I cannot believe it is a year since we were last at Reigate Fesival of Sport - seems like 'yesterday'.
Anyway, Raiders coaches made the decision to attend the event again in order to promote the club and youth cycling in general.
This year, we had representation from regular coaches David, Paul, and Andy with very welcome assistance from British Cycling in the shape of Tim Sales along with a considerable amount of equipment including 16 MTBs to allow anyone to have a go.
The day started very early so we could stake a huge land-grab claim on the area we needed - setting up the shiney new club gazebo, the excellent and ever popular skills circuit for the time trial, and the short XC race circuit. A bit of a run in with Reigate Rugby Club was sorted out by the 'burly' Tim Sales taking on the rugby players, pointing out that our XC circuit was not their training ground and that our equipment was not there for them to kick their balls off of !
By 10:00, we were just about ready to go with bikes on display, promotional flyers out, our parents (Redhill CC) in close attendance to our side, and Finches Cycles parked up on the other side. The itinerary for the days was all-day time trialing, and regular coaching sessions followed up by short races. As last year, the former was a non-stop event with a constant queue of riders taking up the opportunity to post a time. With hindsight, a little more prep on signage and organisation at 'front of shop' was required for promoting the coaching sessions, but we had a few takers for the races - albeit faces we already know sporting Raiders attire. Note for next year - more people needed to help with the event.
For the time trialing, a leader board was quickly established with times gradually reducing through out the day. The final results were:
| Category | Gender | First |
|---|---|---|
| U4s | Boys | Joe C (RR) 42.7s |
| U6s | Girls | Delilah 54.6s |
| Boys | Felix 43.1s | |
| U8s | Girls | Eleanor 39.1s |
| Boys | Peter C (RR) 32.5s | |
| U10s | Girls | Kiki 38.7s |
| Boys | Alex (RR) 37.2s | |
| U12s | Girls | Kiera 36.4s |
| Boys | William G (RR) 30.7s | |
| U14s | Girls | Hannah 36.8s |
| Boys | Toby 57.9s |
At the end of the day, we had logged almost 100 riders through the time trial course.
Huge thanks to the following for giving up time to make this possible again:
David B, setting up, lead cajoler of people to have a go, running the events
Paul W, setting up, running the events
Andy C, setting up, running the events
Tim S, setting up, bringing the MTBs and the helmets, bringing the equipment, taking on the Rugby team...
It was another great event with a lot learnt for making it even better next year.
Some piccies...
The new gazebo, looking a bit like a stand for Islabikes !
u4 versus u6 on the skills circuit
big push for the line on the XC MTB circuit...
...and winning in style (or dangerous riding ???)
Time trial results