Training Ride, Saturday 23rd February
Saturday 23rd February, 2013. Sproatley – 10 laps.
A flurry of snow on the journey to Sproatley for the last of the training rides wasn’t too much of a deterrent for 30 or more aficionados for the last of the training rides. Although not as popular east of the city as is the course at Brantingham, this one is much quieter in traffic, except when the Holderness Hunt passes, and is surfaced much better. It has a couple of tight corners to practice and some quite fast stretches. It can be a brute in strong winds; but strangely not this year.
We had a little over thirty participants split into three groups, and you can see from the photo gallery who was there. The front group were very eager to get going and, even though they were just over five minutes behind group three on the road, they caught this group after only four laps. Laps six and seven were their fastest and they were losing guys like Steve Coates and others who’d just spent a week in the warmth of Mallorca. It was ten to fifteen degrees cooler here. Their rampage almost caught group two who completed their lap nine only thirty seconds before group one finished. I’m led to believe that Ben Bell was one of the chief animators.
Lap Times were:
[table id=20 /]
A cancellation of a ladies’ road raced allowed Vicky Hood to complete a full set of appearances along with, I think, Mark Walker, Matthew Johnson and Paul Shepherd. Over a hundred different bodies over the two months took part. Nevertheless I hope you all got something out of the series and enjoyed it for what it was. I hope that someone comes forward to coordinate the Road Race League – it’s not such a big job when individual clubs sort out the individual races. And it’s the next step up.
I had more help this week too, and thanks to Mick Adams, Terry Grainger, Mandy Dean, two lads who volunteered whose names I didn’t get, and to Geoff Griffin for turning up. Also thanks to my co-partner Richard and my better half Sheila, and Les Barratt and everyone else who’s helped over the weeks.
We don’t have a finishing line in these sessions; but I hope you’re all winners.
Jim Sampson