We had splendid weather for today's session and everyone was full of smiles.

Welcome to two new riders.

Both came to the second session. Jennifer, aged 12, came along... with her dad Keith saying there is also a younger sister waiting in the wings with her bike, aiming to come next time round (do come). And as well as Jennifer had anther Knight, the new arrival being 14-year-old Douglas and with no connection at all to either Laura or Catherine of the same name. We'll have to sit all you Knights at the special round table.

First session

Three parents signed up to be engines, each with a stream of riders following their wheels. Slight variation this week.... the whistle blows for the first rider to accelerate and do a complete circuit on their own, riding fast, and get back onto the back of their line. Now with a special smaller circuit for younger riders so it has to work hasn't it? No, no, it hasn't....within a couple of minutes one engine is ticking along, no riders at all, looking for a convenient siding to park up in.
 
So we went out onto the grass for a 'musical chairs' exercise. Each rider started by a cone, then set off riding clockwise round the circle and when the whistle stopped found a cone, the nearest spare one ahead of them. By then one cone had vanished. The devious change to normal being that the Furzefield School's splendid archway of saplings was part of the circle, so confusion in the undergrowth ready to cause the maximum traffic-jam (I expected/hoped). Well it didn't work out that way as everyone was quite superb at getting through the tree-run squeeze section.
 
A few squabbles over who got to a cone first were resolved by a run-off between the two riders... another lap on the whistle and the first back gets the spot.
 
The squabbles should have spilled over when we moved onto the 'last parking space' exercise. Two riders set off at the same moment each on a mirror-image circuit, the object being to get to the single parking space at the far end first.
 
Quite a few parked their bikes at right-angles to the parking space I noticed (so exactly which parent do you take after in that respect, I asked myself?)
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It got more complex when we had two pairs riding head-to-head.... so four riders trying to squeeze into three parking places at the far end.
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The riders' final challenge in the little circuit was a complete circle of a yellow cone and by putting the two yellow cones quite close we suddenly had the concept of riders blocking off an opponent while their team-mate slipped  ahead. Very devious.
 
Then, adding a couple of parents to the mix made the whole thing quite explosive!! Did I hear someone say they were worse than the kids?
 
First session - younger riders - 7-laps of short circuit
 
1 Louis McLeod
2 Alice McDermott
3 Thomas Clayson
 
First session - older riders - 8-lap handicap on larger circuit
 
1 Jamie Pullen
2 Will Sales
3  Jonathan Barnes
 
Second session with coach Keith Reed (1.15-2.30pm)
 
1 Jamie Pullen
2 Douglas Knight
3 Matthew Worth
 
Green Jersey awarded to Alice McDermott... as the rider who needed most visits to the Hurt Locker - but who but kept returning with a smile.
 
It was a day for quite a few tumbles and scrapes, one way or another, and Alice suffered more than most.
 
But it was good to see her make rapid recoveries and return to the action each time.... and this for a new rider on only her second Raiders session.
 
I hope you need no plasters at all next time Alice.... and well done on those showings in the teams-of-two races for the last parking place.... you started off quite hesitant at your ability to circle all the way round a cone yet you ended up in the winning team on more than one occasion.
 
Splendid.

Photo: 

Alice's Green Jersey

Submitted by admin on Wed, 16/06/2010 - 09:56

Photo: 

Event: 

Raiders session 13 June

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