That's more like it..... Raiders back in action.... we had several sparkling new bikes on display on Sunday and lots of enthusiasm and smiles.
 
I had some good news late on the Saturday evening thanks to a phone call saying that the two trainee coaches Mari Balbi and David Burnham had both got through their last day of evaluation and had both passed their Level 2 coaching exams. Well done.
 
Building on that.... Stephen Golliker says he's got on a course that runs over the last weekend of January, so that should add more fire-power.
 
We kicked off with the usual warm-up and for the first time two of the three 'engines' (ie adults leading the trains) were mums... Kate Sharples and Anne Clegg.... presumably the dads were still nursing hang-overs.
 
To introduce an element of total chaos we kicked off with Le Mans races where the riders line up on foot well away from their bikes then on the whistle they all run to them, mount at speed, find their pedals and cycle round half a lap to the finish.
 
It's done wonders for some of the competitive riders' on-the-move mounting techniques.... I think we should video Freddie Davy who has it off to a fine art.
 
The second exercise was a BMX start where four equally-matched riders lines up on the grid. All they have to do is select the right gear and the right pedal positiion and then get round a semi circle to a finish line. The good news is that several riders have twigged tht the inside gate/start position is the shortest distance to the corner. The bad news is that they all want the inside gate now. Mmmm.
 
Mari divided riders into two groups and the challenge was for the front rider to respond to a whistle by accelerating as hard as possible round the loop and riding fast round to the back of the line. Many thanks to dad Danyel for acting as 'engine' with the younger riders.
 
Final races - youngest ages - 3-lap handicap
 
1 Finlay Willsher
2 Louis Wright
3 Gabriella Wright
 
There's no stopping this new lad Finlay. He faced quite an intimidating handicap start (having won twice in a row now) but even then he went flying off at such a splendid rate of knots that he sailed home first.
 
Young Louis, however, powered on and wasn't caught by anyone other than Finlay.
 
Third place was totally chaotic with three riders all firing towards the line at equal speeds. It was a hard one to call but Gabrialla was the only one of the three to stay on the circuit (and not cur the corner) so there has to be recognition for that compliance with the rules.... but we can always have a re-run.
 
Final races - second race for middle ages - 5-lap handicap
 
1 Erin Dunn
2 name needed
3 Lewis Hurman
 
Race cut short as a result of a crash.... have I got the second and third in the right order??
 
Final races - third race for older riders - 8-lap handicap
 
1 Jamie Pullen
2 Louis McLeod
3 Nick Gill
 
We had Redhill Raiders' answer to Mark Cavendish (ie Jamie Pullen) handicapped to the hilt, what with numerous cannonballs and Christmas puddings and all discretely loaded into his back pockets before the start, but he was still able to reel in the front runners and emerge a clear winner, though Nick put in a valient chase. Well done everyone here... it was a great race.
 

John

Photo: 

Ready and waiting. 08-01-12

Submitted by admin on Sun, 15/01/2012 - 18:16

Photo: 

Event: 

Raiders session 8 Jan 2012

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