I can\u2019t ride a bike so when David, one of the staff at Pedal Power, offered to teach me I was somewhat sceptical. Pedal Power is a club for cyclists with learning disabilities running sessions at the Emirates Stadium and in Finsbury Park. \u201cBut my feet fall off the pedals,\u201d I said. \u201cThen we\u2019ll start you off on a scooter,\u201d he replied. So there I was scooting round the Emirates Stadium with one foot hovering above the ground in case I fell off. It was slightly scary but by the end of the circuit I was able to scoot for longer periods with both feet on the scooter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The following Tuesday I attended a session at the Finsbury Park running track. It was a fine sunny day and cyclists of all ages were out in force – from four years old to 70! Jo told me that about 100 people would attend throughout the morning. She pointed out one of the cyclists, Pete (not his real name), looking very cool in his bright blue helmet. \u201cPete\u2019s been coming for a year and was shaking all over when he first got on the trike but now all he needs is a bit of support to mount, and he\u2019s off.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The variety of bikes and trikes is amazing – who knew there\nwere so many? I was especially impressed by the variety of trikes, some of which\ncould be ridden independently and others with a support worker either at the\nside or at the back, tandem style. There\u2019s even the Velo, a Dutch built trike,\nused to carry wheelchairs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At the end of the session I met Phyllis who was riding her\ntrike with confidence. \u201cI\u2019ve raised\nmoney for Race for Life through Centre 404 [a centre for people with learning\ndisabilities and their families in Camden]. That was a five kilometre race and\nI raised \u00a384. This year I want to do a\nten kilometre race,\u201d she said with pride.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The club couldn\u2019t do without the part-time workers who are\nqualified cycle trainers, the many volunteers – and of course the funders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I heard about the club through a friend who told me that her colleague, John Thorne was running the Shakespeare Marathon at Stratford-upon-Avon on Sunday 7th<\/sup> May in aid of Pedal Power. John works for Islington Council\u2019s Leisure Team and helps funds Pedal Power\u2019s Emirates sessions with help from Sport England. I\u2019ve sponsored John and hope you can donate too by getting in touch with him here. – Kamilla<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I can\u2019t ride a bike so when David, one of the staff at Pedal Power, offered to teach me I was somewhat sceptical. Pedal Power is a club for cyclists with learning disabilities running sessions at the Emirates Stadium and in Finsbury Park. \u201cBut my feet fall off the pedals,\u201d I said. \u201cThen we\u2019ll start […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"gallery","meta":[],"categories":[102],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pedalpowercc.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5929"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pedalpowercc.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pedalpowercc.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pedalpowercc.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pedalpowercc.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5929"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.pedalpowercc.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5929\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5932,"href":"https:\/\/www.pedalpowercc.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5929\/revisions\/5932"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pedalpowercc.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5929"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pedalpowercc.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5929"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pedalpowercc.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5929"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}