Expanding the Opportunities for Youth Cyclists
Over the recent months, the Cycling Ireland Participation and Events Teams have met with various parties to give more opportunities to youth cyclists. There is a big focus on development of participation-based events, taking place in a fun and safe environment.
Grass Track Cycling
Grass Track Cycling has been identified as an activity that is fun, safe and inclusive. The Participation Team will be utilizing Bike Week in May to promote Grass Track Cycling nationwide in collaboration with clubs and local sports partnerships.
The Participation Team have also engaged with Community Games to help promote and organise Grass Track Cycling with the view to hosting County Championships and sending full allocations of boys and girls in both U14 and U16 to the Community Games National Championships in Gormanstown on the 26th May.
County Youth Cycling Club via Link My Ride
Another area of work that the Participation Team is pursuing is the concept of a County Youth Cycling Club and utilising a new partnership with a company called Link My Ride.
The concept is to bring parents of children in each county together, especially those who have just completed a Cycle Right course (35,000 - 40,000 children aged 10 - 12 each year) and the likes of clubs, LSP's, coaches, tutors, trainers, etc together on the Link My Ride app to deliver cycling activities such as family cycles on greenways, Grass Track Cycling events, trips to BMX tracks and MTB trail centres, etc. We will be seeking buy in from clubs and LSP's in four to eight counties initially to run a trial of this initiative.
New Development Roles with Cycling Ireland
We are also delighted to announce the expansion of the Cycle Right programme which is growing year on year to the tune of 5,000 participants and is on target to deliver to 40,000 children in 2024.
To help with this expansion, we have been recruiting for two new roles in Cycle Right. In addition to the new Cycle Right roles, we are actively recruiting three new Regional Development Officers. These three new RDO's in conjunction with the Youth Development Officer and Club Development Officer in Ulster, will be tasked with growing participation within the youth population in all disciplines and abilities.
Youth Road Racing Calendar
The Cycling Ireland events team have been working closely with event organisers to deliver a full season of racing for Youth. The season will kick off this weekend with the John Haldane Memorial (hosted by Newry Wheelers), with the Lucan GP also expanding their offering to Youths the following weekend. These races are intended to give Irish riders early season opportunities ahead of Easter stage races such as Rás na nÓg and Youth Tour of Scotland.
A full calendar of Youth Racing can be found here.
Youth Contact:
Participation – paul.norton@cyclingireland.ie
Events – aaron.johnson@cyclingireland.ie