Saturday 23rd September - Go Ride & Youth Ride

Dishes and Domes a la Damian!

This was our first Go Ride session of the new term.  Nineteen riders signed on including a few new riders.  We opted for an off the bike warm up today; Damian and the YV's organised a game of dishes and domes on the infant playground, with a few new rules to make the outcome more uncertain.  It seemed very popular and by the rate at which jackets and sweatshirts were being discarded a good way to get warm.

Taking a break on the climbing frame!

Toni, Polly, Ellen, Luke, Calvin (hiding), Hope, Nico, Mathys & Eloise

The older riders headed off with Damian, whilst the younger ones stayed with myself and Michele.  We got started with some basic braking practise before moving onto slow riding and stopping and starting.  It's amazing how quickly riders progress with these techniques when they have the opportunity to practise.  Next up was some gliding; it's really important to be able to move off your saddle, and something that younger riders sometimes find difficult.  So it was great to see everyone getting the hang of this skill really quickly.  We finished off with a gliding challenge; most of the riders made it all the way to the end of the playground.

A quick break to re-fuel, then we heading over to the lump to practise riding up and over it before we started our endurance block.  Michele had set out a 'Post Office Queue' style course to challenge the riders' cornering skills.  After more than ten minutes hard riding I finally persuaded riders to have a break.  We just had time to run some slow races.  A showcase of the way the riders' control and balance are really developing.

Well done to everyone who rode today, look forward to seeing you again next week.

Youth Ride
The sun had brought the teenagers out! All the KVRT and some of our teenage KVK's were out riding today.  We all headed off on a hilly course that took us to The Hurst near Crouch and then up again through Plaxtol and on up to Ightham Mote.  Excellent climbing from everyone. Juan and I were quite exhausted!