Saturday 10th February Go Ride at Stocks Green

Oliver demonstrated just how cold it was!

Oh my goodness, another chilly start to the weekend that looked set to jeopardise our Go Ride session.  Last weekend Michele was at pains to point out that it is never really cold enough not to go outside here compared to her native Minnesota so I was determined to prove that the KVK will always ride if we can. We don't want to put anyone off so ahead of the session I made sure that Soigneurs were aware of the likely conditions and were well prepared to support their young riders should they choose to take on the challenge of a very chilly morning at Go Ride.

Following on from our comprehensive risk assessment, Luke and Jacob coned off a safe channel across the playground to link sections of the perimeter path.  That gave us our basic circuit.  Riders could get moving as soon as they arrived.  By 9.45am we had ten hardy KVKs signed on, all riding their bikes and breathing hard in the cold air.



Our plan was to keep everyone moving as much as possible.  We stopped briefly to give riders some pointers on mounting/dismounting, followed by a really good practise session that saw everyone getting to grips with quick transitions from riding to running.

We also ran through some drills using different gears; the idea being that by the end of it riders had practised changing from gear to gear and would feel more confidence choosing and changing gears while riding.

We worked through our normal half-time break but stopped briefly before the end of the session for a quick biscuit.  We set up our final endurance circuit and challenged riders to ride hard for five minutes.  Perfect timing; just as they finished it started to rain.  Time to go home.  

Well done to everyone who rode and all our volunteers and parents for facilitating a hard session.  I hope everyone is curled at home with a mug of something warming and a good book (or something similar).

Damian chatting to the riders about mounting and dismounting

Cayden practising some speedy re-mounts

Charlie practising "hopping on"

They really did have fun (even though it doesn't look like it!)

Meanwhile in Minnesota..............