Chris Boardman comes to BikeRight!

It was a big day for us yesterday, as cycling legend Chris Boardman paid a visit to BikeRight! in Liverpool.

He met trainees on our City and Guilds course who are training to become cycle mechanics delivered by our mechanic, Paul, who has been likened to cycling's version of Professor Brian Cox.  Simon from Rotunda College was nominated to maintain their recently-acquired pool bikes; ditto for George from the YMCA. Both organisations are giving these volunteers the opportunity to practice the skills they are learning, providing valuable work experience.  

 

Then he had a chat with some supported housing residents from Riverside Housing who were on their way back from a bike ride.  Chris confessed his ignorance about the canal route they'd taken, so there was a chance to give the top guy some advice about where to get on and off the towpath.

After that, it was off to a windy afternoon in the streets around Rice Lane Junior School, seeing how Bikeability works in practice.  All 20 children wanted autographs on their bikes, helmets, pieces of paper, and one child produced a Chris Boardman certificate she'd drawn earlier complete with a 'sign here' box.


An interview with Radio Merseyside rounded off the afternoon, as Chris gave a logical argument for including Bikeability on the national curriculum for primary schools so that all children have the opportunity to access this lifetime skill. "We could fill this course several times over," said the Rice Lane head.  Any more proof needed?

Talk, walk and cycle

Oops, no posts from Majorca because I couldn't work out how to post pictures from the iPad. Technology! I struggle with digital, really prefer mechanical.  The long lean guys in the bike shop at Bruce's Pro Cycle Hire in Porto Pollensa enthused about electronic gear shifters.  I'm naturally suspicious - what happens if the button doesn't click?  But I suppose if that attitude had prevailed amongst the general population, we'd still be using typewriters, and I wouldn't be here now.

Anyway, I promise to do a post soon about our Majorca adventures after it stopped raining.

In the meantime, Liz and I have been in the thick of organising conferences.  Tuesday was the first Choose Freedom conference held at the lovely Isla Gladstone conservatory in Stanley Park in Liverpool. As well as presenting our stats and achievements, participants got to experience a walk, bike ride, cycle maintenance advice or a travel surgery. Some took advantage of all three.

As it's walk to work week this week, people who walked or cycled were rewarded with a bacon or egg butty, and we gave out free pedometers and information on how to achieve the 10,000 steps health target in daily life.  There's still time to walk to work this week - Living Streets has more info.

We had a very moving presentation from an army veteran who entered civvy street last August with nowhere to go and no way of making a living.  Through the help of bnenc.org/he made contact with  Choose Freedom and trained as a cycle instructor.   With the support of the Poppy Factory he is now employed as a cycle instructor with BikeRight!

Today Liz is at the annual conference of The Association of Bikeability Schemes in Birmingham, attended by all the local authorities and organisations that deliver child cycle training. As the long-awaited quality assurance scheme for Bikeability is now in operation - a kind of Ofsted for cycle training - there's a strong sense that things are coming together, and that children up and down the country will be receiving the same quality of training.

Also, on Tuesday my latest article on family cycling was published in totalwomenscycling.com  It's well worth regular visits to this website - lots of chatty information.

Lastly, we're off again with a group from Team Glow to tackle part of the Lon Las cycle trail tomorrow for 3 days.  We're not too sure about the prospect of the Welsh hills and climate after Majorcan mountains and sunshine, but I'm sure there will be stories to tell after the event.  Our leader casually let slip that Saturday's ride is 90 miles. Fortunately there's also a railway line as a back-up.  Something tells me that's going to feature in our weekend's itinerary.

Collecting colls in Majorca

I hate broken promises, so here's the long-delayed brief account of our 6 days cycling in Majorca in April/May.

The most impressive record of the week was Liz's descent of Sa Calobra - 17 exhilarating minutes captured on video of her skill and daring negotiating the switchback road at 30mph or more. Look out for the encounter with the coach halfway through.

We had 2 days of torrential rain when we arrived. The rest of the week we rode up to 80 miles a day (ok, one day we did 20) under a blazing sun through lanes and mountain roads, 'digging in' for mountain climbs,  ascending to Coll d'Orient, Coll d'Honor, Coll dels Reis then sweeping down to the lush plain and a fast route across country back to our base in Port de Pollenca.

Back next year!  Here are some pics