Sunday was both bright and breezy, with the emphasis on the the word breezy.
Bee had the 'big 'uns' and found it ideal weather conditions to come to terms with the subtle cycling art of echelon riding (that is to say where you shelter from the blast by riding to the side of the rider in front rather than directly behind).....
....while I had the 'young uns' and they got almost blown away when we got on the exposed 'high plateau' that is the velodrome loop.
But everyone was happy which was the main thing.
Eight new faces.... wonderful.
And a mass of helpers in the form of adult riders all read to ride their bikes.... so much so that when I came down after closing the signing-on shop/desk it looked in the distance like the finish of some Belgian classics race with people scattered all over the place. Amazing.
Midway through the session someone pointed and said to me that one of the whizziest of the smallest riders was/is the son of a professional cyclist (well ex-professional to be more precise - remember the Motorola team anyone?)... no wonder he was riding in full- blitz mode from start to finish... well done.
Two stories of the day coming up next.... first from Bee and then me.
Older riders group - Bee Gregory
A quick report on the “bigs”.
We started with some through and off on the velodrome loop. A few goes at getting it right, but every group got there in the end, there was some pacing by the riding dads too, which was helpful.
We progressed that on to some efforts still in Team time trial format, a pyramid of efforts and recovery, to test the skills under duress.
The final part was a team pursuit of sorts, a 5 minute time limit and 4 groups of riders placed at even intervals around the circuit, the challenge being to catch as many of the other teams as possible, with immediate disqualification if a gap of more than 3m came up between riders,
it made for great communication. the added skill of echelon riding was needed today as it was soon windy!
In the second half we worked a lot on pellets riding with the dads keeping the group together, riding round in a tight bunch, and practising "get to the fronts”, the close riding, not in formation proved challenging for some, but everyone got more confident as the session progressed.
Some skills challenges followed, the most challenging of which for all, was riding one legged, (especially for the couple of poor chaps who didn’t have cleats!)
The customary handicap race was much anticipated, and won by a large margin by a Charlotteville superstar, who incidentaly was in the last group to start. a great effort and well done to all the riders, who it must be said were looking quite weary by the end.
A special mention to Millie, the Hillingdon Slipstreamer, who was by far the smallest rider in the group, and took on a huge buffeting by the wind, and successfully kept up with the session despite having already ridden 30k in Richmond Park this morning- chapeau.
Younger riders group - John Leitch
With so many outriders (ie dads and a mum) we were able to form four little packs...... three of them sheltering in pairs behind the engines (ie the adults) or with a 'pilot-fish' riding at the side to talk them through the laps,... while the strongest pair were simply too strong for the rest and were doing through-and-off on their own.... namely Carys Lloyd and Ben Furtado.
I should say 'welcome back' to Ben at this point as it was he who broke his arm a few months ago.
As he arrived today and mum parked up she was told to move the vehicle to a different spot as they were in exactly the same place as last time and he took that as a bad omen. Mhairi (mum) did as she was told and (thankfully) Ben's good luck held.
The search for something totally new resulted in a 'how far can you freewheel up a hill' challenge.
One by one, riders started and accelerated as fast as possible until they reached/hit the 'stop pedalling' line and then rolled forwards losing as little speed as possible.. while facing a choice of three markers on the hillside..... easy (lower hill), hard (middle hill) or very hard (top of hill).
Seeing someone get one notch higher than they had achieved certainly induced them the fire away harder the next time.
We moved from riders having a standing start, then to a clipped-in held-by-a-parent start and finally to what can only be described as a throw..... good fun.
One rider hit the top and officially became the King of the Hill.
After a half-time rest we moved onto the velodrome loop and did six minutes of mass lapping on an amoeba-shaped loop, a different one this time.... and with adults as corner/goal-posts rather than cones..... I think the guys soon got the message that they were sacrificial lambs really, there to be hit in the case of mishap.
After six minutes came the cry: 'one hundred and eighty' though I suppose that if you don't watch darts there was no reason for the big excitement.
There was such a spread of ability that we finished with two final handicap races, not one.
First a two-lap race where the 'rabbit' out in the lead took a lot of catching, then a five-lap race which varied from a lot of individuals riding individually into the strong cross-wind to (in the later laps) some good collaboration to reel in the front rider in red who showed little sign of slowing down.... in fact only one of the pack got across and the two of them came charging to the finish line side-by-side. Well done.
Finally - you might have missed this......10km from the line and it's a break of four riders..... three from the same team.... so who wins?
The first big race in Belgium was last Saturday.
Coaching youngsters in a groups like at Power Pack is one thing, but just picture yourself as the coach of these two teams (well one in particular) after this race. These are world-class cyclists with tons of experience. There are lots of coaching messages to be had in this 10min clip.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQRSisiaC9A
John