Rider Development Programme – 7th February Assessment
Well done to those of you who braved the elements on Saturday, and undertook your respective assessments. It is always fantastic to see you all apply yourselves as you do! Congratulations if you have been promoted; but if you have not, do not despair and do not give up – talk to the lead coaches for guidance and tips, apply the learning, and keep improving. They are there to help you be the best you can be, so please don’t be afraid to ask for feedback!
A Few Notes from Your Coaches
General feedback from the coaches is that all groups rode well and demonstrated some good skills on the circuit. Whilst not everyone has moved on yet, don’t give up and keep at it! Well done.
Bronze (Road) Group Feedback: There are no promotes from February’s assessment. A decision was made to focus more on coaching where all Bronze riders would benefit from being guided on where to improve, which will help you all at the next assessment. Keep practising in your spare time, come along to the Saturday sessions and you will only get better!
Silver 2 Group Feedback: It was a cold day, but not nearly so cold as the last assessment, and we had 15 riders participating and riding in two groups. As in recent assessments the emphasis was on endurance. To move into Gold riders must be able to ride 15 continuous laps at a minimum average speed of 15mph, as well as displaying the riding skills of a high enough standard to join in our Gold sessions. The general standard of riding was very high – the best thing was that the majority of riders stayed in their groups. The lead group’s time was 1.01.01 hours – so that is not only a very symmetrical time, but well over 15 mph (our circuit is 0.91 miles long) that was required. The second group also beat 15 mph – well done everyone!!
6 riders passed to Gold (subject to completion of our knowledge based learning modules that we call “BCE” (Bike, Clothing & Equipment), and the names are listed below. We had 2 riders who rode well but didn’t ride the complete 15 laps and therefore couldn’t meet the standard that we set. We’ll try again on the 21st Feb. We had 3 Gold qualified riders with us on the day, and Hamish and the two Bens ‘met the standard again’ and set a great example for the other riders. Our other riders were nearly there with some just dropping of the back of groups or not quite there on the riding skills. If anyone needs individual feedback or we’ve got any names wrong talk to Steve C. Next session is Cornering – Steve’s favourite – and some BCE in the second half. Regardless of whether you have been promoted or not, well done to all of you!
Certificates
All promotes will have their certificates printed and presented, with bands, on Saturday. For those of you who are waiting on a certificate from the December 2014 assessments, if you have let us know your name we will ensure these are also printed this weekend – if you haven’t let us know please kindly send us a note and we will ensure you receive this on Saturday.
All uncollected 2014 certificates will be recycled after Saturday. If you have not yet collected yours by now, this is your last chance.
And Without Further Ado, February Promotes
If you don’t see your name in the table, but think this is in error and it should be, please talk to your coaches. Make sure you bring your passports to be signed off if you did not do so last weekend – if you have lost your passport, bring £1 for this to be replaced. Congratulations to the following riders:
| Bronze Circuit Passes: Move to Circuit Silver 1 Report to Andy B or Phil C for squadding |
Bronze MTB Passes: Move to MTB Silver 1 Report to Alex A or Mark D for squadding |
Silver 1 Passes: Move to Silver 2 Report to Paul M or Steve C for squadding |
Silver 2 Passes: Move to Gold Report to Dave G or Sam G for squadding |
| n/a | Rees Taylor Nikita Matharu Morven Pearce Tonisha Oloyede Jay Lloyd |
Taylor Evans Thomas Smith Alex Franks George Fowkes Laurence Hamilton-Cox James Osborne Kimberley Balcombe Elsa Kristiansson Zack Taylor Patrick Rabey Gabrielle Icmat |
Rizwan Hameed Lia Leonard Sam Makariou Harrison McMurdie Finnlay Weeks Tom Portsmouth[All subject to successful BCE] |
Help! I Missed My Assessment…!
If you missed your assessment because you were ill, or for any other reason, don’t despair! When you return to the club, let your group coach know that you missed the assessment, and discuss options with them directly. Unfortunately, with us being such a busy club it is not always possible to arrange a special assessment for any one rider, especially as all our sessions are group sessions and not one-to-one for a number of reasons. However, at the discretion of the group lead Coaches, if it’s practical, and depending which group the rider is in, plus a number of other varying factors such as the size of the group and safety conditions, an assessment may be possible. To be clear, this is not a guarantee and it is important to always talk to the coaches. If you have to wait for the next assessment to show how good you are, do heed the wise words of Head Coach Dave: “The pathway to good performance is a journey of hard work over months and years, not weeks!”
For future assessment dates, please refer to the calendar on the Clubhouse noticeboard, and keep an eye out in the newsletter for further announcements.