The final St Ives CC Go Ride of the year outdoors is on this Saturday, 5 December. No Go Ride session as such on 21 December as we will be holding our awards ceremony that day (more below).
Previous session
Last time at Hinchingbrooke Park, we were up in the woods again. After a short ride and some starting sprints with the Athertons and Boardmans, we were all working on rolling mounts and dismounts, tackling hurdles and cornering on loose surfaces ahead of the Grafham cyclocross race. After working through the various skills, we finished off with a quick 2 lap race that brought it all together. The improvement in execution and fluidity with which riders were tackling the skills, between the start and end of the session was great to see.
Riders of the week were Henry, Josh, Sam H and Oliver R.
At the afternoon road session at Alconbury Weald, we continued with the group riding theme, but in a club ride road scenario, so looking at etiquette, communication and signals for various scenarios such as vehicles approaching from the front and rear, parked vehicles, animals, pointing out damaged surfaces, moving from 2 abreast to single file and back again etc. We finished off with an ever popular time trial.
Cyclocross
Good turnout for Grafham cyclocross last weekend, with CC, Dan, Holly, Sam H and Sophie competing in U14 and Harriet, Rhys and Sapphire competing in U10. Set against the fabulous backdrop of Grafham Water, even the U10s got to experience hurdles this time whilst the U14s got to compete on the full adult course taking in two stretches of beach on an energy sapping course that has little opportunity to recuperate. Whilst it is great we had 9 riders there, one of the British Cycling Commissaires did comment how unusual it was that St Ives did not field any U12s – that just goes to show how we have developed and visible we are as a club over the last two years for a comment like that so we have something to work on. Some of the U10s will be coming up through the age ranks naturally, but it would be great to see some new faces too in there too.
More info available, including current league standings are on www.easterncross.org.uk.
Track
A few of us trekked down to Newport velodrome for the first Superclub session of the winter season. Amber, CC, Holly, Poppy, Sam H and Sophie took part in the 4 hour session and everyone commented on how noticeable the improvement has been for all riders since the last velodrome session in March 2013 with some terrific riding and enjoyed by all. Holly and Sophie looked very comfortable warming up on the rollers, even riding no handed and chatting whilst Sam H put in a blinding performance in her races at the end. Clearly a year’s worth of time trialling has paid off for Sam! Brilliant stuff. Well done all.
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!
Future dates
All the dates for Hinchingbrooke Park will be on the St Ives CC website so please check that out. Alconbury sessions will generally follow in the afternoons on the same day as Hinchingbrooke, but may be variable due to other commitments. Anyone interested in taking up coaching so we can extend the availability of sessions, please get in touch!
And finally…
Following the massive success of last years event, the 2013 St Ives Go-Ride Awards will be held on Saturday 21 December between 1pm and 3pm at Hinchingbrooke School.
We have hired the Sports Hall there where we will begin with workshops, quizzes and games, some quite physical with others more mental, with pictures and highlights of the year and lots of cheesy music. We will then move into an upstairs class room for our review of the year over a buffet lunch, followed by the awards and prizes.
Both Go-Riders and parents are invited, but we will need you to book in as there will be a limited number of places. As last year we also ask if those of you who are coming will be kind enough to bring a plate of food along as we are not charging and so need to keep the cost down. This worked really well last year so please liaise with James on this.
However, this year there we are moving to a different awards format, to better reflect the diversity of our riders abilities and achievements as we as a club have progressed. We are keeping the exact format under wraps for now, but we think you will like the changes.
One award we are keeping from last year is the Riders’ rider, where we present an award to the most outstanding St Ives CC Go Rider as voted for by YOU, our riders. It could be for whatever you feel is appropriate, be it best performance, most influential, most helpful, consistently trying, achieving something important or someone you aspire to be. Please can you vote for who you feel deserves recognition and we will tally up the votes and present the award on the day. When voting we need to not only know who you are voting for, but also why. We need a good reason for it to be valid ;-).
For example, the 2012 winner of this award was Dom Pauley, with CC, Emma, Harriet, Hollly and Sophie also being nominated by more than one rider. Many reasons for nomination last year were given including trying hard, never giving up, listening, smiling, helpful, encouraging, winning etc etc. The list goes on and on and we felt it was good to continue to get our rider’s perspective.
To vote, please drop Mike an email – only needs to be a one liner with “Riders rider” in the subject line, the name and why. The nominations will be confidential so no one will know who has voted for them (unless they tell them !). We will also be bringing paper and pens this weekend if you prefer to write it down.
To book in or for more info, please email James directly on Bodymechanics@btinternet.com to let him know how many places you would like.
There will be no Go-Ride session in the morning this year as we intend to wear you out in the sports hall. I’m not suggesting anything about the afternoon but you may want to use the morning to revise your M checks, remember names of parts of the bike, or even how to fix a puncture.
It will also be fancy dress so please come in something Christmassy! (even if it’s only a Santa hat or Elf ears).
This should bring a great finish to a fantastic year of cycling for St Ives CC Go-Ride, so we really hope many of you can come and celebrate with us.
