Four primary schools gathered on Manchester’s Platt Fields BMX Park for the first inter-school Go-Ride Racing event of its kind in Manchester last week. Riders from St Dunstans, Wilbraham, St Cuthburts and St Wilfrids Primary schools each submitted a team of six riders, with three boys and three girls competing on the fantastic BMX facility.
The competition was run on the back of school work by British Cycling Go-Ride Coach Joe Malik who put the riders through their paces. The format of the day included two hours of specific BMX coaching from qualified British Cycling coaches, which worked on some key techniques relevant to BMX; gate starts, group riding, cornering and pumping. All these skills would ensure all riders were race ready.
After a quick brief from Joe all riders were prepped and ready to race! The first race of the day was ‘every man for himself’ in an all-out Individual Time Trial (ITT) to find the quickest three riders. Riders needed a fast ‘snap’ out of the gate followed by some quick pumping and fast pedalling. The winners of the ITT were:
Jessica Nelson – St Wilfrids CoE
Monique Johnson – St Dunstans Primary
Anivaldo Handenice – St Cuthberts
Each riders ITT times were then used to place riders in their respective Moto’s. Riders were now grouped into three groups of eight where they would each take part in three motos. Racing was fierce and fast and not without incidents with riders putting into practice what they had been taught in the coaching. Results from the three groups of racing were as follows:
Group 1
Anivaldo Handenice – St Cuthberts
Hollie Hamilton – St Dunstans
Jessica Nelson – St Wilfrids CoE
Group 2
Travis Muscovich – St Wilfrids CoE
Josh Harrison – St Dunstans
Callum Nicholson – St Cuthberts
Group 3
Drew Macro – St Wilfrids CoE
Paul Cooper – St Dunstans
Ellie Mangan – St Cuthberts
Go-Ride Coach Joe Malik said: “It is fantastic to see that on the back of some simple high quality coaching, these 24 pupils have progressed so well that they are now confident enough to explode out of the gate and race in groups of eight around the track. I want to say a huge thanks to all schools who were involved in the competition today and I really look forward to the next event”.
To follow up on the schools BMX race, Joe runs regular Go-Ride Racing at facilities across Manchester. For more details please visit www.mgrrl.com/ to find out when the next race is.
