TORCA Youth Rides and youth clinics

The return of spring saw youth riders heading to the local trails as part of the TORCA Youth Rides.

The season started off with Sandra Walters Girls Ride Club. There were 4 rides, for varying abilities, which gave 26 girls aged 9-18 the opportunity to ride with other female mountain bikers. Some of these girls are original Girls Ride Club members and their skills and confidence have grown alongside the club. These rides offered a fun, non-competitive environment to meet new friends and improve their mountain biking skills. Laughs were shared along the ride and technical rock rolls were concurred. Sandra offered her wealth of mountain biking knowledge and helped fine tune the riders skills.

At the beginning of April, we hosted our first all genders ride for the year. Taking place at Burke mountain, eight young intermediate shredders took to the trails. By the end of the two hour ride, confidence was built and the youth were tackling more challenging trails and were even able to ride features they did not on the first time through.

With summer quickly approaching, there will be more opportunities for youth to participate in rides.

YOUTH CLINICS

This spring, we also partnered with Essential Cycles to offer Skills Clinics for Novice, Intermediate and Advanced youth riders. These clinics helped build confidence in riders of all abilities to tackle new challenges on the trail just in time for summer riding. Week 1 took place at Burke Mountain. Intermediate level riders aged 9-15 took to the trails tackling drops, technical rock gardens and wooden bridges. These clinics will give 30 youth the chance to make new friends out on the trails while improving their riding abilities! A total of 8 clinics will take place over the span of 3 weeks. It is so great to see the enthusiasm and supportive energy these youth bring to the clinics as they are eager to learn while supporting their peers!