Hosting an event is all about team work, so my thanks go out to Active Tameside and Sharon Walls for organising the venue, Peter Deary & John Drake for supplying their coaching experience and Nigel Bishop and Rick Clough, for bringing great experience to the group while out on the Circuit.
Like a house party you never really know who is going know to turn up, so it was great when James Brown, added to our roster at short notice. What was also great was we had two Junior riders, Duncan a specialist in Cycle speedway and Cyclocross & Stan a specialist in the Hill Climb riding with us. In addition we had two relatively new riders, Anthony & Richard both riding well in a completely new discipline. The usual suspects, Laura, Jo, John D & E, Rick, Andy, Tony all got the chance to flex their fast twitch muscles for once
John Ewbank kindly did the track inspection to ensure the circuit was clear of obvious hazards. Next we went into the warm up with riders getting to know each other and the twists and turns of the circuit.
Next it was the skill of through and off, with many members having never done this exercise before, Peter clearly explained the principle of the right hand line riding steady and the inside riders one by one moving up to join the right hand line, without raising the pace.
While not perfect the lines moved well with Nigel Bishop shepherding the lines. To my ears there was very little braking, ensuring energy was conserved and riding was safe and “Smooth”.
The Next Exercise was taking Laps in groups of four, here, as the Whistle goes four riders accelerate off the front, working together to catch the back of the main group. As Peter identified at times the,”group of four” comprised, one, two, three etc… I was with James & Duncan, we lost our fourth man early on. James is a powerful rider meaning Duncan and I had to dig deep to catch up however we managed to regroup and catch the group, my heart was absolutely, “Banging”
For the final exercise groups of 4 approx. worked together to do a timed lap.
The evening was a great success with many asking, “When can we do it again”, praise indeed.
Watch this space
Very good night had and great thanks to you Nick for all the work arranging the event and Pete for his coaching and general management.
Hopefully some ‘learning’ was had as to group riding, positioning for turns, drafting etc
I for one would welcome such an event again at Tameside or Preston Arena then working up to a club session on Oulton Park motor racing circuit !!!!!!!
Thanks again Nick & Peter