Week backs bikes and pedal power

Be a bikie, leave the car at home and jump on your bicycle instead is the theme of Sport Wanganui's Bike Wise Week.

February is national Bike Wise Month.

Ambassador for the next week's cycling push is More FM Breakfast host Jason Granville who said he's keen to get out and spread the two-wheeler message.

It'll mean getting up earlier to bike to work instead of driving in.

He said he would have to get up very early to cycle from Springvale to the studio in Ridgway St, which by car takes him seven minutes.

"But biking will probably take me an hour and seven minutes, so I'll have to get up so early because I start at 6am."

But he's not alone, with mentor Karen Hughes from Sport Wanganui to provide support - she who rides into the central city daily from Marybank.

Ms Hughes said she would make sure Mr Granville stayed on his bike and that someone called him every morning to get him out and on his bike and off to work.

However, Mr Granville is not sure about getting kitted out in "de rigueur" cycling lycra.

"No, definitely have to have a think about that one."

Each morning between 7 and 9am he'll be cycling the streets of Wanganui with a basket full of gifts for people on bikes, he said.

At St John's Hill School two classes of six and seven-year-olds were excited yesterday to belong to the first school on the pilot Fundamental Movement Skills programme run by Sports Wanganui co-ordinator Steve Kerfoot.

First the children lined up with their bikes for a thorough check-up. Then they moved out to the field for a lesson, which they will have once a week for the next six weeks.

Alice Quigley, 6, said she was excited to be taught to ride her bike in the proper way.

"I really like my bike. My uncle helped me get it on Trade Me, and it's still really new, and it's a mountain bike."

Amba McGuinness, 7, said she thought it was very handy to learn to ride her bike.

"I'm looking forward to my next lesson already."