MVC trip to Lee Valley VeloPark 16 August 2014

I was really pleased when the club secured a morning coached session at the Olympic Velodrome as I thought it would be a great opportunity for us to ride at a state of the art facility without having to travel for hours and hours.

So on the 16th August 28 of us met at Lee Valley Velodrome for our three-hour session.
As organiser the week had been somewhat stressful with lots of members dropping out for various reasons and I was concerned that this could have been a financial blow for the club. Thankfully with a bit of networking and social media promotion we were able to open the session up to some non-members who joined us and what a lovely bunch they were too.

Those from the club were: Rod Kennison, Sam & Sean Farely, Sean Beattie, Rob and Tom Kennison,  Simon Morris, Steve & Nicola Smith, Lee Pilcher, Mark Barton, Andrew Collyer, Phil Booth, Nigel & Sally Smith, Cassie McGoldrick, Sydney Hawes, Geoff Graham, David Mayes, Ian Creasey, David Currier and David Bellinger. Joining us from their various clubs were Steve Airey, Steph Waters, Rory Hopcraft, Deborah Percival, Louise Mason and Matt Nunn.

We were split into two groups, I nervously chose the intermediate to advanced group and prayed I would be ok. Another group was made up of first timers and those with limited track experience. I really enjoyed my session. I felt pushed without being uncomfortable and really enjoyed doing a TTT with Deb, Lou and Rob to gain a lap. We ended the set by a weaving in and out of the string of riders which was scary but fun. I think everyone was impressed by Dave “Ace Superspeed” Mayes and the extreme pace he completed this exercise. The other group ended their session with a scratch race which looked really good fun.

The only down point of the day was that Nicola unfortunately injured her foot whilst moving away from the track. Luckily she did not fall off but did injure a ligament.  Such a shame as she had been doing so well with some amazing challenges under her belt this season, I guess now though she can proudly say that with a track injury she is a proper hard core bike rider. Get well soon.

I personally thought the quality of coaching was really good and the day was well worth the trip to Stratford. I also thought Amanda made the most amazing muffins for us all, we are very lucky to have Amanda in the mighty velo!

Myself and Rob stayed on to try for our level 3 track accreditation.  I was really nervous and convinced I’d fail but Rob assured me I’d be fine. Transpires he was finally right about something and we both passed. We had to ride a fast through and off, perform a stacking exercise and ride high in pairs and go through and off. I had never done the stacking before but thankfully managed ok.

Thank you to all who made the day, the next one, is on 20 September and is being organised by Tom Kennison.  I am also organising one on 29 November.  So if you are interested,  please let Tom or Myself know.