By John Leitch
Posted: Monday, February 23, 2015 - 14:10

 

 

Nothing to beat a bracing day in Merstham in February.

 

I had the illusion of it being cold for a while but only until one of the younger riders started taking off layer after layer of clothing... not just one item but almost everything.... wow.... I must ask for goose grease next Christmas time.

 

Annabel Canning rode from home - that was a first. Well done. 

 

And Jess Kirk aged four made her debut, she being the younger sister of Emily. Well done also.

 

Changes beforehand let me know that I'd be the only coach on duty so it was just like the earliest days of Redhill Raiders (when coaching was a one-man band).

 

At that time we met on the tennis courts in front of the Royal Alexandria and Albert School and when the weather was bad in winter we could adjourn to a covered area.... it was a single tennis court and it made for some intense sorts of exercises as there wasn't much space.

 

For eight minutes riders were all zapping about on the same circuit, down one side there was a narrow section, like crossing a bridge in single file, and on the other side was a chicane... which everyone got the hang of mostly... the one moment of one rider was circling in the reverse direction to everyone else certainly brought thing to life... among the parents at least.

 

Another 'keeping on the move' involved riders in pairs riding shoulder to shoulder.

 

In one part of the exercise they were three-in-line with the request that on each lap the rider on the left slowed and dropped back and then moved across to back before speeding up again onto line on the right.

 

A mis-reading of that was interpreted as 'brake and move across the front on the line and take a position on the right'.

 

Good job that isn't on YouTube.... it would feature nicely among the Raiders' classics.

 

Final race - five laps handicap

 

1 Emily Kirk
2 Lukas Lamberth
3 Annabel Canning.