El Grupo Youth Cycling, BICAS and Pima County are teaming up this summer to offer a youth bike camp — a three week-long session for kids between 8-13 years.

Kylie Walzak, BICAS’ education coordinator, said there will be sessions in June, July and August. They start at 8 a.m. and end at 12:3o p.m. The fee for the camp is $150, but Walzak said Specialized Bicycles and Pima County are providing scholarships to those who need it.

Ignacio Rivera de Rosales, who works for the county and BICAS as a bicycle educator said the campers will be broken into beginner, intermediate and advanced groups.

Walzak said the the first day will be devoted to bike maintenance to make sure the students’ bikes are in good working order.

Walzak said if a student doesn’t have a bike, Pima County will offer one of the bikes they use for their education classes.

The second day will work on safety skills, road laws and then the students will participate in an obstacle course. Students will also learn how to select safe routes using the region’s bike map.

The remaining three days will be devoted to riding bikes.

“We’ll go on a sweet ride, we’ll come back to BICAS and have some sort of art project,” Rivera de Rosales said. “On the last day the bike ride will be a little bit longer with some kind of cold snack at the end.”

Walzak said in addition to the three adult camp leaders, El Grupo riders will also participate in the camp to get the kids excited about riding bikes.

“There is only so much an adult can do,” Walzak said.

“We are hoping getting the older kids involved will get the kids really excited,” Rivera de Rosales said.

Walzak said the hope was to get kids inspired to use their bikes on a more regular basis, but knows they need to be trained.

“We recognize you can’t just throw a kid on a bike and say, ‘ok ride places,'” Walzak said. “You have to be smart about it.”

Specialized Bicycles is working with the camp to provide bicycle swag for the students when they graduate.

Learn more about the camp and sign up here.