The fourth HTRC training ride took place on Saturday 26th October with a great turnout of 13 riders. I dare say it was due to the sun making an appearance for the first time in a while, but whatever the reason it was fantastic to see so many faces.

We had Neil Dean, Andrew Carroll, Mark Walker, George Leighton, Harry Twitchett, Danny Prosnett, Mike McAllister, Will Thomas. We also had some new faces in Luke Stannard (no relation to Ian as far as I know), Glenn Caulfield, Shaun Nicholson, the club’s president Paul Kilvington and the club’s coach Richard Guymer.

Check out Mike McAllister’s cracking photographs at:

www.flickr.com/photos/hullthursdayrc/sets/72157636977794764

After last week I had a good think to myself about how the sessions had been running so far. Whilst I was extremely pleased with the turnout, I was a little conscious that we were pushing too hard for too long, thus isolating some riders. This was the last thing I wanted, so with that in mind I decided we would embark on a much flatter course, out towards the coast, at a slower speed. After all, it is October.

Heading through Cottingham and the outskirts of north Hull we turned East towards Skirlaugh and I decided it would be a good opportunity to start working on some group skills i.e through-and-off at a steady pace. However, with the large number it proved almost unmanageable, with the odd rider coming through and then a massive gap to the next. This clearly wasn’t working. Fortunately Neil and Paul had brought common sense with them on the ride and decided if we were going to work on group riding we needed to split it into two groups, with the first about 100 metres ahead of the second, so we didn’t end up getting spit up.

This proved a great idea. In group one were myself, Danny, George, Will, Luke and Glenn. Now, as far as I know Luke and Glenn hadn’t ridden in a group before but they soon grasped the basics and seemed to be riding comfortably. Overall we were working well as a solid unit and it appeared that group two, consisting of Paul, Neil, Andy, Mike, Harry, Rich and Shaun, were also performing well. Every so often I took a glance behind to see what was happening and they looked very smooth with what they were doing with everybody in the group coming through to do a turn.

By the time we reached Aldborough we were heading south, with the wind changing from a cross wind to a head wind. The trick I’ve found to riding well in a group during a headwind is to keep tight together. This is perhaps something we need to work on as in our group we developed quite a gap between those coming through and those who had just done their turn so the benefits were somewhat limited. Something I’m in no doubt we’ll rectify next week. The plan was then to head back west via Humbleton and cover part of the Sproatley TT course before heading for home. Unfortunately this was were we unintentionally split up. Like all good cyclists I’ll make an excuse and blame my Garmin, which decided to point us straight on through Garton Village rather than taking us the correct way which bore right towards Humbleton.

We eventually came back together but only because of a puncture for Paul in Humbleton itself. We had by this point decided to take it easy bearing in mind what I mentioned earlier about going too hard for too long. For today I think we got the balance just right and it was also pleasing to see so many happy faces which indicated that everybody had got something out of the ride. In particular, Andy Carroll, who was half expecting to get a ‘good kicking’ but managed to stay the pace.

For my rider of the day I think I’m going to go with Neil ‘the diesel’ Dean. He proved what a good road captain he is by splitting the groups into two, but he also deserves credit for taking the time out to explain to the newer riders how to ride in a group by sharing his knowledge and experience. You know what they say, you can buy all the best equipment but you can’t buy experience.

For next week I think we’ll try and cover one of the road race circuits again by integrating it into a longer ride. I’m aware that some riders may need a little help on hills, so we may put a few of those in, but if we do we’ll make sure that we go up them at a steady pace.

Mark Walker
HTRC Road Race Secretary