Its May so this weekend sees the first Saturday of the month and Go Ride is on.
There will only be one session at Hinchingbrooke between 10.00 am and 11.30 am. There is no Alconbury session as Mike is away (again).
Previous session
April has been full of holidays. We normally don’t operate in the holidays but Rob and Mick were keen to get on with their sessions to complete their qualification so we carried on anyway. Numbers were down slightly as expected in the holidays (and the fact that a number of riders were with me on the Women’s Tour of Britain training) but we covered off lots of stuff.
At Hinchingbrooke, James worked on descending on the mound, whilst Rob worked on balance and Mick covered off mounting and . dismounting. Riders of the week were Elizabeth, Dan and Anastasia.
At Alconbury, we worked on sprinting, ending with testing the riders over a 50m standing start sprints. Top 5 times (in seconds) were CC (34.88), Sophie (32.75), Sam H (32.68), Alex D (32.44) and Holly (31.25)
At the second Alconbury session, we set up a short H shaped course and covered cornering, with all riders cornering much faster and smoother by the end of the session. We have started using video analysis at the road sessions so we can actually show the riders what they are doing and this I believe is making a big difference in helping riders to understand both their strong points and areas where they can improve.
In addition Simon and I have been running regular Saturday morning practice sessions for our teams competing in the stage finish races at the imminent Women’s Tour of Britain (more below).
MTB
Round 2 of MSG at Carver Barracks on 13 April saw Sam Harding competing in her first U14 MSG for the year, a big step up from U12. Sam was brave enough to take on the fearsome steep descent in practice but as the tiring course took its toll, chose to take the B line in the race. This was a good call as there were a few spills on the A line and she didn’t lose any places as a result. It was also good to see Sam Trotter back to take a 5th for St Ives CC in a field of 30 riders in the U12 boys.
Meanwhile, Bea Pauley took 2nd place in the U12 girls behind CC Ashwell’s formidable Harley Pell, with Sapphire coming 5th. Dom was also competing in Steve Manser’s Go Ride session.
Check out http://www.mudsweatgears.
This weekend coming sees Round 2 of the National MTB XC Series, held in Redruth in Cornwall. Both Molly and Holly are entered and have been reviewing the course on Youtube ahead of practice on Saturday and the race on Sunday. Good luck to both of them!
Circuit racing
Last Monday, Sapphire, Sam H, Sophie and Holly were at Hog Hill (Redbridge Cycling Centre) for the Alan Rosner memorial race, round 1 in the 2014 ERYCS series. Sapphire came 5th in U10 girls, whilst Holly, Sophie and Sam came 10th, 16th and 17th respectively in the U14 race. At Hog Hill, the U14 and U16 girls raced together, with the U16 going off 15 seconds ahead of the U14.The faster U14s sprinted across to join the U16 group immediately at the start which caught the less experienced riders out such that they ended up riding most of the race by themselves with no shelter.
ERYCS Round 2, the Colchester Rovers Youth GP 2014, was held at Colchester Football stadium and in the sprint race over 5 laps, the U14 and U16 started together and both Holly and Sophie worked hard to stay with the front group from the off. In the subsequent endurance race over 35 minutes + 2 laps, Holly managed to narrowly avoid a crash between Sophia Chastell (Welwyn) and Sophie Holmes (Team Terminator) on one of the turns halfway through the race to sprint through the group on the last corner to come 3rd overall.
Points from the two races were combined and overall Holly finished second in the U14. Sophie Saberton also had a great race and put in a determined effort after recovering from a mechanical on the start line and Sapphire came 4th in U10 girls.
Round 3 of the ERYCS series is at Ixworth next Monday, 5th May. If you aren’t racing, just come and support the St Ives team. It is very exciting stuff to watch.
Time trials
Not the most successful year on TTs to be fair since they started a week late and now are cancelled for the foreseeable future due to an edict that requires us to have marshals everywhere on our course – not practical for a low key evening TT. However, the last couple of weeks have seen Alex, CC, Holly, Sam and Zach racing with several PBs being broken – an encouraging sign so early in the season. Let’s hope we can get the nonsense resolved soon so we can get back TTing again
Triathlon
I don’t normally hear about tri but we had a number of riders competing in the Duston Tri. Dom, Bea, Ben, Lotti and Olly all had good races, Olly Wood obliterating the competition on the cycling leg to come second overall in his category. Meanwhile, Dom came 1st in Tristart, cycling being his strongest leg, Bea came 4th and Ben Knights 27th in Tristart 1, whilst Lotti knights came 4th in Tristart 2 and Connie Porter came 4th and Emily Wake-Primett came 8th in Tristart 3.
These are just the achievements I know about. I am sure there will be more so if you are racing or riding anywhere interesting, please don’t forget to tell me as we would love to share your success with everyone else! Also, if you know of any events coming up, let me know and I will advertise them!
Future dates
These are advertised on the website, www.stivescycling.
And finally…
The Women’s Tour of Britain comes to our region on 10/11 May and we have two four-girl teams competing at the stage finishes at Welwyn and Bury St Edmunds. We have one more practice session for the team so they can look very slick on the day, just like our previous team who competed and won silver at the 2012 Tour of Britain stage finish in Norwich. It would be great to see as many St Ives riders supporting the girls on the day so get your jerseys on and come on down. Weather forecast for both days is extremely good!
Mike, James and Simon
