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Children encouraged to bike to school as The Big Pedal turns again

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Sustrans and bicycle industry group The Bicycle Association (via Bike Hub) are running their The Big Pedal initiative again this year starting on March 5. The Big Pedal aims to get more children cycling by encouraging children to cycle to school.

Nearly half of all children want to be able to get to school by bike but only 4% do. The Big Pedal initiative shows children and their parents just how easy it is to get around on two wheels.

From March 5 to March 23, pupils, teachers and parents from schools all over the UK will compete with each other to complete 15 stages. Each stage is based on a selection of Sustrans cycle routes in the UK.

The more people that cycle or scoot to school, the faster a school completes each stage. The winning school is the school that completes the whole 15 stages in the quickest overall time.

How it works

Schools have to log in to the website each day of the race and record their school’s results. This comprises of all the times of the children that are taking part at that school. All school results are then published the following day on the specific Big Pedal portal set up for the campaign. Schools can then track how they and other schools are doing throughout the race.

There are prizes to be won, with categories for primary and secondary schools at a national, regional and local level. This year’s overall winners and runners-up in all categories will be receiving prizes from Cyclepods, LockIt-Safe and Team M.A.D., while regional prizes are being provided by Fisher, Weldtite and Can of Worms.

The Big Pedal 2012 is open to any school within the UK, and is free to take part. Schools can sign up to take part in the entire three week challenge, or register for one or more of the special one-day stages on Tuesday 6, Thursday 15 and Wednesday March 21.

Last year, 800 schools from across the UK competed completing a total of over 600,000 journeys. This year, Sustrans is aiming for over 1000 schools and a million journeys. So far over 900 schools have registered.

Cav backing

To give The Big Pedal just that little extra boost, Mark Cavendish is backing the initiative

“It’s great to see more people out and about cycling and I always smile when I see a family or a child on a bike.

“So many kids want to cycle so we should make it easy for them to get around by bike and to be fit and healthy. It’s brilliant to see Sustrans encouraging children from a young age to be happy, independent and free-range, and maybe even feel inspired to become future British cycling champions.”

To take part in the Big Pedal, a school needs to register their school here. The deadline for race registration is March 2.


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See also

Balance bike racing comes to the UK

The Arrowhead Ultramarathon – The ultimate endurance cycling challenge

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