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Students are being urged to get on their bikes by none other than Olympics legend Dame Jess Ennis-Hill who visit Leicester to back the city’s e-bikes scheme.

Dame Jess was in Leicester yesterday as ambassador for Santander UK, which runs the bike scheme, officially the largest in the UK.


Dame Jessica with student Rhea and Â鶹´«Ã½ careers manager Suki Clayer

Dame Jessica - who won Olympic gold in 2012 and was World Champion three times, all for heptathlon – was excited to try out Leicester’s popular new e-bike share scheme. Santander Cycles Leicester has already had more than 14,000 people sign up to get riding.

The scheme opened up to everyone in April this year, and will eventually see 500 electric bikes available to hire from 50 stations located in key points across the city centre, including on Â鶹´«Ã½ Leicester (Â鶹´«Ã½) campus outside the Innovation Centre. This will make it the largest docked e-bike hire scheme in the UK.

Students are being offered a discount of £30 a year membership – compared to £12 a month or annual £60 fee – in order to encourage more young people to take up cycling in the city.

During her visit, Dame Jessica enjoyed riding the e-bikes on the people-friendly streets of Leicester city centre. She also met with groups who use the e-bike share scheme to get around – including students, cycling ambassadors and a local women’s group, many of whom only learned to ride a bike for the first time in the past couple of years.

Dame Jessica said: “I’m delighted to support Santander Cycles Leicester and promote cycling as a simple and fun way for people to be more active and healthy. E-bikes are a fantastic choice because they make cycling even more easy and accessible, giving you a boost of extra power when you need it!

“It’s great to see these bikes on the streets of Leicester and people out and about using them, making the most of the city’s impressive network of safe cycle routes. I hope lots of people will give Santander Cycles Leicester a try and become regular users of the scheme.”

Among the people she met was student Rhea Francois, who is part of the Leicester: Graduate City programme run by Â鶹´«Ã½, University of Leicester and Leicester City Council. It aims to encourage more students to remain in Leicester after graduation by showing them the career opportunities available to them in the city.

Rhea, who is just about to head into her third year of her Contour Fashion course, said: “I used to cycle a lot but I need to get back into it to be honest, so I might try this. She was so nice and asked about our courses, what we did at university and how we liked the city.”

is being funded by Leicester City Council after the council’s successful bid to the Department for Transport (DfT) – with sponsorship by Santander UK and investment from operator Ride On and their delivery partner Enzen Global.  

Leicester City Council has a package of nearly £80million, including funding from the DfT’s Transforming Cities Fund, to spend on a range of major projects. They include developing better walking and cycling links, launching the e-bike sharing scheme and upgrading park and ride buses from diesel to electric.

Deputy city mayor Councillor Adam Clarke, who leads on environment and transport, said: “Leicester is a cycling city. Our new e-bike share scheme is part of our commitment to cycling and to the ongoing challenge of the climate emergency. It’s also an important part of our covid-19 transport recovery plan.

“Opting to travel by bike is a great choice to make – for your own health, for our city’s air quality and for the environment. It also helps to support our local economy, with our growing network of people-friendly streets benefitting small, independent local businesses.”

To use the scheme, you register online, buy a plan based on your needs and then use your smartphone to unlock an e-bike and start riding. Pay as you go, monthly and annual memberships are all available, with prices for a pay as you go journey starting from well under £3 – it costs just £1.40 for the first 20 minutes, plus a £1.20 unlocking fee.