WORK WITH US

Work With Us & Professional Guide School

Professional Guide School:
Do you want to take your guiding to the next level but not sure how? Do you want to improve your “Ride Leader” capabilities?
or – You don’t have any experience, but you want to learn how to become a “Ride leader” or professional guide.
No problem – read on below about our “Professional Guide School”, we’ve got the training you need.
Work With Us:
Are you an experienced cycling travel expert or a guide and want to work with one of the best International Teams in the business? Read on:

Work With Us

Are you Customer Service oriented?
Multilingual or Linguist in training?
Love challenges on and off the bike?

If you answered yes to the above we’d love to hear from you. We often require the following International staff in Australia, Europe: Italy, France, Belgium and Spain:

Guides On Bike
Guides Off Bike
Support Drivers – large vans, small buses – often with cycling-specific trailers
Bicycle Mechanics
Tour Planners / Travel Agents

Contact directeur sportifs Grace and Pat Fitzpatrick to find out more

Professional Guide School

Are you seeking a change of environment, pace, industry, workplace and want to follow your passion and work in the travel, biking and adventure industry, but don’t know where to start?

Each year, Ride International hosts two professional guide school training programs. We host professional guide school training programs in Europe and the other in Melbourne, Australia.

These intensive weekend guide school training programs take participants through a rigorous training program. The courses are designed for individuals, no matter your current experience level, we’ll coach you through each aspect required for you to be considered among the best on, and or off-bike staff/guides.

The training weekends involve practical and classroom-style learning activities. For the passionate cyclists of the groups, we’ll host early morning rides.

Your coaches and directeur sportifs for the weekends are Grace and Pat Fitzpatrick, two of the cycling travel industries most experienced, passionate and well-respected business owners, and on & off-bike guides/hosts.

What Will You Learn At Professional Guide School?:

Guiding 101 – The art of guiding.
The Guiding – Tour Bible.
Food Safety, Handling and Understanding Dietary Requirements
Hotels, Facilities and Services
Airports, Train Stations, Pick Up and Drop Offs
Bike Cleaning, Maintenance, Storage and Safety.
Vehicle and Equipment Maintenance, Storage and Safety
Understanding Electronic GPS Devices, Analog and Digital Maps
Electronic Ride Route Creation, Understanding GPS devices
Cycling Health, Fitness and Training Programs
Group Safety, Dynamics and Psychology
Cycling Tour Customer Service
Bike Skills Coaching
Bike Fit and Setup
Social Media, Branding & Photography Tips
Guide Roles: Group Riding, Lead Guide, Follow Guide
What To Do In An Emergency
Conflict Resolution
Safety Briefings, Public Speaking
Bike Technology, Industry News, Historical Knowledge
Cultural Immersion: Local Language, Country and Regional History
Understanding Artisan Local Food, Wine, Craft Beer, Cool Drinks, Snacks

Grace and Pat Fitzpatrick will take you through everything required for you to perform confidently, safely as a guide/tour staff, or plan and prepare for cycling tours.

There’s plenty that goes into behind the scenes prior to each tour and that goes into each day of a cycling tour for it run seamlessly. Pat & Grace will impart their vast knowledge and experience and guide you through how to professionally navigate your way through each day of a tour to deliver tours, that your guest will rave about for years to come.

You’ll complete your weekend Guide School with newfound confidence, a new understanding of competencies, responsibilities, range of skills, techniques, your overall guiding standard will be considered gold standard – 5 star.

Once Guide School is completed, you’ll be an accredited International Cycling Guide and be considered among the best-trained cycling tour staff/guides in the world.

More About Our Professional Guiding Courses:

Each level of our professional guide school will be undertaken in weekend blocks, each guide must progress and pass at the appropriate level.

The two levels of Professional Guide School are:
Guide & Tour Leader.

For each level, each participant will need to satisfy the competencies for each section to achieve professional status at their chosen level.

Our Courses:

Courses range from: Introductory Guide / Guide – to Directeur Sportif Tour Leader level.

Introductory Guide / Guide:
Safely guide groups of introductory, tourist level riders through short tourism style tours, rides or non-cycling activities.
Ride Leader Introductory – Intermediate Level: Safely host social, club or group rides, commercially or for not-for-profit organisations.
Safely guide private, corporate groups, individuals or large groups of guests and staff.
Non-Cycling and Cycling guests of varied abilities, fitness and health, riders from introductory to expert level.
Tour, Ride durations from 1/2 day to 1-month style tours.
Tour locations: International, Multi-Lingual.
Intro to: Bike Mechanic’s
Intro to: Rider and Bunch Skills
Directeur Sportif – Tour Leader / Guide
As per above Introductory Guide/Guide, plus an understanding of the finer points to organise & be a great leader of large groups of staff & guests over multi-day tours.
Lead multiple Ride Leaders & guests/customers/ club members over multiple single-day ride courses
Intro to: Expert Bike Mechanics.
Intro to: Expert Rider and Bunch Skills

More About Us:

At Ride International, after years of owning and operating an international cycling tour company that prides itself on having the best-trained Guides and Ride Leaders in the world, we saw a need to create an international school for Professional Guides and Ride Leaders.

Our goal is simple, we want to improve the customer experience level by improving the training level of guides and ride leaders across the globe, by providing the best training schools in the world.

We were the first to recognise the importance of properly trained Cycling and Non-Cycling Guides, as the key ingredient to great customer experiences in the travel industry.

We understand the importance of properly trained, professional and experienced guides/tour staff, so we started the first professional guide school of its kind in the world for Cycling and Non-Cycling Guides.

More About You

Do you like cycling and want to become an international guide?
You want to start a cycling tour business yourself?
You are a: Introductory level – to former professional cyclists and want to be a fulltime or part-time guide, or you want to be a dedicated non-cycling guide?
Don’t be too concerned where your physical cycling performance is currently at, we see physical cycling performance as only one of many parts to being a great on & off bike guide.
You’ve thought you’d like a change from the 9am-5pm lifestyle and want to re-train!
Do you love customer service and want to be involved in the bike industry?
Want to travel, ride your bike and get paid to do it?

We are here to talk contact us to find out more

When & Where Courses:

Introductory Guide / Guide – 2 Days:
Europe, Spain: August – October
Melbourne Australia: February – April.
Directeur Sportif – Tour Leader / Guide – 2 Days:
Europe, Spain: August – October
Melbourne Australia: February – April.