Maria Von Trapp said start at the beginning, it's a very good place to start! So, I'll start with Monday and work forwards to today, there will however be some deviations from a linear timeline! That will also be my last reference to a musical. I hate most of them, even the one quoted. My list of acceptable musicals is Mary Poppins, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, The Blues Brothers and any of the Muppets movies. Erm...let's get back to cycling eh!
On Monday it was time for a coaching session with the Kettering CC Cyclones. My fledgling cycle coaching career has so far been very rewarding and I look forward to Monday nights with these amazing kids. I'm half way through my British Cycling level 2 coaching award. I would have finished in January but my Pap died the day before day 3 so I have it on hold.
This Monday was espcially rearding because we got to celebrate a £200 cheque from ASDA and due to my tweet to OTE sports nutrition the Cyclones won a load of drinks bottles.
On Monday it was time for a coaching session with the Kettering CC Cyclones. My fledgling cycle coaching career has so far been very rewarding and I look forward to Monday nights with these amazing kids. I'm half way through my British Cycling level 2 coaching award. I would have finished in January but my Pap died the day before day 3 so I have it on hold.
This Monday was espcially rearding because we got to celebrate a £200 cheque from ASDA and due to my tweet to OTE sports nutrition the Cyclones won a load of drinks bottles.
Thank you @OTESportsGB our bottles have arrived and on a freezing Monday night we were really excited to celebrate!#thankyou #cyclecoach @richardlindsley pic.twitter.com/zlIJ8orKZi— Kettering Cyclones (@KCC_Cyclones) February 11, 2019
At Cyclones we have been focussing on Cyclocross over the winter. That's due to change as we have venues booked for road riding practise over the coming weeks including MK bowl and the Leicester cycle circuit. It's a fantastic and inclusive club where our riders have enjoyed a number of disciplines as well as volunteering and coaching. I was especially pleased to see the Mark Evans visit us on Monday, he was an inspiration in our early years and I hope he will come back to coaching some day. Everyone involved with the Cyclones is a volunteer, it's a big commitment every week and an even bigger one when we organise a big event like a CX race.
Earlier that day I'd taken my Forme Ripley MTB into C&D Cycles for some TLC from shop manager Andy. My bottom bracket was wrecked, plus I needed new head set bearings and brake pads.
As ever a really good service led to this Gold bottom bracket, the other bits and I asked Andy about cutting handlebars down. He duly obliged there and then! All for a great value price and then I got my club discount on top, making it super value!
I asked Andy for some tips on keeping my bottom bracket healthy and he advised to remove the seat post and turn upside down. Today's ride wasn't too extreme weather or mud wise but I did it anyway. Andy the picture above is for you mate! I'm glad to report, dry as a bone!
On Tuesday night I've been going to Corby Capers CX training, organised and coached by Rockingham Forest Wheelers, Phil Wilkinson and Sean Adamson with a great deal of support thrown in by Mike Deely. Just like Muddy Marvels, a set of the KCC Cyclones lights goes along to help our neighbours.
A superb course was set up this week at West Glebe Park encompassing some of the technical terrain from their CX race. Phil decided to ride with us this week, leaving Sean to run the session, including those pyramids of pain!
I don't like my concentrate face
What's Deely smiling at?
Numbers were down this week, which is bad in one way but worked to the advantage of the six of us riding. Phil was able to offer some individualised coaching. I am especially grateful for his encouragement that enabled Sam to progress from running up the hill below, to riding up it with confidence.
Tricky slope
Dad not looking competent
Son nailing it!
I gained a couple of things from this session. Firstly it was a good workout. Secondly the opportunity to learn from other coaches benefits my own coaching. Phil at Capers, Dean at Marvels and my fellow coaches at Cyclones have really helped my development.
Phil introduced us to the idea that we could bunny hop the hurdle and we all gave it a go. As with most things my timing and coordination needs work and instead of clearing the hurdle I tended to smash it over with my back wheel. I'm determined now though and I WILL have a respectable bunny hop before the start of the next CX season!
Thanks to David Wilson for taking the pictures. I know you'd rather be riding, or collecting safety pins. I hope that awful virus gets lost and you get well soon mate!
On Saturday I was on a mission! I needed to walk the dogs, ride with C&D, visit my Nan and get to the Saints by 2pm!
No we haven't got new dogs. Branston and Fudge have come to stay for a couple of weeks. Branston can't manage a walk but Fudge needs a good run so I introduced him to Bruce's favourite woods.
Having spoken to Andy the day before, the route was sympathetic to my needs and I met the C&D clubmates on the market square in Rothwell. It's a great ride out to Sibbertoft via Kelmarsh. Then it's down that super fast hill and on to Theddingworth before an absolute grind up Mill Hill.
That's us at the top of the climb. It's a very quiet road, no traffic was held up by this picture! In fact no cars passed us between here and Theddingworth at all!
The reward for all that uphill is the glorious downhill to Lubenham. From there it was up the hill to East Farndon, over to Great Oxendon and onto Desborough. It wasn't sunny but definitely milder and less windy than of late, making it a nice day to ride on the road.
I made it back to Rothwell at 11.15 and the day was right on track. Next stop, Nan's house!
Actually the day went totally to plan and following a nice visit to see Nan, Niamh and I made it to the stands in time for our traditional pre-match selfie and what was about to be a remarkable game of rugby. The Saints annihilated Sale Sharks 67 -17 with possibly the most exciting rugby I've ever seen. After the match I got home, cooked and ate tea, fell asleep on the sofa and was in bed by 9pm! Whilst cooking tea, Nan rang! It's become traditional to discuss the game which she listened to on Radio Northampton.
As I arrived at Brixworth this morning the first conversation I had was about the Saints. Loads of the Brixworth riders had been at the match and everyone was talking about how brilliant it was. The rugby chat will stop now!
It was the same group as last week for MTB. Chris, Sarah, Dawn, Jim, Phil 'the beast,' Andy P and me. There was also a large group of road riders at the library meeting point. We had no planned route but a quick chat including lots of local knowledge produced a plan that worked!
We set out down Spratton Road which was nowhere near as cold as last week and turned right at the bottom. We rode to the Hanging Houghton crossing and then up to Houghton in glorious sunshine. The snowdrops are out, the daffodils are starting to show and it all feels like Spring has Sprung...which is what I thought I said this time last year! It was however the 11th of March when I made that announcement https://richardscyclingblog.blogspot.com/2018/03/has-spring-sprung.html in fact this time last year it was a bit hit and miss https://richardscyclingblog.blogspot.com/2018/02/bumper-half-term-week-off.html and then we had the Beast from the East!
From Houghton we cut across the fields to Lamport and then to the old airfield at Harrington. Chris and I gave Sarah a history lesson and she made us feel very old by not knowing about CND. For you Sarah: harrington airfield museum page and more from there with memories of the CND camp and the actual CND . For anyone short on time, Harrington airfiled was a WW2 airbase, in the 50's it also housed Thor nuclear missiles. It's now returned to farmland but you can ride on the old runway and there's a museum that I keep meaning to visit! There's some good offroad riding there and it has staged a Friday Night Summer Series MTB race.
From Harrington Airfield we rode onto Harrington village. On the way I bumped into Mark Evans who I mentioned above, out on a road ride. Before that we had seen our good C&D clubmate Justin Smith and moments before that we saw Tom Medley who helped me to complete my first ever 100 mile ride. So many nostalgic moments, I became quite reflective about how much cycling has given me!
From Harrington it was across the fields to Arthingworth. Along the way a competition had started for who could open the most gates. Little things and all that! Then it was back on the Brampton Valley Way. The week before Phil had put some tunes on and we cycled around the park near Spencer Bridge (it might be Spencer Bridge Park,) to the strains of Morrisey and Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now! This week I got my spotify playlist going and we emerged from the tunnels to the Dizzy Rascal/Florence Against the Machine - You Got the Dirty Love mash up! More eclectic tunes followed with the Wonderstuff, Seahorses, Charlatans, Stone Roses and the rest of my Indie dominated 'lads,' tunes!
Standard mean look, Jim still can't help smiling!
what a day
selfies
These rides always need a coffee stop. This time we went to Waterloo Farm Tea Room I had a superb strawberry cheesecake and latte. Banter flowed as did discussions of Jim's impending surgery. I hope his goes as well as Andy's bionic hip!
Afterwards we put our helmets back on. This is unpleasant if you have naturally become more aero with age, but if you have lots of hair like Sarah it's no problem. There's nothing thing like being diplomatic about middle aged hair loss so well done to Sarah for being nothing like diplomatic. Only joking, top quality banter!
After the coffee stop it was a spin back down the track and through both the tunnels. I forgot my lights so had to shine my phone torch to see where I was going. We left Phil on the track as he set about turning this into an epic ride and then we went up the big hill into Brixworth.
This was another fantastic ride. Many thanks to the Brixworth Velo MTB group for letting us join them. It's clearly going to be a regular fixture. Next week we are panning a C&D off roader and Andy and I would like to extend that invite to our new friends.
Once home it was time for the big washdown and then I've been writing this! What a week of cycling. and like the title says 7 days, 4 clubs, 3 bikes, a great service from C&D Cycles.
Happy Pedalling!
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