I'm in Charlottesville, VA (home of Thomas Jefferson's Monticello) assisting with the League of American Bicyclists' "League Certified Instructor" seminar. We have 14 students, 4 assistant instructors and the lead instructor - Preston Tyree. If you don't know Preston you should at least get to know his work - he is the national director of education for the League and has been instrumental in developing all of the teaching curricula - Traffic Skills (101 & 102), Commuter, Group Riding, Safe Routes to Schools, etc.. Taking a bike class from Preston is like having Jesus for a Bible Study leader. Preston is always positive and helpful, knowledgable and more experienced than anyone else I know. The picture above shows Preston directing the group to ride in formation, closer than they ever have before, while drinking from their water bottles and looking back for traffic. The entire weekend was a great time, in addition to a great learning experience. The best part of it was watching cyclists conquer their fears of pack riding and and busy intersections. The self-confidence that comes from this spills into everything else they do. The second best part of the class is that Frank won't be the only lonely LCI's in the state any more. We now have Ryan, Marilyn and Gunnar for company - pretty pleasant company too. I'm now hoping to give a few of them the additional training to become youth and parent instructors so we can get another generation on bikes.
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