‘WHEELY’ GREAT CYCLING IDEA!
KEEPING fit, taking traffic off the road, and getting a free bike! It’s a win, win situation.
Louth Local Sports Partnership and local cycling clubs recently joined forces to develop and roll out a ‘Learn to Cycle Programme’ across Co Louth as part of a programme in conjunction with CYPSC dormant account funding programme.
The latest course that took place was at Ardee Community College, with the assistance of Sinead Mc Court from Ardee Community College and Eamon Martin, owner of Wheels & Heels and member of Ardee Cycling club. The programme was run over a four-week period within the grounds of the Ardee Community School.
The main aim is to increase participation among teenagers in physical activity and also to introduce cycling to help create awareness of cycling availability in Louth.
The programme was run from late March to October 2018.
The programme was free for all the participants and were supplied with a bike, a helmet and a padlock to lock their bike. The programme ran for four weeks in the school grounds, the students participating attended for two hours every week with Eamon from Ardee Cycling club during the school day.
The students learned basic cycling skills in relation to how to cycle safely both as individuals and in groups.
They also learned how to maintain their bike and how to check it every day before they would cycle it.
The programme incorporated all elements of the learn to cycle module as designed by Cycling Ireland; these included cycling safeties, cycling skills like turning, stopping, cornering and cycling in groups. The participants of the programme also got to keep their bikes after the programme, this helped some the students with their commute to school as they live locally.
The programme was completed before the Halloween midterm break,
Louth Local Sport Partnership tracked the programme getting feedback from both the students and teachers. The feedback was positive and the students who participated in the programme all expressed an interest in getting involved in the cycling club in Ardee.