Hi everyone
Mid-summer arrived at the weekend.... as heralded by the London-to-Brighton mass cycling cavalcade that came pouring down Rocky Lane and across my path.
I'm told that included in their numbers were some Raiders such as Christian Bright and Alistair Canning plus their dads.... well done guys... out of interest, what happened when you got to the foot of Ditchling Beacon, were you able to ride up?
To reach Furzefield School, I thought I might have needed Boris Johnson's new water cannon to get myself across the flow but I got lucky.
On the playground, the first to appear on the scene was young Hannah sporting not only a Redhill Raiders cycling top but one that had been signed by Chris Hoy no less.... splendid.... presumably that debars it from going into the wash for the next six years.
Dad Stephen Golliker was coaching the younger group while I had the big cheeses.
We did a mass-lapping exercise to get everyone nicely warmed up, this time riders were weaving round a few cones slalom-style to make for tricky cornering plus the limbo bar (at a modest height) to duck under. It seemed a good idea to bulk up numbers (to create a better muddle) by adding in any parent who wished to join in.
David Burnham rose to the occasion but perhaps regretted it every time he rounded the corner and faced the limbo challenge.
Next came the Generation Game as we got all the parents involved in the Le Mans-style race for the first time.... they were the runners.
All the bikes were lined up against the wall as usual but for a change their riders were stood equally close to them.... but they had to wait for the arrival of a parent to tag them.
Once the parents started to wilt it seemed a good time to think of the next exercise, but the kids rather liked seeing the grown-ups running for them... and asked for more.... and more.
Aiming to keep trying something not seen before, we had a go at a 'turn and face the maze'.
The challenge: ride out to a cone and turn, then on the way back weave through a maze of cones to a finish line. It took three trial runs for riders to realise they had the skills to do it, and it took us three goes to replace fallen cones in such a way that there were no rat-runs through the maze (thanks Keith). Then out with the stop-watch.
By the end, riders had divided into two groups: the ones with clear vision who hit no cones and the riders still with slightly blurred vision who clattered their way through... but got their 'knock-over' tally down to just the one... so quite a lot of improvement noted.... well done.
Final race - older riders, six-lap handicap
1 Ellen McLeod
2 Matthew Burnham
3 Abbie Frew
Ellen sustained a good pace throughout, so the excitement in the last two laps was who would be second. Coming out of the final bend Abbie had the inside line and Matthew didn't look like he'd make it, but he got there by about half a wheel at the finish line.... great to watch.
I spent the entire race watching riders come up to the finish line, so with my back to the new furniture/outdoor roof that has appeared. I has four vertical columns.
One parent who was looking into my blind spot, saw the speed riders were cornering at and suggested tweaking things before anyone rides into them.... so shorten the circuits to move further away from the four posts... and this morning I woke up wondered what rugby-post style padding would cost.
Have we finished for the summer? No there are three more sessions - one in June at Gatton Park and two in July at Furzefield
A couple of parents said they had been looking on the Raiders' website for information about our future dates and couldn't see any more dates.... so they asked is that it? No. [calendar has now been updated !]
We are still in action and there are three more dates to come before the summer break, so please note them in your diary....
Sun 29 June
This is a special at the Royal Alexandria and Albert School, basedin Gatton Park, where we get to use the path in the wood, please note the later time...... session 3pm to 4.30pm
Then two as normal at Furzefield....
Sun 13 July
Sun 27 July