SCHOOL pupils saddled up to test out Bournemouth’s new £750,000 cycle track.
Students from St Mark’s Primary School in Talbot Village were among the first to try out the new facility at Slades Farm, where Olympic cyclists will train and race.
The charity Sustrans teamed up with British Cycling – Go Ride, the Bournemouth Cycling Centre and Bournemouth Borough Council to organise the event, the first of many for local schools.
Sustrans has been working with the school since September 2010 to encourage cycle use.
The number of children regularly cycling to school has risen from around 10 in 2009 to between 45 and 75 today.
Sustrans Bike It officer Jason Falconer said: “This is the first school in the Bournemouth and Poole area to visit the new cycle track, only four days after opening.”
The Slades Farm facility is the first outdoor cycling track to be built in Britain since the 1960s.
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