The London cycle training programme that’s free and social

By Jo Caird
Santander Cycles20 January 2016

Whether you’re new to cycling or a Bradley Wiggins in waiting, the Sky Ride Local programme is a great way to get to know London by bike. Created by British Cycling and Sky, in partnership with Transport for London, the scheme offers more than 200 themed group rides across every London borough this summer.

Exclusive Santander Cycle rides in green spaces all over the centre of town make it even easier to get going. Santander Cycles will be provided free of charge for the duration of the ride – it’s a fantastic opportunity to give the red bikes a go for the first time, or build confidence before planning your own trips.

It’s free to take part in all the Sky Ride Local rides, which are led by trained cycle guides and take place throughout the capital. There are three levels to choose from, with ‘easygoing’ rides of up to 6 miles designed for those new to cycling, longer ‘steady’ rides for confident cyclists, and ‘challenging’ rides for those keen to test themselves and cover long distances and lots of hills.

Easygoing rides stick to mostly traffic-free routes and steady rides tend to be on quieter roads. All the exclusive Santander Cycles rides are easygoing, taking place in London parks every weekend until September. With Clapham Common, Hyde Park, Wandsworth Common, Battersea Park, Regents Park and Victoria Park all on the list, there’s something for everyone, wherever in London you’re based.

These and the other Sky Ride routes showcase parts of town that you may have missed until now, as well as taking in iconic landmarks like Buckingham Palace, the Aviary at ZSL London Zoo and the Olympic Stadium. Themes include ‘wildlife and wilderness’, ‘local pride’ and ‘eat, drink, ride’, with details of each route available at goskyride.com/london. You can register for rides here too.

Children are welcome: the minimum age for easygoing and steady rides is five years, while 11s and up can do the challenging routes. You have to be at least 14 to hire a Santander Cycle, but it’s free to take children’s bikes on most public transport, so there’s no reason why the whole family can’t take part.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in