On Saturday 20 May, the Club ran the third of its popular Ride Leadership Training courses. Group rides are the lifeblood of our vibrant and successful Club, but that relies on enthusiastic and passionate ride leaders to make them happen.
"A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way and shows the way."
John C. Maxwell
NRC Ride Leaders we salute you!
A good ride leader can make a huge difference to enjoyment and experience we all take from our rides. Primarily there to ensure our safety on the road, ride leaders get involved with multiple tasks from route planning to ride app administration. From booking a coffee stop to making sure no-one is dropped, we could not run our club rides programme without them.
Our recent membership survey indicated that Ride Leadership was a skill in demand. This year the Ride Leadership Team, headed by Dave Martin and Shaun Ward, designed a bespoke course, tailored to the needs of our Club. Drawing on the latest learning and best practice from Cycling UK and British Cycling, the half-day course covered the full range of Ride Leadership skills, from pre-planning to getting back safely, and all points between. All participants spent classroom time in interactive exercises and discussion led by Dave, before heading out as a group for a practical session led by Shaun who is a qualified British Cycling Leadership Coach.
As a result the Club proudly boasts 32 qualified ride leaders, with more expressing an interest in future sessions. To all those who gave up their Saturday mornings to benefit the wider club membership – we salute you!
Investing in our members
Your Club is strictly not-for-profit. Ride Leadership Training is just one way in which Newbury Road Club invests your membership subscriptions. In recent months we have also facilitated 21 of our members to successfully pass Emergency First Aid Courses through Meducate, a registered Qualsafe Training Provider. These invaluable courses could literally be a life-saver for a member when out on the road and we plan to run more in the future. We are also investigating a route planning course covering the technical aspects of GPS and commercial ride apps. Add these to bike maintenance and puncture workshops we have run for Club members, I am sure you will agree we want all members to get the most of their time out riding with the Club.
I encourage you to look out for more free training opportunities, sign up and get involved!
Finally, may I restate my huge thanks to Dave Martin and Shaun Ward for running these courses and to all those who participated and turn out to lead our rides each week.
Lorraine Murrell
NRC Chair