Inspiring Cycling Stories – The Bikeability Olympics 

In Milton Keynes, a cracking team from Cycling Citizens and City Council have come together to create the Milton Keynes Bikeability Olympics for the past three years.

Tom Bulman from Cycling Citizens MK, an alliance to increase cycling in the area, and Hayley Roche and Raeesa Chowdhury from Milton Keynes City Council, were part of the team that came up with the event.

Bringing the games to Milton Keynes

The Milton Keynes Bikeability Olympics pits teams of students from schools across Milton Keynes against each other, to showcase the skills they developed in their Bikeability training. The events include team relays, slow races and more, all designed to test their cycling ability.

This year, 10 schools took part, with 89 young riders taking place in the competitions and 43 going through to the finals, which were held at Middleton Hall in the centre of Milton Keynes.

The Bikeability Olympics have been very popular with local businesses, as well as the pupils involved and their schools.

“It’s quite inclusive. It’s bringing all the schools together, it’s got that competitive element as well, which schools quite like – they like competing against other schools and being the best.” Hayley said.

It’s been a big hit with Councillor Lauren Townsend, Cabinet Member for Public Realm who attended Bikeability Olympics in 2022. She said:

“This is a great way to encourage children to cycle more. We know it’s good for health and can save money as well as saving the environment. It’s impressive that we have so many young people cycling safely to school. MK Council is proud to have the ambitious goal of becoming the UK’s leading city for cycling infrastructure.”

Getting Bikeability on the map

The plan came together back in 2022, when the team were looking for something to increase the number of people cycling in the city. And, as Tom told us, they also wanted to create “a stronger link between finishing the Bikeability training course and actually riding”.

They created the event to get schools and children involved and practicing their skills even after the Bikeability instructors had finished their courses. They also wanted to build up the profile of cycling in Milton Keynes – something that isn’t easy in a city where driving is very much the norm.

The project has only been going for three years, but the team have already seen progress.

“It’s about embedding it into the school,” Hayley said. “We’re working with a few [schools] that have been going back year on year. They want to take ownership of it now. They want the heats to be in their school. They want schools to come to them, they want to host it, they want to be far more involved.”

What’s next

There are ambitions for the event to keep growing.

“Hopefully it becomes part of the local culture of sporting events,” Tom said. They would also like to see it replicated in other areas, with children competing to win their local Bikeability Olympics.

They have plans to expand it in Milton Keynes as well – there is scope for up to 27 schools to get involved, giving more students the chance to show off their cycling skills. They want to get more businesses involved, providing support and sponsorship and showing everyone in the city why cycling is a great way to get around.

Tops tips for running your own Bikeability Olympics

Get instructors and your contacts on board

We asked the team for their tips for any Bikeability provider keen to run their own Olympics, and they made it clear that instructors are very important.

“Instructors are the key players when organising,” Raeesa told us. Getting instructors involved and enthusiastic is important, as they will be crucial in running the event and getting the competitors excited about taking part.

The team had the help of a dedicated coordinator, with a long list of contacts they were able to talk to. Getting schools enthused was a challenge and a lot of reminder emails have been sent out. But this correspondence should reduce as schools become familiar with timing and location of the event. Finding out who the best person to get in touch with, which is often a PE teacher, was really helpful to get schools involved.

Get local businesses involved

Businesses in Milton Keynes were keen to be involved, sponsoring awards and trophies. As Tom said “It yields really nice photos, handing over trophies. It’s such an easy thing for businesses.” It’s also a good way to get them interested in Bikeability, which businesses don’t usually hear about when it’s taking place in schools.

The team were also able to get some great volunteers from Network Rail, who have their head office locally and were delighted to take part. Jo Lewington, Chief Environment and Sustainability Officer of Network Rail, who presented the medals, said:

“We are always looking for new ways to promote sustainability. We’re delighted to have Network Rail staff playing their part as volunteer marshals at this Bikeability Olympics event.”

Get stuck in and make sure you link it Bikeability training

The team emphasized the importance of linking it with Bikeability training from the start, letting schools know that once the children have completed their Bikeability levels they’ll be eligible to enter the games. Having an on-brand leaflet and poster to advertise and explain the games is also helpful.

While the team were keen to stress that the event isn’t cost-free, they encouraged any Bikeability providers who thought it would work for them to give it a go.

“Don’t worry about the heats to start with, just do one event,” is Tom’s advice. That way you only need to get 9 schools involved  (up to 45 children) and then the next year you can build on that.

“Just go for it and say we’re going to do it.”

Find out more about the Milton Keynes Bikeability Olympics.