Keen to improve your child’s cycle skills or get them into cycle racing? Cardiff JIF have previously run a successful children’s club each Saturday, at Llanishen High School. After the hiatus caused by Coronavirus, the club has revisited its offering and is concentrating on developing kids in the U12 category and above (below this age we think the emphasis needs to be on fun).

The club has two primary aims; firstly to instill fun and a love of cycling that will last a lifetime and secondly to teach skills that will enable them to develop into excellent all round riders. We take kids aged 10 – 16 with only a couple of provisos: we’ll take any child that already enjoys cycling and we ask that children turn up with bikes that are capable of being used off road (*please see our little guide to cyclo-cross at the bottom of this page). Expect the odd bit of dirt, occasional dampness (this is Britain after all) and lots of smiles.

Whilst we promote the sport through the mediums of road, cyclo-cross and mtb racing in particular, the desire to become a race demon is not a pre-requisite (though we’re good at developing them into these). Our current crop of kids include very keen leisure riders and Welsh champs. There’s something for everyone.

In Feb 2022, sessions will restart, this time at Mountain View Bike Park, meeting at 2pm each Saturday for a 30 min coached session at 2.30pm. After that, if accompanied, the riders can continue to ride with their peer group. We’ll be stopping for a coffee and a chinwag at around 3.45pm. We also offer a Wattbike fitness session weekly at U-fit gym. This requires booking in advance.

To help with ensuring that everything runs smoothly and is safe and enjoyable for both young riders and coaches, we have developed a set of guidelines that we work to. We’d appreciate it if you could briefly run through it with your child, particularly if they’re young:

Young rider guidelines:

We really, really, really want our kids to learn great skills and have fun at kids club. To help ensure they do, we’ve put together a short set of rules designed to ensure that everyone knows where they stand and gets what they need.

1. We’re here for skills and fun, fun and skills.

2. Always listen to the coaches as they are very wise and sensible and know lots of cycling stuff.

3. Help the other riders in your group when they need it. The best teams are full of team mates!

4. Tell the coach if you don’t understand something or if something bothers you.

5. If a coach spots that a child needs a break, we’ll take them to one side while they get the attention they need.

6. Finally……..enjoy your cycling; always.

We believe very strongly in making cycling a sport that is as accessible as possible. So we’ve made our Kids club a low cost activity with membership costing only £10 per annum and sessions £3 per child (payable direct to Mountain View Bike Park). If you’d like more information, please get in touch via Facebook or Twitter. For regular public updates, follow us on Twitter (see link below). A private Facebook group has also been established and is available for club members.

*Cyclo-cross footnote

In the main body of the text, we refer to cyclo-cross, cycling’s winter discipline. We LOVE cyclocross as it represents the perfect blend of road and MTB skills, all delivered in a safe, community based environment. Check out this short video which one of our riders – Evelyn – did as a school project (it may take a short while to load).