Whitchurch Cycling Club link up with Grangetown to promote cycling
Whitchurch Cycling Club (CC) have partnered with local community Grangetown to deliver a successful 4-week cycling skills course, which culminated in a trip to the Maindy Velodrome in Cardiff.
Cardiff based club, Whitchurch CC, have been delivering an exciting project to engage with young people from the local community. The project aims to provide cycling coaching to children who may not have opportunities within their local community, or who may face barriers to accessing existing provision.
So far, the club coaches have run a 4-week skills course in Grangetown, which culminated in a trip to Maindy Velodrome where they joined regular club riders. The club provided the bikes and helmets for every rider, allowing them to get involved in an activity that may otherwise be inaccessible to them.
The club have also connected with the local Hollybush estate, encouraging children aged 10-13 years old to attend a taster session at their club, with the aim of integrating children from the estate into their regular club sessions.
Anne-Marie Lawrence, the head coach at Whitchurch CC, commented on the outreach project: “I was really impressed by the skills of the young people who attended the taster session, and we now hope to offer the young people reduced membership fees so they can take advantage of everything the club has to offer. We also hope to work with partners such as the wonderful ‘free bikes for kids’ project by Mike Jones in Newport, to ensure the kids have suitable bikes to ride so they can safely progress their riding”
On top of the regular rides and sessions that Anne-Marie coaches at the club, she also helped lead a fun and accessible ride for a group of girls from Grangetown Primary School, who had been working with the council road safety team. The club are keen to explore how they can further support Grangetown Primary to engage girls into cycling.
None of this would have been possible without the incredible support from the Geraint Thomas Cycling Trust. A charity set up so that “every young person can enjoy the spirit of cycling by participating in cycling regardless of their individual circumstances.” The Trust provided funding to the club, allowing them to fund the trip to Maindy Velodrome, and will provide reduced cost membership to families who otherwise would not be able to access the club.
Chair of the GTCT, Adrian Coles said: “The Trust is delighted to be able to support Whitchurch Cycling Club as they seek to widen their reach and help more children simply gain access to cycling.
“We are excited at the opportunities ahead as the application that we supported shows multi discipline sessions from BMX to Track to Road and also the age range of the children the club is helping meets with our intentions of who we are trying to positively impact.
“The club has grown in recent years and it is fantastic to see the depth of volunteers and their passion for children being able to access cycling both within their community and wider as they work with the Grange Pavillion to spread the joy of riding.”
