On a sunny but chilly Saturday morning in March, the Lake Foundation Cycling Club ventured out onto the streets of Croydon. This time we headed towards Crystal Palace with trusty instructors Brian and Selina.

We asked a couple of our regular attendees what motivated them to rise fairly early on a Saturday morning to cycle.

D: “It’s good exercise. I’m a diabetic and the first time I [came to the cycling club], I checked my blood sugar afterwards and it had gone down. I’m not sure if the cycling helped but I will be monitoring it in future to see”.

M: “We like to come every week because we meet people and it’s inspiring. I feel like I’ve accomplished and achieved something. I’m not a regular cyclist but it gives me confidence, particularly, on the roads”.

M added that she felt it’s important to do other activities, to keep fit, in between cycling sessions. We agree!

The Lake Foundation Cycling Club meets every 2nd and 4th Saturday of the month between 10am-12pm. See the attached flyer for more information.

Last Saturday, eleven of us braved the cold, windy and rainy weather for the first session of our new cycling club. Despite the weather we had a really nice time exploring the back roads of Beckenham. Our route took us on a circular route starting at Elmer’s End and riding alongside Eden Park, Kelsey Park, Beckenham Junction, Cator Park, Clock House and back to Elmer’s End.

Our cycling club is a project that aims to get our community fit and active through cycling. It also aims to improve people’s confidence cycling and provide people with a fun, practical way to get active.

This project is being funded by Sport England, an organisation committed to helping people and their communities create sporting habits for life.

We are very grateful to Sport England for supporting us and believing in our project and look forward to our club members not only getting some great exercise but discovering the beauty of South London as we cycle through the lovely green spaces of Croydon and the surrounding area.

A big thank you to everyone who made it on Saturday and we look forward to our next session. For more information please visit our events page.

Last Sunday, we teamed up with the Cycling Instructor for a 4-hour cycling session with 10 of our cycling group members. This was an extension of our summer cycling sessions and this event was organised to challenge our members and but also to discover the beautiful countryside of north Surrey.

We started off at 9:30am at Croydon Arena and cycled through Addiscombe,  West Wickham and Biggin Hill on our way to Warlingham. This was a tough route with us having to tackle a number of hills, but it was a really scenic and enabled us to appreciate the beauty that is just on the doorstep of Croydon.  Once we got to Warlingham we stopped off at the very lovely Almno Café for a short break and some light refreshments before making our way back to Croydon through Chelsham,  New Addington, Addington and Addiscombe.

This was a really fun day out and in total, we cycled for  3 hours and 56 minutes,  covered 41.6km, burned over 500 calories and had an elevation gain of 354m (oh those hills!).

A big thank you to the Cycling Instructor for leading the session, to Croydon Council for funding this event and to everyone who attended.

Our cycling group have had a great time over the past two months building up their confidence to cycle on the road, learning cycling techniques, getting some exercise and discovering new and interesting places in Croydon.

Since our last update where we shared our experience cycling from Croydon to Catford we’ve had quite a few cycling adventures. We started off with a lovely 16.3km ride through South Norwood, Beckenham and Crystal Palace.  This route saw the group take on quite a few hills and busy roads as well as beautiful parks like Crystal Palace Park where we discovered the park’s Darwin and the Dinosaurs trail, a collection of life-size dinosaur models created by leading scientist Richard Owen.

Our second cycling adventure was a 16.4km route from Croydon Arena to Central Croydon and then on to Lloyd Park, Addiscombe and South Norwood Country Park. This was a really lovely route taking us through some beautiful, quiet neighbourhoods and along a number of green spaces.

Our most recent adventure was a 14km ride to West Wickham this was a challenging and sometimes dramatic ride as we battled scary roundabouts , rush hour traffic, and numerous buses.

These last three cycling sessions were great fun. Altogether we cycled 46.7km and burnt about 600 calories and we look forward to next week’s adventure.

In this week’s blog we speak to Paul Lowe co-founder of Cycling Instructor, a bikeability organisation that we’ve teamed up with to lead our summer cycling sessions. Our cycling sessions run weekly over the summer months and are open to everyone.

Can you tell us about the Cycling Instructor and why it was started?
Cycling Instructor Ltd was set up by Michael Poole and myself in 2005.  We had both worked for another cycle training provider and thought we could start our own business doing the same thing.

Can you tell us about the work you’re doing with Croydon Council?
We provide Bikeability training in Croydon borough schools, for adults over the age of 16 and various special projects with voluntary sector groups, such as The Lake Foundation.

What has been your favourite cycling project so far?
We really enjoyed the bench opening project with a local school and sustrans.

 How long have you been cycling and what do you enjoy most about cycling?
I have been cycling since I was about 6 and what I love doing is cycle camping or youth hostelling by bike.   After a few days on a trip the world falls away and you enter a ‘bubble’. Also due to the exercise your physiology changes and you can eat as much as you want all the time.

What advice would you give to anyone new to cycling in terms of equipment, technique and building confidence?
Just get a good second hand bike, get a lesson and a map and get going.  You learn about cycling by doing it.

Where can people find out more about the Cycling Instructor
There is lots of information about us on our website:  www.cyclinginstructor.com

Our summer cycling sessions have been running since the beginning of July and we’re now half way through the sessions which will run until the end of August. This year we’ve had a lovely group of people come along to the sessions; all very friendly and eager to build their confidence in cycling and get some exercise.

Friday’s session was excellent. We had ten in the group and were led, once again, by Brian from the Cycling Instructor who was supported by Matthew.

In previous weeks we focused on cycling technique and riding safely on the road and this week it was time to put it all into practice with a ride from Croydon to Catford and back (about 9 miles).

Our journey to Catford took us along Route 21 which is part of the UK’s National Cycle Network  and is a 94 mile route from Greenwich to Crawley and then on to East Bourne via East Grinstead and Heathfield.

We began our journey at the beautiful South Norwood Country Park and joined Route 21 at Elmers End. The cycling path took us through the picturesque green spaces and quiet neighbourhoods of  Beckingham, Sydenham and Lewisham and included riverside cycling along the Waterlink Way.

This session was a lovely experience. The weather was perfect – sunny and mild, and the beauty of route was really impressive.  Many South Londoners, myself included, are certainly missing out on the beauty of our city as the pressures of city life mean we aren’t able to take the time to explore and appreciate the beauty that is right on our doorstep. Cycling really addresses this as it creates endless opportunities to explore the city of London in a fun way.

We encourage everyone to give cycling a try, you’ll be surprised at how fun and relaxing it is and at the journey of discovery you can have; you’ll see your city in a whole new light! And we love it because it provides you with a great way to get some exercise. It’s a win-win.

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Joins us next week Friday at Croydon Arena, all are welcome. For more information visit our events page or email events@thelakefoundation.com

Last Friday, we were absolutely delighted to be back at Croydon Arena for another round of summer cycling sessions.  We started these sessions last summer after teaming up with the Cycling Instructor with support from Croydon Council and as it went so well we decided to run the sessions again this year.

Friday’s session was the first in a series of four sessions which will run once a week throughout the month of July. The aims of the sessions are to improve confidence in cycling, prepare attendees for road cycling, teach basic cycling techniques and introduce people to an enjoyable way to get some exercise.

This first session was great fun and it was nice to see Brian from the Cycling Instructor again, he led the group last year and did a fantastic job so we were happy he was back with us again this year.  We were also really pleased with the turnout, there were ten of us and it was a really mixed group in terms of age, ethnicity and cycling ability, plus everyone was really friendly;  all the right ingredients for an enjoyable session.

After a round of introductions it was on to the serious part of the session, technique. We learnt how to check that our bikes are road worthy and then were instructed on the proper way to get on and off a bike, maintaining balance, braking properly,  riding with one hand (preparation for signalling) and cycling slowly (to prepare for cycling in traffic).

We were all given plenty of opportunity to practice all these techniques making this a very informative but practical session, and at the end of the two hours we had cycled several times around the track so we got some good exercise too!

The next session will be on Friday 10^th July at 6pm at Croydon Arena.  Please email events@thelakefoundation.com to register or call 07440 146 645, and you can download our flyer below for more information.

We would like to say a big thank you to the Cycling Instructor and Croydon Council for giving us the opportunity to run this cycling group.

We’re so excited to once again team up with the Cycling Instructor with support from Croydon Council to provide free cycling sessions over the summer. This is a fun way to get fit and active and can be a journey of discovery of the beauty of south London as we cycle through the many hidden green spaces along route 21.

This group has been organised as part of our drive to improve the health and wellbeing of the black community and it aims to: provide members with the opportunity to learn how to cycle; provide tips on cycling technique; improve confidence in cycling; prepare attendees for road cycling; and introduce an enjoyable way for people to get some exercise.

Last year we had a great time with our sessions being led by very experienced and friendly instructors from the Cycling Instructor. Our favourite sessions were the off-road cycling sessions where we discovered beautiful locations like South Norwood Country Park, the Waterlink Way and Riverpool Linear Park.

We’ll be starting on 3^rd July at 6pm at Croydon Arena.  Please do get in touch if you’d like to join us. You can email events@thelakefoundation.com  to book your place and to find out more. Our leaflet below also provides more details.

Sadly, our final cycling session of the season took place today. We had a great time with Brian from Cycling Instructor leading the more experienced members of the group on a 9 mile ride along Route 21 from Croydon to Catford. This was, once again, a lovely experience. The weather was great, sunny and mild, and the beauty of route was really impressive. Locations such as South Norwood Country Party, the Riverpool Linear Park and Cator Park were some of the highlights of the route and we recommend this route to anyone who is new to cycling. It is mostly off-road, very safe and picturesque.

Whilst the majority of the group cycled along Route 21, the less experienced cyclists stayed at Croydon Arena with Helen from Cycling Instructor to go over the basics of cycling. They had a nice session on maintaining balance, the correct way to get on and off a bike, pedalling and riding independently.

We had a great final session and have thoroughly enjoyed this season which began in August. Sessions were both informative and fun with attendees now more confident with cycling and keen to take up cycling as a hobby. We would like to say a big thank you to the Cycling Instructor and Croydon Council for giving us the opportunity to offer this activity to our community and we hope to hold more sessions in the Spring.