We’ve had a lot of youth racing recently so I (Coach Cannings) thought it would be nice to offer a bit of a roundup of a few bits and pieces from the Lincsquad Youth perspective.
The track racing at Quibell park started again early in May with the Lincsquad youth riders as ever showing very strongly and doing the club proud, (when are some grownups going to come and race they always ask me!). We’ve had a string of wins and “podium” places from riders right across the board, as a coach though for me the real pleasure is seeing what we go through during our coaching sessions being applied so well in each race by every rider.
We’ve had athletes racing duathlons too, the now annual trip over to RAF Scampton where the youths got to race alongside some of the club’s adults. An excursion over to Darley Moor in Derbyshire where the racing was hard and close but really enjoyed by everyone.
Triathlons at Rother Valley where the youths got to race alongside some of the club’s adults again and once again some excellent performances from Freddie Gibbs, Jess Stewart, Beth Hall, James Jackson and Hannah Lonsdale with it being Freddie’s 1st open water. A quote from one parent was Freddie and Jess both had amazing swims – Lincsquad coaches yet again helping our athletes to get it right on the day.
Perhaps the biggest event so far though was the chance to race as part of the Festival Of Cycling at the Lincoln Grand Prix weekend. This really was a very big deal with hundreds if not thousands of spectators lining the streets around the cathedral and castle for an evening’s criterium racing. We had Jess Stewart, Freddie Gibbs and Matthew Walsh racing in the youth events with former lincsquadders Bevan and Josh Jones racing in the 3rd/4th cat race later on, Josh notched up a very impressive win!
Jess let us have her thoughts about the experience:-
On Friday 12th May 2017, I went to my first road race at Lincoln Criterium. The race was on real roads which were cobble. I felt excited and nervous. I had to go into a pub – The Magna Carta on my own while my mum stood with my bike. I had to go to the top of the pub, signed on and got my number, which was number 1. It was really sunny and I went to look round the course, making my mum run next to me. I had to wait for her. It then suddenly poured down and we had to hide under some shop fronts to stay dry. This lasted about ten minutes and then I went to find Freddie and Mathew who were also racing.
Me and Freddie had to get to the start line and we were at the back, there were under 12s and under 10s racing together. They said 3,2,1 Go and we all set off. I stayed on my drop bars and remembered to change my gears going up and down the hills. The roads were slippy and there were drain covers, so I had to be careful, but fast. I was racing number 2 and overtook her and had to stay in front of her.
I could hear lots of noise when I went past the starting hill every time, which was exciting. On the third lap I heard Coach Cannings and Shona shouting at me, which made me pedal faster and go quicker. I finished.
They did our presentation while Mathew was racing and I cheered him on, when he went past.
I won my race and got £5 and a water bottle.
Freddie as always reflected on his performance and drew some points to work on to make sure he’s even better next time around:
On Friday night I did crit racing at Lincoln. There were 12 boys in the under 10 and everybody looked as nervous as me. We had to do 5×1 mile laps which included hills and cobbles.
I didn`t do quite as well as I thought I would, because I struggled to get my right foot clipped into my pedals for the whole race. This is the biggest race I have done so far and I have learnt from it that I have to practise more to getting my feet clipped in and also work on my strength.
Matt as ever a man of few words who lets his racing do the talking:
“Lincoln was a great experience as not many other races will have you climbing up wet cobbled rides and around a cathedral. Overall it was a fun event”