On Saturday, October 1st, Cycling BC’s new youth Learn to Race Program kicked off!
This launched the beginning of a program that is designed to teach new skills to Youths, so that they will be better prepared for racing. We had a dedicated group of cycling enthusiasts out and the rain even managed to hold off for us.
The day began with a warm up on an obstacle course that focused on testing riders’ bike handling and cornering abilities. The warm up then continued as we went on a group ride around Trout Lake. After getting loosened up riding around the lake, we returned to our all weather field to work on our bike handling (the day’s focus). Everyone did a fantastic job of riding between some very tightly spaced cones, arranged in straight lines and curves.
To end the day we played off of the Tortoise and the Hare story. We started by having our tortoise race. This race consisted of riding through an obstacle course, with the winner being the rider who could complete the obstacle course in the longest time (you want to go slow) without putting their foot down. It may sound easy, but I challenge you to try this at home!
To end the day, we had our “Hare” portion of racing. This used our obstacle course that we warmed up on. After getting two opportunities to pre-ride the obstacle course, each rider had to submit their guess, for how long the obstacle course would take them to complete. Then each rider set off on a one lap effort, to see how quickly they could cover the course. What the riders did not know, was that the winner was the rider who could come closest to the time that they guessed it would take for them to complete the course. Every rider rode a strong time, with everyone breaking the 40 second barrier on this course. A special mention has to go to Adam who actually managed to guess his time, right down to the very second!
Saturday was a great time for everyone, and it is just the beginning of bigger things for Youth Cycling in BC. If you missed out this week, we still have a couple openings, so its not too late to sign up.