Previous sessions
At Hinchingbrooke Park, James and Simon were back up in the woods after a few weeks in the open where they worked on front wheel lifts over obstacles along with scooting and moving mounts / dismounts.
Riders of the week were Sam T and Liam.
At the afternoon road session at Alconbury Weald, we continued with the group riding theme that we started last time, but this time we looked at riding through a bunch, at first by riding through the middle of a group riding 2 abreast and moving onto slaloming through a moving single file line of riders. We finished off with a five lap handicap race.
Mountain biking
Molly and Holly formed half of the Eastern region MTB XC team at the inter-regional MTB championships at Hadleigh Farm over 3 days between 4th and 6th October, alongside the very fast Sophie Wright of Gt Yarmouth and fearless descender of steep stuff, Hannah Rothman of Chelmsford.
Molly had the unenviable task of going first in the whole competition although she handled the pressure well; nerves took their toll on many riders in the skills. Overall, Eastern Region managed to recover 2 places this year, moving from 14th to 12th although this doesn’t tell the whole story. In the four competitions over the weekend, being skills, handicap race, dirt crits and XC race, the girls came 5th, 9th, 13th and 7th respectively. That is not to say the boys were not good – the standard amongst the boys nationally was extremely high.
Molly also took 10th place (of 52) in the XC race on day 3. Molly will be too old (!) to compete next year so we now look to building on Holly’s experience and who else we can develop to put forward for selection in 2014.
Track racing
Results for the Friday night track league were recently released with Sophie taking 5th in her age category – a great result for her first season racing on the track. It’s off to Newport velodrome in half term for a small group selected for the first of the winter indoor superclub sessions.
Cyclocross
Over the winter, many adult racers switch to cyclocross (think of it as a drop handlebar road bike with knobbly tyres and you will be roughly there) and St Ives Go Ride is no exception. The club has been well represented in the youth female so far this year with Sophie having competed in 4 races to date, CC in 3 and Holly in 2 of the 2013 U14 Eastern League season; Springfield, Ashwell, Welwyn and Amis Velo Hillyfields supacross near Colchester.
Results to date as follows:
Springfield: Sophie (6). 11 raced
Ashwell: Holly (4), Sophie (7), CC (9). 11 raced
Welwyn: Sophie (4), CC (6). 8 raced
Hillyfields: Holly (2), Sophie (4), CC (5). 6 raced
All levels are welcome and cyclocross racing is good value (U12s are only £1 and youth £5 to enter), great fun and you don’t need a cyclocross bike to compete – you can race on a mountain bike. More info available on www.easterncross.org.uk. Don’t forget that St Ives CC will be hosting one round of the Eastern League at Grafham Water on 30 November so even if you don’t race, please come and support our riders !
Next session
Two sessions again this weekend:
- Mountain bikes: Hinchingbrooke Park at usual time of 10am – 11.30 am
- Road bikes: Alconbury Weald back to 2pm – 3pm. We will be at the eastern end of the main runway as last time
Please let me know if you would like to come to Alconbury as I need to give details to security for the Alconbury session to access the site. Ideally you need to have a road bike to get the most out of this session but not essential. The club has 2 Islabikes available to borrow for the road sessions on a first come first served basis.
Sessions cost £3. Please bring a water based drink, bike and helmet. I would also recommend gloves, particularly on tarmac! As the days are getting cooler (and wetter), wear appropriate clothing!
