Saturday 21st April 2018 - Go Ride at Stocks Green

When I drove past the school and saw that the field had been mown, I took it as a good omen for this weekend's weather; I wasn't disappointed.

As expected the sunshine brought out lots of bike riders, including five new starters.  As any keen bike rider will tell you, the first dose of sun on your knees marks the beginning of what you've been waiting for all year!

Warming up on the infant playground

Getting ready to sprint........

Whilst everyone was arriving, Michele and Luke set up a saddle push practise zone; a great skill to have, especially if you like triathlon.  Once everyone was signed on, we headed over to the field the check out riding conditions.  The ground has really firmed up this week, with short grass too, we had another area available to use.  We kicked off with some straight line sprinting in heats, with a held start to challenge the riders (and some of the helpers).

Then we split into two groups and worked on cornering skills; tight turns, straight line slaloms and carving turns.  I was interested to see that my group found the tight turn challenge particularly difficult; definitely more practise needed, especially with slow riding.  My riders were impressed when they looked over and saw some Jez's riders making the tight turn, one handed, you can't say they don't have anything to aspire to!  We moved onto slalom and carving turns.  Some extra speed makes riding much easier and lends itself better to working on pedal position, the pin end turn still requires a big turn of the head to take the bike and rider round in a small arc.  After lots of practise it was time for a quick break while we putting the final touches to our endurance circuit.

This week we opted to reverse the circuit and included a post office queue, some carving turns and the willow shelter, the dismount section gave everyone a chance to put their saddle push skills into action.  It was a hot day for a fifteen minute endurance block but everyone made it and pushed hard to the end.

I'm relieved to say that by the end of the session everyone agreed they were top bike riders!

Next week we'll be off site, riding the Col de Coldharbour.

and they're off...............