to become a Breeze Champion and deliver rides within your workplace. Find out more about the HSBC UK Breeze program HERE or contact our Women and Girls Participation Officers (addresses below). Please note that HSBC UK Breeze Ride Leadership training is open to Women only.

4. Set up workplace ‘Social’ rides

HSBC UK Ride Social is a free of charge online portal for creating group rides, any member of staff could host and create rides for others within your organisation. The platform is based on the idea that everyone is out for a ride together rather than taking part in a led ride. Ride creators pick a spot and time to start, think of a route, post the ride to www.letsride.co.uk and see who joins in. This would likely be the most straightforward and low-cost option to set up a cycling group with little to no cost to the employer. Welsh Cycling would be able to provide a free development workshop within the workplace to help groups of volunteers to set up a cycling group and create rides on the system.

We can help!

Introducing group cycling into the workplace could be as easy as giving us a call or email, assuming you can recruit a handful of motivated volunteers we can help to provide all the information you might need.

We have recently helped to set up a number of cycling groups within organisations and community groups across Wales, helping to provide members of the public and staff with easily accessible safe cycling opportunities. We are also working closely with a number of others to assist them in achieving their Gold and Platinum Corporate Health Standard Awards.

The options above have varying levels of support from Welsh Cycling and can be tailored to your organisational requirements and budget. Each option would result in the provision of work-based group cycling opportunities, assuming continued staff or volunteer input/retention.

We have found through previous projects and research that providing volunteers with educational courses in combination with a role in the development and planning of cycling schemes can be particularly valuable in terms of participant safety and volunteer ‘buy in’, potentially providing higher levels of project sustainability.

Welsh Cycling will aim to provide the highest levels of support and information regarding the setting up of a cycling group and supporting the volunteers. Please get in touch if you would like to talk further about any of these options or if you have any questions related to workplace cycling.

For more information on any of these packages, and discuss what would be right for your workplace contact: