The last day of February (give or take a day) and you could be forgiven for thinking that spring had sprung judging by the outpouring of celandine flowers in all the hedgerows…. and on the way to Furzefield (confirming the heat even more) a cyclist was spotted riding in shorts no less.
Yikes. A madman.
We didn’t get that carried away and even in our sheltered corral we had lots of Raiders with woolly hats under their helmets and full-length tights warming their legs.
David Burnham was the coach with the younger riders.
But before we settled on where the split would be, everyone took part in the same mass ride, the little oval-shaped circuit having one open, whizzy side for overtaking, then on the way back two difficult, clockface-type circles to be made, each time within a ring of cones.
To be honest, I was experimenting to see how large or small the rings need to be because in the summer the plan is to run a girls-only schools’ challenge in eight different schools (hopefully to get some of the girls to come to Raiders) and the circuit they will do will involve this manoeuvre… picking the right size is still a matter of trial and error… so thank you for being the guinea pigs on Sunday.
I then had the older group and everyone rode in pairs, the speed being set by our Flying Scotsman look-alike engine, otherwise known as Stephen Golliker, who never ran out of steam once.
The exercise is known by British Cycling as ‘orbiting’ and involves individual riders completing a circuit round the entire bunch as the other pairs ride along… sometimes in tight formation (the theory), other times in two distinct packs (the reality).
Having low-gear races got everyone’s legs whirling madly, and modifying the format so riders had a handicap start made for even bigger challenges for some.
Alex Collins was allowed to move his back gear up by two gears because his lowest gear was far lower than anyone else’s and that was because the smallest front ring on his bike had way fewer sprockets than anyone else’s…. even then he was riding at a handicap to all of the others… so well done Alex.
final race – older group, younger riders – five laps, handicap
1 Matthew Tracy
2 Emily Kirk
3 Janith Gabrielsen
Matthew and Emily were the only two riders in this race going round the outside of the white cones…. which shows through in the results.
final race – older group, older riders – eight laps, handicap
1 Alex Collins
2 Aston Gayle
3 Daniel Warhurst
What a finish…. a dead-heat with Alex coming up from behind, making a big push out of the last corner to close a bike-length on Aston.
In other news
Two of the older Redhill Raiders' riders called in at Furzefield to say hello: Alistair Canning and Jamie Pullen.
Both had made the long trek over into Wales on Saturday, to the velodrome at Newport in fact, where they were competing in the first round of the Icebreakers series…. and both enjoyed it.
It was indoors so Alistair didn't get blown off his bike this weekend.... which means that things are looking up.