I would like to thank Nigel for making Saturday afternoons track session an enjoyable afternoon despite only 4 people attending.  Members taking up the club funded session were Nigel (head slave driver), Sam, Mike and myself.   

We will turned up on road bikes, but the club track bike was also on hand for anyone to try out.  Sam was the only taker for this.   The club track bike comes without pedals, so rider need to remove them from their own bikes.  Nigel thought this would only take about 30secs but 10mins later 3 people were still struggling to remove the pedals.   Sam eventually got on the bike and did a few laps, but I forgot to ask what he thought.

The 1^stactivity after a 15min gentle(ish) warm-up was a bit of single file through and off.   This went well but Nigel pointed out we were doing it in road style and not track style.  So we had to repeat the activity having been correctly instructed how to move off the front.

Having mastered single file through and off we then repeated it again, but this time riding in pairs. This was then extended so that the pair pulling off the front also had to swap sides.

During all the through and off sessions Nigel instructed has to keep the pace fairly consistent around 18 / 19 mph.  These instructions worked for about 1 lap.  So each lap got quicker with the last being done around 23 mph.

Having suitably now warmed up a 6 lap pairs pursuit was the next challenge and the first competitive event activity of the day.  After a bit of discussion on teams Nigel decide he would ride with Sam and leaving Mike and I to ride together.  Mike then took charge of our pairing and duly told me to ride the 1^stlap and a bit and that we would then swap each lap.  The winning pair would be the one with the 2^ndrider crossing the line first, so we had to stick together.

Myself and Mike set off at a brisk pace (Mike might want to add a separate description) with each  half lap trying to check the progress against the other.    The change overs to the end of lap 4 went smoothly.  With 2 laps to go, it was too close to call who was leading, so I lifted the pace.  Going down the home straight Mike said something like  “I’ve dropped my water bottle”, so I back off to all him to  pick it up (I don’t know why during a 6 lap race he even needed it).  Mike worked hard and was back on my rear wheel as we entered the back straight with one lap to go.    Too allow Mike to recover for a final dash for the line, we agreed I would do an extra ½ lap with Mike leading us home.  Mike crossed the line 1^stwith me being close behind with both of us being confident off the win by a small margin.  A few moments later this was confirmed by the crowds of cheering fans (Sam’s brother), the race official (Sam’s brother) and the 2^ndplace pairing of Nigel and Sam.

Next up was a 200m pursuit.    After clarification of how this works, Sam set off first and posted a time around 15.37sec. Mikes time was similar with myself and Nigel both posting 15sec dead.  Based on recent 10tt standings Nigel and myself might not have been expected to show similar times.  This goes to show bike handling and technique are equally important as raw power.

The session was then wrapped up with some more through and off which again got gradually quicker with each lap.

So 2 ½ hours later, about 20miles riding and an average riding speed around 20mph we all went home after and enjoyable afternoon.