Sixty riders from three primary schools turned out last Thursday afternoon for an inter-school cycling event.... yes sixty, you read it correctly!!

If you remember it poured down, on and off, all day.

We were lucky, though, as we hit a dry two hour spell…. but even so it was a case of floating about on wet mud at times…. I think it must have been some special sort of magnetic mud as numerous riders made for the trickiest patches….. and some of the falls were definitely intentional!!

What on earth the parents thought of it all when they got home I do not know.

The three schools involved were Kingswood (the host), Warren Mead and Tadworth.

Events got under way at 2pm and ended three hours later at 5pm.

Clive Copeland, the British Cycling Go-Ride coach, set the programme which was a mix of a skills test for individuals on tarmac (weaving, cornering and ducking under a low bar) (and timed by a stop-watch) followed by a two-lap race on the grass area.

Clive tested 10 of the 60 riders at a time, leaving me with 50 to entertain…. and that was easy as they loved the little cyclo-cross style circuit I set up with tape and posts..... that almost forced them at one point into a neighbouring hedge (unless they steered well) and then brought them back down across a tricky corner of the football field where the grass was long-gone and all we had was a mudbath... which turned out to be the fun part.

I thought these six-at-a-time races would eventually wear the children out… but it didn’t…. these kids were like clockwork….. and acquiring more mud-splats almost seemed like a badge of honour.

Michelle Massimo, teacher and Bike It champion at Kingswood, set up the event.

She told me that the children enjoyed it and there was lots of positive feedback from parents too.

Clive said the same…. that the children’s behaviour and enthusiasm was wonderful.    
 

Team competition for schools

1 Tadworth
2 Kingswood
3 Warren Mead.
 
Individual boys:

1 Thomas Pibworth (Warren Mead)
2 Ed Birch (Kingswood)
3 Sam Bevis (Kingswood)
 
Individual girls:

1 Imogen Parrish (Kingwood)
2 Olivia Blythe (Warren Mead)
3 Jossie Shepherd (Kingswood).
 
                                    report: John Leitch, coach, Redhill Raiders