Go-Ride Clubs Sustain New Activities

 

News Posted 22nd September 2008

 

Many clubs held Olympic events over the summer to support and celebrate the endeavours of the British Cycling Team in Beijing.  What Team Welwyn, Hull CSC and the Welland Valley Whizz Kids did was to host a series of events where all the new young members brought to the club thanks to the Olympics had the chance to come again and sustain that Olympic experience.

 

The Hull CSC series was dubbed the “Summer Scorcha” and attracted over 60 young people of which 12 were new to the sport.  The cycle speedway circuit provided an ideal traffic free facility where the volunteers could replicate the races in the Laoshan Velodrome. The oval Speedway track allowed the club to run special pursuit and Sprint activities. The short intense efforts of these races also complimented the physiological requirements of Cycle Speedway. Cycle Speedway requires short intense efforts to out manoeuvre your opponents as they complete 4 laps of a 70 metre course. These tactics and efforts are very similar to the Match Sprint where riders also use intense efforts and tactics to out manoeuvre their opponents while completing 3 laps of a 250 metre velodrome. The youngsters got expert coaching from the club’s body of coaches Andy Schofield, John Wilkinson and Andy Moody who all have been through the British Cycling Coach Education System. The riders enjoyed every minute and were rewarded with snack and mementoes such as the Go-Ride Olympic themed T-shirts. Twelve new young members have stayed at the club and one of the successful aspects of the “Scorcha” events was the way that the young riders and their families were made welcome by another less prominent volunteer, The Go-Ride contact. Often the Go-Ride Contacts fulfil their duties as the first port of call for any prospective members at one end of a telephone call or behind a computer answering an e-mail or distributing the latest club newsletter. But Derek Hilton was present at each session introducing the families to the friendly atmosphere and activities for all at the club. Several of the new young riders were girls and Andy Schofield reports that after the success of their Summer “Scorcha” sessions the next step is top hopefully develop a whole racing teams for girls only in age related categories next season.

 

The Welland Valley Whizz Kidz had a series of events where young riders tackled a Road Race, Time Trial, Mountain Bike Race and a Sprint day. Success in the Road Race went to Guy Bryn, Ross Barnett and Kieran Lucas in the under 8’s, 11’s and 12’s respectively. Although the leaders after the first event were boys the placings in each race included several girls who were mixing up the apple cart and making the racing really exciting as several launched and chased attacks to get the win for themselves. Once Bruntingthorpe Go-Kart Track had hosted the road racing Welland Valley utilised the wider grounds of the Bruntingthorpe facility to host the mountain bike leg.  After 42 riders in the road races there was a slight dip in numbers as 36 attended the Mountain Bike race. However what the club is delighted to report is the attendance of a team of riders from the newly Go-Ride Clubmark Accredited Leicestershire Road Club and showing some excellent interaction between Go-Ride clubs. When it came to race time the sky was full of a splendid rainbows, at the end of our rainbow was the young riders very own pot of Gold, with all the intrepid competitors displaying Gold Medal performances. Who no doubt were trying their hardest to impress the galleries that included parents, coaches and the Go-Ride Coach and former Great Britain rider Rob Sharman. The results reflected the first week with some usual suspects taking victories but the change of racing and the introduction of a new team of riders did mix up the results. Bryn Guy was victorious again in the under 8’s but Ben Morris Aaron Sayers were the new names in lights for the under 11’s and 12’s.

 

The third event saw the riders racing on a multi terrain race and after thorough work from volunteers the course was ready and 36 riders returned to score some extra points in the series. The Whizz kidz dubbed the third event as "Tremendous Tuesday" as the youngster witnessed the Paralympians surpass the Gold Haul in the Olympics and tried to emulate their success. The nearly ladies of the first 2 races the girls really got into the action and after several placings Holly Barnett finally reached the top step of the Under 8’s podium and Katie Hubbard scored a bronze and best girl award in the Under 12’s. With just one event to go the overall competitions are finely poised as each category has at least 2 riders capable of taking the big win in the final race of the series to come late September.

Team Welwyn Riders tackled a Road Race with the same number of laps of our field as the men's Olympic event and were helped by drinks being handed up in the feed zone just like the professional riders in the big races.

 

After the Road Race there was a Team Sprint. Riders were supposed to form 'international' teams, representing their village of origin but in the end they wanted to race boys against girls, so this was the format - four laps of the 'track' covered by each team. In a best of three contest, the boys were the narrow winners each ride, the girls being hampered by the silver medallist from the Road Race, who was shattered! It was great fun and the parents and children who attended were all very appreciative of the tee-shirts. Several riders have been back since, still wearing their tee-shirts and Team Welwyn look forward to welcoming all these back in the near future.

 

The Go-Ride team supported these Olympic events to help Go-Ride clubs build on the interest created from the mass coverage of the Olympics and Paralympics in Beijing. What has been great to see is the level of interaction of club volunteers and the inter-club interaction at various events because the feeling of community and competition that this creates can only serve to highlight the benefits of cycling to all the new young people and families introduced to the sport thanks to the success in Beijing.