Herts Balance and Ride is run by me, Phil Rowe, a long-time advocate of more people cycling more safely, more often. I started cycle training for Herts CC in 2002 before setting up my own cycle training and cycling promotion company in 2006. This grew to be one of the largest providers in the UK and delivered Bikeability training and other cycling promotion services for a wide range of local authorities in England and Wales. The company was bought by a major provider of driver education and road safety services in 2013 and I stayed on as Director until March 2016.

I continue to work as a Bikeability instructor for Herts CC and other providers and am also a City and Guilds qualified cycle mechanic. I am First Aid trained and have an Enhanced DBS.

My balance and ride training started in 2002 with the first of my two boys and since then I have trained well over a thousand children and tens of adults to ride a bike.

A keen cycletourist I have cycled from John O’Groats to Land’s End, along the length of the Pyrenees twice, Istanbul to Athens, Krakow to Budapest, Ljubliana to Dubrovnik, Vienna to Nice, Pisa to Rome, Biarritz to Santiago de Compostela and across France from Dieppe to Nice. I ride regularly in and around St Albans where I live, on my road bike, touring bike or on the tandem, with my wife Ingrid. The photos below illustrate a small part of my cycling experience.