Welcome to the latest edition of the AustCycle newsletter. We hope you've all had a great start to the year and have been busy helping people within your community ride more regularly.

AustCycle has been excitedly working across several new projects aimed at increasing the number of people riding, including the Happiness Cycle with Bicycle Network, and the She Rides program with Cycling Australia, the Amy Gillett Foundation and Mountain Bike Australia.

On top of this, we also recently released a number of school related resources to our Providers to assist them in running programs within schools, with the goal of helping more students gain the skills and confidence to ride regularly. 

The Bike Control and Road Safety programs are built upon the philosophy of delivering fun, engaging and challenging sessions that will grow and/or further develop the love of riding a bike in children. Both the Bike Control and Road Safety programs comprise of 6 x 1 hour practical sessions (or learning blocks), designed to provide maximum participation and enhance the bike skills of the participants in a progressive, fun and interactive manner. For more information about accessing these programs please contact your local Provider or AustCycle direct.

Gareth Watkins
General Manager, AustCycle

More Australian teenagers are getting outside and on bikes thanks to a new initiative by Coca-Cola, which aims to improve physical activity levels in teenagers by increasing access to bikes.

After discovering that only 1 in 5 Australians aged between 15-17 years old rides a bike once a week, Coca-Cola launched the Happiness Cycle, which is being run in partnership with Bicycle Network.

“We’re committed to helping be part of the solution for one of today’s biggest problems: obesity," explained Coca-Cola on their website.

“As one of our four business commitments to help address this national issue, we’re proud to launch to Happiness Cycle to encourage active, healthy living and inspire people to get moving”.

To do this, Coca-Cola has been giving away thousands of bikes to teenagers at community events around the country, and AustCycle Teachers have been there to ensure kids learn about bicycle safety before they hit the streets.

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National Ride2School Day has come and gone for another year and AustCycle Teachers and Skills Coaches were on hand to ensure that as many children as possible got to school safely.

Read about the great work our Providers got up to in South Australia, Queensland, Victoria and New South Wales!

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Cycling Australia (CA), in conjunction with Mountain Bike Australia (MTBA), the Amy Gillett Foundation, AustCycle, Cycling Queensland and Cycling New South Wales, is excited to announce the launch of a new national riding initiative for women called She Rides!

She Rides will run for 12 weeks between May and July and is aimed at women over the age of 30 who want to ride for health, transport, fitness and fun but lack the access, skills, confidence or support to make a change. Ten pilot programs will be delivered in New South Wales and Queensland, with the opportunity for expansion into other states in the future.

Registrations are now open online and CA, AustCycle and MTBA members have the opportunity to win one of 20 x $50 Coles Myer gift cards. Simply ask the females you refer to list your full name in the friend referral section on the registration form to go into the draw to win!

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As always our AustCycle Providers have been hard at work getting more Australians riding safely and confidently. Often these Providers share with us feedback that they receive from participants and recently we were forwarded this letter from a lady in South Australia who not that long ago was taking AustCycle lessons to better her skills.  

'Hi Lee-Anne, just thought I'd give you an update. I've been going to a EFM gym this year and on the weekend there was a triathlon/duathlon. I entered the duathlon (2km run - 9km bike ride - 2km run). The runs weren't easy but the bike ride was great, I blitzed it. I ended up coming third in my age group (65+) so pretty happy with that. Thought you'd like to know that I'm still riding my bike and enjoying it. Regards Robyn'

AustCycle Provider Lee-Anne Fleming said that Robyn had participated in a Playford Ride-a-Bike Right course six to 10 months after she and her husband made major lifestyle changes for health reasons.

"Robyn did the Back On The Bike lesson one and then hired a bike the next weekend and came back to the second lesson with great enthusiasm," Lee-Anne explained. "She was given one of the Healthy Community Initiative helmets in recognition [of her efforts]."

"Her and her husband have since been to one of the Ride-a-Bike Ride Recreational riding programs (conducted in Holdfast Bay with AustCycle funding). Lets hope that the current and future governments see that programs focused on preventative health measures can have a lasting effect."