We faced competition on Sunday as our fortnightly event at Canon was running at much the same time as the Ride Reigate event (100km – 50km – 25km).
Several Raiders who are customary faces at Canon were availing themselves of the pleasures of free ice-creams and medals by taking part in the 25km roll round nearby countryside (minimum age seven) .
Meanwhile back at base…. Paul Wright was mustering the older riders on the two lower levels while I was upstairs with the nippers.
It wasn’t raining but it was wet and that might explain the number of tumbles on the corners.
We kicked off with five boys in the ‘upstairs group' but by the time we got to the 'dogs v rabbits' exercise we were down to just two boys on the start line for that... and after the first corner the number of boys had halved again.
Last time we did this exercise, the dogs managed lots of noisy barking as they chased the rabbits, while the rabbit complained about not having any equivalent sound to make. So this time (the girls being the rabbits group), they immediately opted to call themselves the cats group and they kicked of meowing away merrily/loudly.
Sure enough the cats caught the dog rather than the other way round.
Which brought us to the egg and spoon races.
Part 1 was without bikes as this group was too young for one-handed riding, but still running with an egg proved one thing… the faster you run the more sure it is that the egg will be spilled.
That gave parents something to laugh about.
But Part 2 changed all that as it was a two-part race….. first the parents had to run with the egg-and-spoon before tagging a child who then cycled to a finish line. The mums were fine but heavens the dads got so competitive.
So much so that the plan to move on the parents on to a three-legged race was put on ice.
Getting out the limbo bar calmed everything down before the final races.
final race – girls - younger group - five laps handicap.
1 Annabel
2 Louisa
3 Tabitha
I was woefully short of pen and paper at this point, so thanks to the mum who bailed me out.
final race – boys - younger group - five laps handicap.
1 Toby
2 Freddie (though he was a DNF – did not finish) (ie took a tumble)
3 Tabitha and Tilly joined in and raced for third place (both being keen for another challenge).