Wednesday night Juniors Training Ride
All these kids are fast, old to young! A lot of power in a 1.5 hour ride. Before each training ride we talk about the route, what worked at the last training ride, and what we need to improve upon. One of the boys asks me when he can attack...I asked him to please wait until we were 2 stop signs down Road 29! Mainly for my benefit!
- Elite rider Mike Pugh gives drafting pointers to Juniors Sam, Curtis, Peyton, Aaron, Matthew D. and Matthew N.
Because we had all ridden so horribly in the wind towards County Road 29, Mike Pugh stopped us at the end and said we all needed to talk. He explained how to ride in the wind, how to echelon, how to tell where the wind is coming from, etc. (See photo) The boys again asked, when can we attack and when someone does, can we chase? We split into groups of 4 so we could spread out and stay protected. We had 3 younger boys and 3 older boys plus four adults. A few of the bigger boys take off and of course what happens? The younger ones chase and chase and chase. They look a bit like baby chicks whose mom got sucked into outer space and they had no idea where she went. Their little legs were going as fast as they could; rotating, pulling and sprinting. Kevin looked at me and said "these kids are FAST", I said "Yes, they are, you should ride with us when there is no wind."
Mike went on to chase the bigger boys, Aaron and Matthew and the rest of us tried to keep the younger ones protected but they did not want our help, that was made very clear. They were chasing the carrot. All I could hear were the boys breathing hard and Sam's face was beat red. Poor Curtis tried to get a drink but that never worked out. Matthew was hanging right in there and they would alternate chasing. It was quite funny but at the same time us adults were getting worked too. Nathan pulled Peyton up to the older boys so he could get a workout in too.
- Kristen Hill, Juniors C0-Director, leading the pack in a criterium.
This sprinting and chase continued. The adults were trying to help lead them out, keep them together, no such luck, once they saw the sprint, they left us. We were going to do 2 laps of the airport loop we do and the younger ones had been worked so much, they wanted to watch the bigger boys do anther lap at the sprint point. And then they were off again chasing each other. Those young boys worked each other over all the way back home, even passing the older boys. They were still attacking up to the hospital finish!
Did I mention these kids are fast? This is what you are missing if you do not join us for the junior race rides every other Wed night. They are getting faster with each ride! After we returned to the hospital for our debrief, the boys said it was the most fun ride they had been on! That makes all the adults’ hard work of the worth it right there!
Thanks to Kevin McSpadden, Mike Pugh and Nathan Trueblood for helping out!
