Youth program - How ?
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amit.gh ...@gmail.com
Dumb***es, Our local governing body has available a considerable amount of funding for youth programs geared towards racing (as opposed to safety/commuting) in Toronto and has approached us (my club) to propose a program.
I can't even envision what the program woudl look like, give the usual constraints of working in a big city.
There is not a lot of history with this sort of thing in our area so I wanted to hear about how other clubs have designed programs for city kids and how they have worked.
One difficulty is to find a location, the nearest track is two hours away and it might not be possible to secure a good location that is within the city.
Ideally this program would attract kids that usually wouldn't participate in this type of activity.
Most kids who are racing are from racing families or have parents who are willing to able to spend a lot of time/money on the sport. One thing Canada needs to do is deepen it's talent pool.
One thought was to build a program around a gr*** track. I don't know anything about it, but I know many riders from the west indies who have experience in that discipline.
"Bill C" tritonri...@verizon.net
We're definitely not in a large city but we do use the gr*** track model, as do a lot of other groups here in New England. This seems to lead more to Cross, but we're Cross crazy so it's natural.
Maybe JT, or Casey could help out. One of the best programs I know of is the RAD Racing folks out in Tacoma.
http://www.radracingnw.org/ They have a great model going in an urban area.
Bill C
Simon Brooke si...@jasmine.org.uk
Be imaginative.
Is there some industrial area, or some large business premises, which has private roads which are not in use in the evenings/at weekends? If so, will they let you use them? Failing that, a park with broad paved paths?
An army camp? A small airport that isn't in use seven days a week? Having got that, can you negotiate a fee for using it that you can afford?
You don't need a very big circuit for kids; it's ideal to be able to see the whole circuit from a single point.
You've got to make the activities varied; if they become boring the kids will stop turning up. You'll need to have bikes to lend (and not rubbish ones), and you need to have some tie-in with local shops to help the kids get their own bikes affordably.
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si...@jasmine.org.uk (Simon Brooke) http://www.jasmine.org.uk/~simon/ ;; Want to know what SCO stands for?
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"b ...@mambo.ucolick.org" <b
This isn't totally analogous to your situation, but Norcal seems to have done pretty well with their high school mountain bike racing league. I don't know much of the details but am sure Casey Kerrigan can provide more information. MTB racing byp***es some of the logistical and what-my-kids-have-to-ride-on-the-roads problems with road racing. Yet the kids can later make a transition into road racing if they want. Of course it helps that MTB riding is big in Norcal and the terrain suits it. However, especially for youth racing, you don't really need a huge space to set up a cyclocross or MTB circuit; many of the CX races I did or helped with in Norcal were essentially on the grounds of a high school or park. I suspect that putting on specifically youth races would make it significantly easier to get permission to use that type of venue.
Motivated parents and sponsoring shops, etc, can be a good influence if they can recruit other kids too, for example Dad brings not just his kid but his neighbor's kid to the race, and so on.
Ben
photoshopp ...@gmail.com
I think I need to move to Canada. Only there can you find governing bodies in search of beneficiaries (instead of it being the other way around).
I think your idea to possibly do gr***-track is an excellent one. You can allieviate the fears of many parents (and kids) by removing asphalt from the equation. With this method, you can probably find lots of places to conduct practice (and racing) and you can rotate locations.
Since most kids spend their time indoors these days, the fields are probably all but abandoned.
Use your imagination and taylor the program to fit your local needs.
Go with it (I say).
"yeahyeah" pedalch...@hotmail.com
Dumb***, doesn't your provincial cycing body have some sort of program like this?
http://www.ontariocycling.org/web_pages/sprockids_Whatis.php oh, wait - you said racing focus... hmm. I just had a similar discussion about this w/ a track promoter this weekend. Tracks definitely offer a safe haven for kids to learn to race. We're trying to get a local stock car track to agree to let us have cl***es and events there. I bet there's something near Toronto that could fit the bill. The kid riding in traffic thing is a real deterrent for N.
America. I guess in Europe, the parents probably ride on the roads and take their kids out with them?
Ewoud Dronkert firstn...@lastname.net.invalid
On 21 Aug 2006 15:24:39 -0700, yeahyeah wrote: Yeah, here anyway. Also, the traffic is used to cyclists. Also, a lot of motorists don't see cyclists as 2nd rate road users or at least don't act upon it. Also, there are enough quiet back roads to get away from most traffic. Also, but I think that's more Dutch than European, most busy provincial roads have cycle paths in some form.
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E. Dronkert
Simon Brooke si...@jasmine.org.uk
In Britain, drivers mostly do see cyclists as vermin and do act upon it; but nevertheless we take kids from as young as ten out on club runs, and parents take kids out training with them, on the road. The best fourteen-year-old round here also does an awful lot of training on the roads by himself; I often see him out, putting the miles in, in the holidays and after school. We do have reasonably quiet roads, but then so I'm sure does most of rural America.
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si...@jasmine.org.uk (Simon Brooke) http://www.jasmine.org.uk/~simon/ ;; Generally Not Used ;; Except by Middle Aged Computer Scientists
amit.gh ...@gmail.com
dumb***, my city, is actually pretty good if you want to get around by bike and there are lots of cyclists. but it is not good for racing and training.
a dedicated facility like a track or circuit is good because parents can drop the little terrors off and know that they aren't getting flattened by cars.
John Forrest Tomlinson usenetrem...@jt10000.com
There is a program near where I live that's focussed on a track.
Perhaps a closed road course could serve just as well.
Here is an article by the person who runs it with her contact info at the end http://www.crca.net/news/200512.htm#1 I know almost nothing about youth racing myself.
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