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Saddle up for Bike Week

People from all over Warwickshire were encourages to get on their bikes and join in last week’s Bike Week.

Events organised by Warwickshire County Council’s Sustainable Travel Team included the Come Try A Bike day on Thursday (June 24) in Market Square, Warwick, where members of the public had a go on a selection of bicycles.

County council cycle champions Cllr Martyn Ashford and Cllr John Whitehouse took part and even tried the Trek Commuter bike, an electric bike supplied by Atmosphere Bikes, and a folding bike supplied by Brompton. Meanwhile Klaus Stüber from Germany showed off his innovative Taga ‘pushchair’ bike which he uses to transport his two daughters to nursery school.

County council staff also took part in a commuter challenge to cycle from home to Shire Hall in the rush hour against a colleague in a car.

It revealed some interesting statistics – Jane Clements rode in from Dickins Road in Warwick in 9 minutes 38 seconds compared to 11 minutes in the car, Ben Cahill pedalled to Shire Hall from Leamington Spa train station in 13mins 12secs against a 16 minute car journey, and Steven Falk cycled from Kenilworth Library in 13 minutes against an 18 minute car travel time.

Also, the staff World Cup Challenge is still in full swing, the boys maybe out and on their way home, but Warwickshire County Council has cycled half way to Soccer City! The challenge is to ride the 5692 miles from Warwick to Johannesburg before the World Cup Final on July 11.

It is the end of week two and staff have so far collectively cycled 2,802.4 miles. This means we have 2,889.6 miles left to cycle to reach our goal.

Bike Week is part of the drive to leave the car at home and promote sustainable means of transport.

Karen Hall, Warwickshire County Council’s Sustainable Travel officer, said: “The commuter challenge was good fun, but with a serious message – you can leave the car at home and still beat the traffic.

“There are lots of bikes out there now to meet the different requirements of individual circumstances - from tandems, to electric bikes, to fold up ones and now even a bike that turns into a double buggy!

“There is basically a bike for everyone - it is just a case of looking for something that meets your needs.

“The idea of Bike Week is to promote more sustainable modes of travel and lifestyles which require less car travel.

“Our initiatives aim to help increase the number of walkers, cyclists, motorcyclists, public transport users and car sharers coming to work.”