[John's report - Older group]
What lovely weather we had yesterday as the sun beamed down.
I've not been to Furzefield school for a few sessions so the wooden stockade was quite a shock. What's on the far side I wondered? Is it going to be full of wild horses or what?
It was good to see some new faces. Luca and Evie Viotto came thanks to a link through work to Andy Carpenter one of our coaches. Hannah Willcock, age six, came thanks to a flyer that her mum picked up on the counter in Finches Cycles.... we had quiet a few new faces around Christmas who said the same thing so I've been trying to keep Finches stocked with up-to-date flyers ever since.
The dry tarmac meant it was an ideal moment to give riders a chance to log individual times in the skills circuit.
I had the older group on first while new coach Paul Wright had the younger riders on after that. Here's the results.... just to say that there is a penalty of 10 seconds added on for anyone who knocks over a cone... so if you misjudge one tricky section you can easily have a whole minute added to the resulting time.
age 4
32sec – Joe Carpenter
53sec – Toby Foord
age 5
35sec – Marissa Foord
42sec – Luca Viotto
age 6
32sec – James Eccles
40sec – Emily Kirk
44sec – Hannah Willcock
age 7
30sec – Noah Webb
30sec – Peter Carpenter
38sec – Emily Webb
39sec - Leo Parkes
age 8
32sec - Sam Lewis
38sec - Annabel Canning
age 9
46sec – Eva Viotto
age 11
26sec – William Gatland
30sec - Megan Maloney
Big congratulations to William Gatland who becomes only the fifth name to be added to our all-time Hall of Fame list of riders who have logged a time of less than 30 seconds. The original big three were Jamie Pullen, Freddie Davy and Nick Gill but then Joshua Golliker added his name last year.... and now it's a case of Welcome to Gatland. Should you be wondering 26secs is the fastest time ever. Until now it has only be matched by Jamie and Freddie.
At the same time there are more congratulations...... to Sam Lewis who knocked a staggering 10 seconds off his previous best figure. Good man. And two more riders have joined the 'knocking on the door club' of individuals who stand on the 30 second threshold.... Megan was already there, but today Noah Webb and Peter Carpenter rose to the challenge. And when you look at some of the younger ages on this list we should have more quick results over time as four-year-old Joe Carpenter clicked the button at just 32secs as he hit the finish line, with James Eccles (age six) matching him.
Well done everyone.
I managed to remember my camera and it was sunny so the result should be a selection of splendid photos. But no. Somehow I had the camera settings diverted to 'soft' which in my opinion means 'blurred' .... even so I managed to capture the pitfalls of pedalling round tight corners so that the inner pedal grounds and lifts the back wheel off the ground..... resulting in a crash. It's probably the thing that gets both coaches and parents cringing the most... though I can't complain that much as I've done it myself in a race at Eastway on a tight corner.... and like Joe Carpenter yesterday I survived... but it must have been close Joe.
The older riders were set the challenge of the bottle lift, so two teams had to ride out to a turning point and on the return had to lift a bottle off the top of one box and place it successfully on a second box. It was a struggle but the success rate started to rise to the point when one rider said to put the boxes on their sides so it would be harder as the boxes would be lower. I hardly dare mention that we had two riders in earlier times who could lean over and successfully place a bottle right down on the floor... so something to practice at home guys.
By the time we finished the teams told me the final team scores were 'fourteen versus thirteen and a half'. Not too sure where the half came from.
The Le Mans-style races got everyone excited (as they always do.... its a bit inexplicable) and we followed this with another exciting moment when riders challenged their parents to stand on one leg with their eyes shut for 10 seconds. Apparently it's a test for how well you'll fare in your later years.... I'll not tell you the outcome.
Final race - older group
We had a dead-heat for the win between Annabelle Canning and William Gatland. Remarkable. Annabelle set off with a big advantage and rode so strongly that no-one looked like they had a chance of closing the gap. But William battled on and at the end they crossed the line together.
Peter Carpenter came home third but afterwards Noah Webb pointed out that he had eased up as a little girl not on a bike at all had wandered off from the spectators watching the younger group.
What was quite splendid was the way Peter and Noah got themselves into a rational discussion as to what the final outcome could have been based on their relative progress up to that point... well done the two of you.... very mature.
[Paul's report - Younger group]
