Spokes now has formally trained ride leaders thanks to a recent course organised by West Berkshire Council. Josh Kerry and Gordon Oliver attended the two day course that covered Ride Leader Training (Level 1), as well as Route Mapping and Planning. This means that we are now formally qualified to plan and lead rides of up to 50 miles.

Spokes has been successfully running a programme of informal, social bike rides for a couple of years, which are planned and led by experienced local cyclists. Although one of our group already has a CTC ride leader qualification, we were keen to get others trained up to ensure that we are delivering rides in accordance with best practice. As well as being helpful for our own purposes, it means that we can volunteer to lead more formal programmes of rides on behalf of third parties, such as West Berkshire Council.

The sessions covered a lot of theory including duty of care, child protection and risk assessment, as well as how to safely travel as a group, navigate a variety of different junctions and plan a ride route for different abilities.  These classroom sessions were then followed up with some practical assessments out on the road, where we could put our newly learned skills to the test.

Having cycled for many years, we considered ourselves to be quite knowledgeable and safe cyclists, but we were surprised at how much there was to learn and how leading a group of cyclists requires a very different riding style and set of skills to riding on our own.

We are looking forward to putting our new skills into practice on our led rides. These take place on the first and third Saturdays of every month right through to October.  We have a good mix of easier and intermediate rides to cater for a wide range of abilities.  To find out more and to book your place on any of the rides, please visit our page on the GoSkyRide.com website. If you have any questions about any of the rides, or if you want to find out about which rides are right for you, then please contact us beforehand.