Two dry days made for a splendid cycling weekend, out on the quiet roads around Charlwood on Saturday for older riders and then the school playground session at Furzefield on Sunday for the younger ages.
 
Saturday
 
Saturday's loops enabled us to manage various riders who wanted to go at different speeds, the main beneficiary being not one of the young Raiders, but rather one of the dads... Mike Gill.
 
Young Nick, his son, has got stronger in leaps and bounds and he now tears his dad's legs off on climbs, so we found ourselves splitting so that the quicker riders put in a longer loop, giving Nick's dad the chance for a breather, pedalling along at his own pace, before meeting us at the next junction..
 
Sunday at Furzefield School
 
The surface was dry and after seeing three riders slide out on corners a fortnight ago when it was wet, this time everyone stayed on board their bikes..... though I've never had to much fruit to pick up and throw away before kicking off the session at 12 noon, particularly part-eaten pears.
 
For the warm-up we had three parents offering themselves as engines. The slow-train was ideal for all the youngest riders, with Dave Willsher on board a splendid red mountainbike as the engine for the first time. Riders on the other two trains got quite muddled, either not staying close to their engine inf ront or getting totally unhooked. Still it was only the warm-up.
 
David Burnham and Maria Balbi ticked off the third of their six trainee coach sessions. Well done you two.
 
Individual times from the skills circuit
 
age 5
53sec - Tao Ashdown-Parkes
 
age 6
41sec - Joshua Sharples
48sec - Ellen McLeod
48sec - Findlay Willsher
 
age 7
46sec - Louis Wright
49sec - Harry Bartley
 
age 8
47sec Gabriella Wright
 
age 9
34sec - Louis McLeod
43sec - Matthew Burnham
 
age 10
37sec - Alex Wright
 
age 11
37sec - Lewis Hurman
43sec - Louise Furley
 
age 12
36sec - Oscar Hurman
 
age 13
37sec - Matthew Ferguson
 
We'll add these times to the previous figures recorded by individual riders when they tackled the same circuit earlier in the year and the best of each rider's times will be used to pick out the age-group winners... and hopefully we'll be able to give them all a big cheer at the Raiders' Christmas Social
 
final races - two laps handicap - younger riders
 
1 Tao Ashdown-Parkes
2 Harry Bartley
3 Findlay Willsher
 
Tao got a head-start and he was flying round the first corner but then things got very muddled as he ploughed to a halt before the second corner, the one round seating complex in the middle of the playground. But with eager parents to guide him back on course, and with the rest still champing at the bit on the start-line, things got back on track.... and Tao never looked back... though screeching to a total stop on the finish line was quite un-nerving with others so close on his heels. Well done Tao.
 
final races - eight laps handicap - older riders
 
1 Matthew Ferguson
2 Louis McLeod
3 Joshua Sharples
 
Gabriella was away first, being the youngest, and looked to be holding the pack off well for the first four laps. But the strongest pair (Matthew and Louis) were in hot pursuit, riding from the back in the third group. They caught the middle group apart from Joshua who was still holding them off until almost the end. The finish again looked to have every sign of a muddle/disaster as the two sprinting for the line were riding into a group of lapped riders.... thank you for taking that into consideration, Matthew and Louis.
 
Green Jersey winner - Louis McLeod for logging the fastest time of all on the skills circuit.
 
Aged nine, Louis recorded a figure of 34 seconds, the best on the day, with even the older riders not able to get within three seconds of his figure. Well done Louis.
 
Christmas Social - Saturday 17 December
 
It only starts at 5pm to time to get in the mince pies in the oven during the day... or better still (speaking as a cycling coach) get out for a ride on your bike in daylight and buy in a packet.
 
Raiders committee additions - Kate and Anne
 
Two parents have offered to have their names added to the committee..... Kate Sharples has agreed to become the Child Welfare Officer and Anne Clegg will be our chairman.... or chairwomen.... or whatever she would prefer to be called..... more news on that and further committee details later.

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Which way next? 13-11-11

Submitted by admin on Sun, 20/11/2011 - 17:25

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Raiders session 13 November

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