The weatherwas unseasonably kind to us and although it was a little blustery, we had sunshine through most of the session.
 
We started off with aquick bike and helmet check, discovering that Emma's saddle was a bit loose, so she borrowed a spare bike while her dad made running repairs. 
 
After the warm up ride Maria ran a limbo exercise and a session to introduce our younger riders to the use of their gears.  In the limbo, the children all used the duck down technique; and really excelled.  Joshua Sharples got out of the saddle and leaned his bike away from his body, perfectly balancing it as he rode under the bar.
 
Among the girls, Helen was also super and Gabriela and Emma both managed to master the technique.

I ran a session with the remaining riders covering basic techniques of mounting and dismounting and race starts - also doing some work on the choice of the best gear for a fas tstart.
 
All the riders did really well at this. I was really impressed at how well everyone mastered riding in a group in the race start; we practiced this quite a lot without any incidents or collisions. 

Final race -3 laps, for the younger children.
 
The winner was Tau closely followed by Joshua, Finlay and Emma.
 
Final race-  8 laps for the older children.
 
The judges awarded first place to Freddie,closely followed by Matthew Ferguson (2nd) and Lewis McLeod (3rd)...... I'm sorry for the controversy regarding thefinish of the last scratch race - we'll be sure to be asking for parent line judges in future races.
 
Many thanks are dueto parents Anne and Susan and Andy for helping out during the warm up and to Stephen of his help with the younger rider’s session.
 
Please note the next Raider’s session is in 3 weeks time onDecember the 18th (12:00-13:30).
 
Also....there is a road rides on 17 December(10:00-12:00) with Tim Sales.
 
Finally don’t forget the Raiders' Christmas Social at Woodhatch Community Centre at 5pm on 17th December.
 
Until then I wish you happy pedalling.                                  David Burnham