Sunday was just splendid..... warm with sunshine and dry ground so that we got out on the grass... and even into Furzefield's sculptured saplings for three rounds of junglebusting.
 
Welcome to five new faces
 

Five at once!! That must be a record.
 

Millie, aged 6, joined her nine-year-old brother Christian... in fact both parents were on their bikes as well... it was some sort of family all-day expedition apparently as mum had a combination of bottles of red wine and packs of eggs secreted away in her pannier bag.... and all this  hanging from a bike that had a bad habit of falling over whenever no-one was looking.... which was often....so what on earth they were drinking/eating/scrambling when they all got to Nog Hall (ie the Brights' grandparents' house) I do not know.

Brothers Arthur and George zapped onto the scene. I'm doing weekly sessions in Sandcross School at the moment and so I already know George.... he'd quite a dab hand at many of the skills.... and today he was king of the 'sumo' exercise.

Along with that group were two more seven-year-old girls, Rhianna and Alice.

Rhianna's dad (Mark) is a cyclist member with the club that neighbours onto Redhill.... namely Addiscombe CC.... and they were attracted to come and give us a once-over thanks to the nice things that Tom Hawkes/dad Phil Hawkes (another member of that club) had posted on the Addiscombe CC's website... in particular the feedback after Tom's trip to Calshot.

And Alice who turns out to be in the same class at school as George Sales... who was missing.... well away on active duty.... racing at Goodwood no less.

I think I must have had a touch of the sun as I kicked off with the trains and engines exercise again, youngsters allocated evenly behind the adults who were acting as the engines and (hopefully) riding responsibly, maintaining a steady gap.

Only the Furzefield black hole appeared again and magnetised riders were sucked in, leaving one engine riding round entirely on its ownsome, while another resembled a honey pot with a swarm of bees hovering all round it.

We tried an exercise were riders set off individually round a circle and at two points there are 'stop boxes' where the aim is to brake and halt (perhaps momentarily) and then move forwards again without dabbing a foot on the ground. Having the pedals horizontal rather than vertical is the key, so one foot has something to press on just before the panic thought of tippling over comes to mind. There was great progress... well done.

The jungle-buster exercise was great.... each rider getting three turns at carefully manoeuvring through the archway of saplings, now more exciting that last time thanks to the arrival of fresh green shoots and a canopy of leaves.

The archway is a bit tight but things improved when two dads (ones of a 'burly' ilk)  thought they could manage.... well, the upward pressure of their heads and outward pressure of their elbows on the roof and sides lifted a few weakling trees from the ground... and benefited the Raider-sized morsels who followed.

The other hazard while jungle-busting was the occasional non-Raider who seemed drawn to the action.... we lost one toddler who went out scavenging on foot and then fished out another small item on a mini-bike with pink ribbons and stabilisers.... not to mention an over-eager customer who rode back up the jungle path wrong way. So with all than then yes, definitely one to do again.
 

First session races - handicap - 5 laps - younger ages/smaller bikes
 

1 Tom Roper
2 Rhianna Levy
3 Callum Pringle
 

First session races - handicap - 7 laps - older ages/larger bikes
 

1 Christian Bright
2 Jonathan Barnes
3 Emma Light

I don't think we've ever had such exuberant parents for these races!! The handicapping was pretty well spot-on as there was no certainty in either race as to who would get to the line first.

In particular the first race where it was the closest to a dead-heat we've ever seen. Tom decided he'd won with 20m still to do and started to ease up, while Rhianna saw it was still possible to beat him and put on a great surge. As a result their two front wheels were both in the frame for our first photo-finish verdict.
 

Green Jersey: winner of the second handicap race Christian Bright.
 

Inspired by his day-out at Calshot (mid May) when four Raiders took up the offer to 'piggy-back' the session organised by Sutton CC, Christian has invested in a road-bike  (well his parents did) and the flush of enthusiasm paid off as Christian paced his effort, starting off at the back in the scratch group, and steadily working his way forward.  Good effort. Well done.

Photo: 

Jungle Busters are go

Submitted by admin on Wed, 02/06/2010 - 06:09

Photo: 

Event: 

Raiders session 30 May

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