What a weekend.... two for the price of one... Brighton on Saturday morning for those free from any seagull allergy and then Furzefield School at noon on Sunday for everyone else... thought the latter was mighty close to not happening unless I could rustle up some bolt-cutters.
 
Training at Preston Park for two hours on Saturday.
 
We had a splendid time in the sea air, even though the home club PPYCC were away... well almost... one rider turned up and that was Olli.... and with our riders Louis and Nick now riding down at Preston Park regularly they were already pals with him.
 
Plus Olli brought his dad and his dad brought a blower and he heaved a ton of chestnuts off the circuit and got us all riding smoothly.
 
Well all bar one.
 
Andre and son Freddie Roux arrived with a front wheel missing, Freddie's one.... I thought dad would be magnanious but away he went zapping off while Freddie leaned on the railings looked crestfallen. But it was a short-lived blast as dad then handed his front wheel over to son and attempted to stuff a mountainbike with a disc brake into his front forks but that only served to grind into the paint... so dad got a whole mountainbike from somewhere..... but then Christian Bright hived across with a spare bike only it was a track bike... but still the front wheel would do and it was on offer... so some spannering about and all was well.
 
Two arrived by train from Dorking - Emma Light and her dad.
 
Maddy and Freddie Davy came by car, with mum at the wheel, while dad cycled down from Redhill... well done that man.
 
It was splendid to see so many parents in action as that meant we could divide into a stream of ability groups.
 
Next (and final) visit Sat 15 October.
 
Sunday at Furzefield School.
 
The outer gates, for which I have a key, were already open but for the first time ever the inner gates, with a security code, were shut.... and the notice pinned alongside the pad said that the code had recently been changed.
 
Nina Booker, the school's former Bike-It Champion was our only hope. So I phoned but no-one there. But then she rang back and I wrote the code down. Only it wouldn't work. Then a second try failed and it was all over.
 
Fortunately we have Steve Sherwin to thank at this point for arriving early with his squad. Steve's brain is a better version/model than mine and he noticed I was tapping the numbers in in the wrong order.... so he took over the task and they swung open immediately.
 
Welcome to new riders
 
Eli and Connie Price joined Raiders for the first time, aged seven and eight. Matthew Ferguson also tried his hand, aged 13, plus another pair of brothers in the shape of Archie and Lewis Hurman.
 
The most startling of the new faces was Polly Hough, younger sister of Oscar, as it was only when I got home that I spotted her age.... three!!
 
What we did
 
Normality was retored to the warm-up in that the youngest stream of riders/ducks were following Kate, a mum, who is a regular hand, only last time Kate was away and Dave Halliday gallantly took on the role blind... it was a case of the riders behind him shouting where the engine at the front was to go.... though they all enjoyed that.
 
Next we did a mass ride, probably with the most riders ever. After three minutes we had logged 131 laps and then in the second half people speeded up and the final tally was 285 laps. Well done everyone for cornering so skilfully.
 
Final race for younger riders - 3-lap handicap
 
1 Harry Bartley
2 Eli Price
3 Emma Clamp
 
 
Final race for older riders - 8-lap handicap
 
1 Nick Gill
2 Erin Dunn
3 Matthew Ferguson
 
Green Jersey: Oscar Hough for surviving a major slide on the tarmac
 
It was all hands on deck as he tumbled while cornering.... but he quickly put it into the past and was all smiles by the end of the session.

Photo: 

Oscar takes the Green Jersey 18 Sept 2011

Submitted by admin on Thu, 22/09/2011 - 06:08

Photo: 

Event: 

Raiders session 18 September

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