Get on your bike for week-long festival of cycling across the East Riding

A bicycle stunt team, a penny-farthing and other weird and wonderful bikes will be riding into Beverley and Goole as part of a free family bike festival next week.

Beverley’s Saturday Market and will be taken over as part of the annual celebration of cycling in the East Riding, the Cycle4Life Challenge Week, on Sunday 17 June, and Goole Academy will host the event on Monday 18 June.

The two events will launch a week of activities including a schools’ cycle race competition, a day-long bike ride by local teachers, and a bike challenge by refugees living in the East Riding who have been taught cycle skills.

Now in its ninth year, the Cycle4Life Challenge Week is organised by East Riding of Yorkshire Council’s road safety and public health teams to promote cycling as a fun and healthy activity for all the family – and a great way to get around the East Riding.

The week of events will include:

Family Bike Festival in Beverley

This free event will be held in Beverley’s Saturday Market on Sunday 17 June from 10am to 4pm and everyone is invited to come along and join in the fun.

The whole of the market place will become a huge cycling playground with fun, safe activities for all the family, including:

The 3Sixty Bicycle Stunt Team, which currently holds eight Guinness World Records, will be performing daring displays throughout the day.
Children and adults will have the chance to ride some weird and wonderful bikes including the world’s first bicycle, the penny-farthing.
Cyclists will have a thrilling chance to ride their bikes up a ramp and land safely and softly in a giant airbag.
They can also try their hand at riding around a special ‘pump track’, which takes riders around a circuit of rolling bumps and banks without the need to pedal.
And children and adults can also have a go at riding a KMX Kart, a fun cross between a bike and a go-kart.

There will also be three organised family group bike rides around Beverley setting off from the Market Cross at 11am, 1pm and 3pm.

Parents and children can come along and take part in the guided rides, which are around 4 miles each, and can sign up at the Market Cross on the day. Just bring your own bikes and cycle helmets.

Places are limited to 24 people per bike ride on a first come first served basis.

There will also be various stands on the day, including Cottingham bike charity R-evolution, the council’s public health team offering free health advice and the council’s road safety team also available to give advice.

Family Bike Festival in Goole

The free festival will move on to Goole Academy, in Centenary Road, Goole, on Monday 18 June from 4pm to 8pm, and is open to everyone.

The event will include the same attractions as Beverley, including the 3Sixty Bicycle Stunt Team, weird and wonderful bikes, the giant airbag, the pump track, and KMX Karts.

All bikes and helmets will be provided, just turn up and take the challenge

Refugee Cycle Ride Challenge

Refugees including many from Syria who came to the East Riding to start a new life have taken part in a cycling scheme to help them get around the area safely.

And this week they will put their skills to good use by taking part in a 50-mile bike ride across the East Riding.

In a joint project run by the council’s road safety team, the Refugee Council, Humberside Police, Safer Roads Humber and R-evolution, a number of refugees settling in the area have received training in cycling skills and road safety to help them navigate the road and deal with traffic in their new country.

As part of the scheme, they also received reconditioned bicycles and safety gear from the R-evolution charity in Cottingham, providing them with transport so they can travel to education and employment and help them integrate into the local community.

Now a team of refugees who have benefited from the programme have been challenged to cycle from R-evolution in Cottingham to Sewerby Hall on Tuesday 19 June.

Around 24 refugees will take part and will be joined and guided by members of the council’s road safety team.

The cyclists will be stopping off on the way at East Riding College in Beverley, where some attend as students, and Driffield Showground, where Driffield Agricultural Society will kindly provide lunch for the team.

They will continue on to Bridlington, where they will ride through the Royal Hall at Bridlington Spa, and finish at Sewerby Hall.

The event is being held to highlight the success of the innovative project, as the Cycle4Life Challenge Week coincides with National Refugee Week.

Inter-schools cycle race

Pupils from six primary schools will go head to head in a cycle race for the R-evolution Cup on Wednesday 20 June.

Teams of 10 children from Mount Pleasant Junior School, Beverley Minster Primary School, Boothferry Primary School, Nafferton Primary School, Keyingham Primary School and New Pasture Lane Primary School will take part in the event held on a 2km cycle track at Ennerdale Leisure Centre in Hull.

The pupils have all been trained in racing techniques by British Cycling coaches for the last six weeks in preparation for the event.

They will take part in a number of races on the day, including relays, team pursuits, cross country and a road race.

This is the second year the day of racing has been held. Last year Mount Pleasant Junior School took home the R-evolution Cup.

Teachers’ Tour of the East Riding

Teachers from East Riding schools and some parents have been challenged to cycle more than 70 miles around the area’s beautiful countryside on Thursday 21 June.

Around 24 teachers will take part in the ride, joining at various stages along the route.

The ride will start from Beverley Minster at 9am and will visit schools along the way, including Beverley Minster Primary School, Cherry Burton Primary School, St Mary’s and St Joseph’s School in Pocklington, Howden Junior School and North Cave Primary School, before returning to Beverley Minster around 5pm.

Teachers from Tickton Primary, Naffeton Primary and Mount Pleasant Junior School will also be taking part in the event.

Councillor John Barrett, portfolio holder for operational services at East Riding of Yorkshire Council, said: “We’re really pleased to be able to organise a fantastic week of events which will give many children and adults the chance to take part in some really fun, healthy cycling activities.

“We hope all the events across the week will encourage families to get out on their bikes more and maybe some to take up cycling for the first time.

“It’s a great way of improving fitness and getting around the East Riding to see some of the amazing countryside we have in our area.”