12th - 13th September - Go Ride, Youth Ride & Lee Valley Velodrome

Go Ride - slow riding techniques

Sixteen riders signed on this morning for Go Ride including ten new starters.  Maybe our new start time is paying dividends?  We started off warming up on site, riding a few circuits and practising dismounting and saddle push.  Once everyone was sorted, six of the more experienced riders headed off with Damian, Katy and Jane to tackle Col de Coldharbour.

Safely back from Col de Coldharbour

On site we made excellent progress with our slow riding techniques.  After a quick break we used "Chase the Snake" to practise our bunch riding on the playground together with some sprint efforts, before heading over to the infant playground where Claire & Toni had set up a set of tight bends on the playground linked by a loop of the field.  This was a good opportunity to put some of the techniques we've been focussing on into practise.  To round up the session we sneaked in a quick game of Sardines, before it was time to go home.  Great riding and some big improvements in slow riding and cornering today, sadly I forget to capture much on film :-(  Just managed a quick snap before all the riders had left.

Go Riders, including some new and familiar faces

Malcolm organises the riders for me.

Youth Ride - Bore Place & Baileys
Eight riders this morning for Youth Ride, it was nice to see Catriona back after the holidays (and Chris too of course :-)).  Our routes took us along the Causeway and up the lovely Hale Oak Road, where we split, older riders continuing the climb up to Sevenoaks and the younger ones headed back to Hildenborough via Weald.  Another dry and trouble free ride, long may they continue.

Back at base (minus Izzy & Catriona)

Sunday 13th September - Lee Valley Velodrome

Catriona & Sophia passed their Stage 3 track accreditation.

No Go Ride next weekend (19th September) we are off to Fowlmead.

Next Go Ride session Saturday 26th September.

Next day we were up at Lee Valley for a Club Cluster session on the track.  Damian was coaching and I ended up helping out on the team pursuit session along with several of our parents who are now much more experienced at held starts.  Catriona and Sophia joined the Stage 3 accreditation group and successfully completed the session and the assessment so now all our regular riders are signed off for Stage 3 and just waiting to complete Stage 4.