Britain’s youngest cycling champ is three

It is now possible to become a world cycling champion without even turning a pedal.

Three-year-old Yaroslav Shemanov beat over 1000 other riders to win top spot in the British Balance Bike Championships earlier this month.

How best to learn to cycle?

Cycling is a hugely valuable life skill that helps children with coordination, balance and motor skills, fostering a sense of independence from an early age - but how best to learn? Traditional thinking has it that the child should spend a few months using a bike fitted with stabilisers before cycling unaided. More recently, there has been a vogue for balance bikes – cycles with no pedals.

Build your own balance bike

The thinking behind pedal-less bicycles is that the child is able to master the skill of balancing the bike without the distraction of having to pedal. if you like the idea of a balance bike but would rather not invest in something that will soon be outgrown, a conventional bicycle can be adapted to be a balance bike by removing the pedals, crank and chain and lowering the height of the seat.

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The science of cycling

As every child quickly learns, the faster you pedal the easier it is to keep a bike upright. Riding a bicycle may be a skill mastered in our earliest years, but it took scientists years to express the physics of pedalling, steering and balancing a bike as a mathematical formula. Indeed, there continues to be research into how bicycles work. Earlier this year, Ghent University was awarded over €150,000 to examine bicycle stability, research that may lead to a new type of steering assembly. This is an element of the bicycle that has changed very little over time. Over the last 40 years, frame materials have progressed from steel to alloy to carbon fibre.