THE LEGACY of the Tour de Yorkshire lived on in Barnsley this week as schools took on their own cycling challenge.
The Schools Yorkshire Tour sees pupils across the county take part in a 400-mile relay from Pickering to Leeds.
This week is the turn of 12 schools in Barnsley to hold the baton.
Kicking off the borough’s participation was Shawlands Primary in the town centre.
They met the Mayor, Coun Steve Green, outside the town hall on Monday before boarding a train to Penistone, to deliver it to Springvale Primary.
From there it went to Oxspring, then Thurgoland, Tankersley St Peter’s, Hoyland Common, West Meadows, Worsbrough Bank End, Darfield Upperwood Primary Academy, Birkwood and finally Shafton Primary and Outwood Academy Shafton.
Shawlands Primary sports coach Calan Rollinson joined a group of five pupils from the school on Monday’s ride.
He said: “It is a great honour to have been the first Barnsley school to hold the baton. The event has been fantastic, really well organised and something positive about cycling which we need to encourage in Barnsley, especially in the year of the Tour de Yorkshire.
“We have had the big active challenge through Bike It, all about how pupils travel to school and something like this helps them see the benefit out of it when it is safe and done right.”
All pupils took part in Bikeability sessions before they had the chance to volunteer for the ride.
Five from Shawlands took part in their one-and-a-half mile journey, but numbers and distances vary by school - Upperwood was tasked with a ten mile journey for their part of the relay.
Barnsley mobility officer Dave Atherton has helped organise the Schools Yorkshire Tour.
He said: “The kids have loved it. We have taught them a lot of cycling skills, road safety training and helped with maintaining their bikes too, all as part of an effort to encourage sustainable transport.”
