Last week
We had a guest coach last session with Mark Wyer from British Cycling / CC Ashwell leading a cyclocross specific session for the Atherton and Boardman groups, whilst Simon worked with the Cavendish group. Cyclocross mounting and dismounting skills notably improved by the end with the exceptionally muddy ground providing a slippery base to practice bike handling.
Race update
“Muddy Monsters”, a 3 race series for novice U16 racers, held its first two rounds, one at Welwyn and one at Ashwell. Two very different challenges; Welwyn was a highly technical course with off camber switchbacks on slippery ground and rewarded bike handling skills whilst Ashwell was more a game of stamina on the long circuit over hard ground. Alex, CC, Holly and Sophie competed in both rounds and all completed Welwyn without incident. At Ashwell, Alex and Holly got a DNF (did not finish) due to a mechanical and illness respectively but CC and Sophie had a cracking race.
Mark’s cyclocross session clearly paid dividends as I was marshalling the Ashwell course and saw the quality of the mounts and dismounts, with riders frequently making up places at those points in the course. I think we will continue to work on these over the coming weeks and really hone those skills down!
The last race in the series is on March 9th and is good fun, even for anyone who has not tried racing but wants to try.
Meanwhile, in the Whyte winter series, Molly Williams took first place in Round 4 of the junior 2 hour female category last weekend. Another convincing win by over 20 minutes so we are all very excited to see how Molly’s racing is developing.
Next session
This weekend, James is off skiing so its just Simon and myself. Please can you book in with me (and cc Simon) as we may have to therefore impose a limit on numbers. I won’t necessarily reply to say you have a space, but I will definitely let you know once it is full!
Session starts at 10am (finishing at 11.30) so please be there a little bit early if possible. As always, please bring a water based drink and a helmet. Sessions are £3 per person.
And finally…
The Manchester velodrome session on 10 February had its fair share of spills and thrills with a number of injuries, including Molly, Holly and CC who were unfortunately taken out by a rider who lost traction on the banking and slid into them. I am pleased to report that no one was badly hurt and whilst our riders all managed to continue, a few riders had to sit out the session from injury and ice packs were the order of the day on the way home. Overall another great session on the track and we are now looking forward to the regional track superclub coming to Welwyn starting in May.
James, Simon, Rob (our first official volunteer; welcome, Rob!!) and myself are off to the annual Go ride conference this year in Leicester to find out what is happening around the country with Go Ride, plans and ideas, and to hook up with other clubs so I’ll give you the low down on that next time.
