This pandemic has helped us all see how good it is to get out and cycle in the sun

WE HAD our first session back last week and for a coach it was a reminder of why we do what we do — giving back to the next generation and watching them thrive in a fun, group environment. The kids loved it and you could see just how excited they were to be back in the great outdoors on a beautiful sunny British day. They have been like coiled springs, waiting to get going again. We launched the Academy in January last year, teaching children from 18 months to 16 years old. In many ways we couldn’t have started at a worse time because all of our in-person classes had to stop after only two months. The last year has been a challenge for us, like it has for a lot of businesses around the UK. But lockdown forced us to think differently and build up our online platform and we are all the better for it. We took as many classes as we could online last spring, teaching things like how to change a chain, what to eat and how to pack a kit bag. Even the skill sessions worked really well online and there was a really good uptake on Zoom, particularly from the older kids. With the younger ones, we tried to do activities like stretching and star jumps. A lot of parents were grateful that myself (pictured, below) and my colleagues were able to interact with the kids and get them to do a bit of exercise. Even though we can now meet up in groups again, we will continue to do some classes online as it enables us to widen our audience and help get people into cycling across the UK. Cycling in general has done well in the last 12 months. Every bike shop I speak to has sold out of kit. A lot of the youngsters were able to get out on their bikes with their parents and every time a restriction was eased, like last summer, we brought the classes back as best we could. But since January all classes had been virtual so we were keen to go back to the Cycle Track at Doncaster Dome last week. On the first

Monday back, we started with a skills-based session, introducing all the essential techniques and equipping kids with the tools that good racers at every level of the sport require, including cornering, braking and bunch-riding skills. This was followed by an afternoon of time trials, elimination races, mass start races and handicap races — a series of races for the kids to put the skills they learned in the morning to the test. It was a brilliant re-opening for the Academy and our in-person classes are selling out fast, which shows just how much everyone has missed sport. The last year has been so tough for everyone but I genuinely think grassroots sport is going to be more popular than ever in the next couple of years. The pandemic has opened everybody’s eyes to the need for physical fitness and how that affects people’s mental health and wellbeing. I think people now realise just how good it is to get out and ride your bike in the sunshine. Maybe I am biased, but I just believe in cycling. When I was a kid, it was the one thing that got me out of the house more than anything. It kept me physically fit and it kept me socialising. We have social media now and kids are going to use it, but I just want to give people another option and make it as easy as possible for them to get out on their bikes. I would love to see Clancy Briggs at every major city across the UK. There are football academies for kids at every town across the UK but it hasn’t been done before in cycling on a big scale. If our Academy is about one thing, it is about trying to spread the love of cycling. If one of our riders goes on to be an Olympic champion or Grand Tour winner, then brilliant. But really, we just want children to have fun on bikes.