Go Ride 29th April 2017 and Youth Ride

Twenty three riders signed on for our first Go Ride session of the summer term. The morning was bright and sunny and everyone seemed keen to get on their bikes.  We set up a 'cone heads' skills challenge to keep everyone busy before the warm up started.  This activity requires concentration and a really still upper body to keep a marker cone on top of your helmet.




For the warm up proper we used the small circuit around the infant field and added a 'slow zone' on the infant playground, every time riders entered the slow zone they had to try to be the last rider out of the zone.  After everyone had ridden a few laps we got a couple of expert demos from Nico and Joel and I offered up the reward of a chocolate bar of choice to any rider who could beat Nico in a slow race at the end of the session...........more on that later.

'Challenge Nico'

So, we split into three groups and got to work practising our slow riding.  Once that was done, we moved onto our endurance block, using our regular circuit but throwing in a sprint zone on the field, encouraging riders to get out of their saddles and pick a good gear for a really big effort.  It seemed to do the trick and soon everyone was riding faster and faster each lap.  Once the riders were thoroughly exhausted we stopped for a break, Jacob's mum had brought crispy cakes to celebrate his birthday, so we investigated the new play equipment on the playground and enjoyed some birthday treats.  Next up was Sardines, working in small groups we put our new found slow riding skills into practise.   To finish off it was Challenge Nico, everyone wanted to have a go and despite some valiant efforts the only rider to beat him was Joel, although we awarded Eloise a prize too as Calvin thwarted her ride with a foot in the wrong place ;-).  Hope had been heavily handicapped so just a couple of chocolate bars to buy for next week.

Thanks to all our riders, coaches and volunteers for contributing to a fun session.  See you next week at the usual time for Go Ride.

Our Youth Ride actually had more adult riders than Youths today, Claire was a bit anxious that she would slow us down but we assured here she'd be fine as we set off to ride Castle Chaos; a route that takes in Hever and Chiddingstone. A nice smooth ride, no incidents and I didn't have to share the emergency Mars Bar :-)

Next Week: Go Ride 9.30am - 11am