I've been making the trip up to Ballater for the festival since the first one, which was the first time I had ever cycled in a group. How that came about? Well as a kid I was never off my bike, that was back in the days where you left the house after breakfast and weren't seen again until someone's mum shouted you all in for dinner.

But then life happened, marriage, kids, job, divorce and I piled on weight. I always had a bike, and would sometimes look at it and think I should get on it, but I never did. Then in 2021 when my youngest child was leaving school I decided I needed to make some changes. I lost 26kgs with the help of a coach and she encouraged me to get back on my bike. My current bike at the time was a little too big for me, so I decided to buy a new one.

I rode it around locally for a bit, but knew I wasn't making the most of having a half decent hardtail and came across an add on Facebook for this mtb festival up in Ballater. I saw there was a women's led ride, max 6 people and suitable for beginners. It absolutely scared me witless to be honest, the thought of riding in a group, the thought of turning up to a place full of "proper" bikers. I had all the doubts. Was I fit enough. Was I capable enough. Would I hold everyone up. Would I even make it up there or would I talk myself out of it and either not get in the car or turn back.

That ride was led by Kirsten Ellis from Ride In Peace Adventures, who was just the perfect person for me to meet on that day. Her positivity around what she thought I was capable of, after a brief chat with me, filled me with the confidence that I COULD do this. Her encouragement, reassurance and way of guiding meant I had a great day out on the bike, met some really fantastic people and knew that I wanted to do that, too.

Enter Breeze. So I was back home, riding around on my own, but now had a taste of riding with others and wanted to find people to go out with. No one I knew was even remotely interested in bikes. I saw there were training course coming up so I put my name down. It got cancelled. I put my name down for the next one. It got cancelled. Third time lucky, I attended a Breeze course, which gives you your British Cycling Level 1 Ride Leader certification, and as a Breeze Champion, you also get British Cycling membership, which gives you your insurance cover to lead rides. All of that is for free. You just have to commit to leading 8 rides per year. That could be as little as 16 hours of your year, which is not a lot at all, really. Most of us spend way more than that on the socials!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So I became a Breeze Champion, and met a lovely group of local women who went out on social rides, where the main focus of the the ride was always the coffee stop. It's all about the coffee and cake! The rides can be any length, up to 50 miles, and are designed to be suitable for everyone. Which means we will sometimes have a 4-5 mile confidence ride for very new cyclists. We have big days out where we will have more challenging rides which may be 30+ miles, which incorporate more roads, faster or busier roads and of course a good coffee stop.

Breeze operates right across the UK and it's entirely up to the local Breeze Champions what rides they put on, however I think it's pretty safe to say that if you don't see something that suits you - just ask, and we will do our best to accommodate. For example I've done a 4 week block of city centre riding, where we tackled junctions and roundabouts, traffic lights and advanced stop boxes. We even mapped out a route for one lady to be able to safely cycle to work!

We have recently celebrated 10 years of Breeze in Scotland and there was a series of blog posts went out during June from Scottish Cycling on this.