The second of the HTRC training rides took place on Saturday with somewhat different weather conditions to last week.

(Andy Carroll suggested the session be called ‘Derailleurs in the Mist’, especially as the bananas came out at one of the stops!)

The sun and warmth had been replaced by heavy cloud, rain and gusty winds. However, this didn’t deter 8 hardy souls from turning up at Skidby Mill car park. We had Mark Walker, Neil ‘The Diesel’ Dean, George Leighton, Harry Twitchett, Danny, Will Thomas, Mike McAllister and Chris Brown. We were later joined by local legend Andy Carroll, who I think needs a better watch, as he nearly missed the first session and completely missed the start of the second. Fortunately we eventually found him on the way back from Etton after we’d completed a lap of the road race course.

It was a good job there wasn’t any racing on the course today as we had lake size puddles on one section and a mass of grit and mud on one of the corners. Once we approached the top of a rather foggy Newbald Hill we split into two groups to cover a couple of laps of the Walkington Road Race Circuit and then a final lap of the Little Weighton course to finish. Group one, which had been designated as the slightly faster of the two groups, contained George Leighton, Mike McAllister, Danny, Will Thomas and Mark Walker. Group 2 by default had Neil Dean, Andy Carroll, Chris Brown and young Harry Twitchett, who was learning the ropes well.

Group one worked very well and smoothly despite the odd hiccup where Mike McAllister almost brought himself down by clipping George Leighton’s wheel. However, by lap 2 George’s legs started to tire and what with the wind and fatigue he was hanging off the back. Yet he defied the conditions and ploughed on keen to finish with us and did a top job with him only pulling off with half a lap of the Little Weighton course left. We finished as planned at the start/finish line of the Little Weighton course and waited a little while to see if any from group 2 appeared. With the cold we couldn’t wait too long and so we headed back pleased in the knowledge that we’d all had a good work out.

Overall despite the weather it was a top day and it was very pleasing to see how most if not all of the riders now seem so much at ease at riding in a group. My rider of the day I thought had to go to George (aka Freddie Rodriguez) Leighton. He showed tremendous character to keep going when it got hard and when the fatigue crept in by not giving up. One of the big assets a rider can have is that ability to just keep going. As us more experienced cyclists can testify, there’s always going to be some kind of setback round the corner and it’s having that kind of attitude that helps to overcome them.

Next week we are going to combine our training with the clubs freewheel competition. So we’ll have a slightly shorter session most likely through the lanes via Holme on Spalding Moor and up to Millington where the freewheel competition starts.

Massive credit to all those that turned up and hopefully we’ll have some better weather for next week.

Mark Walker
Road Race Secretary