Herne Hill Saturday Training

Great news, Guy--so soon! I still saw you on crutches on Good Friday.

There is 'fit and well' and there is 'able to ride a bike'

I definitely fall into the latter category, but gonna give it a crack.

Wasn't that the problem in the first place? :P

Doing the induction on a carbon bike is a strong look. Shows you mean business.

Sounds like numbers in the intermediates are getting too big, seems people are not riding in their ability groups. If I catch anyone riding "up" and not managing to keep up they will be relegated to the 1245 session. Same for anyone riding "down" and causing the session to speed up, you need to come on sundays.
The whole point of this new schedule was not to repeat last year.

Doing the induction on a carbon bike is a strong look. Shows you mean business.

I might do that tomorrow ;)

Doing the induction on a carbon bike is a strong look. Shows you mean business.

I'm hoping I might be at the front, setting the (nice slow) pace

(although that is still to be seen :-)

I will bring your skinsuit Guy

some of the regulars I talked to last week were saying it is hard to make sundays while saturdays are easier with commitments etc. certainly the dulwich saturday ride has the same problems with excessive numbers. Personally, I often have to work Sunday AM so will rarely be able to make those sessions, however much I might or might not believe I should be there. don't think the policy is wrong but difficult to strictly enforce.

I will bring your skinsuit Guy

And I can wear it for my induction :-)

i think thats the right thing to do Rob, give em a credit note or summat, its not realistic for people to try and ride a bit slower so it ends up being a waste of time for everyone.

some of the regulars I talked to last week were saying it is hard to make sundays while saturdays are easier with commitments etc. certainly the dulwich saturday ride has the same problems with excessive numbers. Personally, I often have to work Sunday AM so will rarely be able to make those sessions, however much I might or might not believe I should be there. don't think the policy is wrong but difficult to strictly enforce.

There's not a huge problem with faster riders going in intermediates on saturday, but they have to ride at the speed of the group.

The idea is to make each session right for the intended ability, otherwise we may as well go back to the 100 up, kicking back, endless rotation and moving obstacle race that was Saturdays last year. Each group needs quality training, whatever their ability. When I hear that there are 60+ riders in the intermediate but less than 20 in the beginners training I am bound to be suspicious!

Unfortunately for you and I, by far the largest numbers are in the induction and novice group, sadly the take-up after that drops off as you would expect, basically we want people to race on wednesdays and the saturday open races, so there's plenty on saturdays coming up for you fast guys.

The novice group last week was pretty frustrating - the induction over-ran so much that that it ended up being a really short session - it ended just as I was getting warmed up. I suppose it's unavoidable when there are so many people doing the induction with the good weather, but it's not great for people like me who are a bit slow for the Saturday morning session, but have a bit more experience than the just-inducted people.

No idea what the solution is - I'm working on my fitness and would like to move to the morning session by later in the summer, but I definitely don't want to be slowing anyone down.

I don't think anybody's to blame - it's never going to be easy to cater to such a wide range of skills/fitness and lots of people doing the induction can't be a bad thing, but it would be nice if the novice session could be a bit more clearly defined as separate from the induction - both times I've done it this year there's been a bit of confusion over when we can get onto the track. Anyway, fingers crossed it'll be better today.

There's going to be some changes to that, today went OK as induction (although massive) didn't over run too much so you should have got a reasonable session.

It's nigh-on impossible to have a quality session with that many riders in the allotted time, fitting 4 different groups on in 5 hours with bike hiring and 80 in a group is a mega task.

What's the deal with the Omniums?

Is it ok for me to race?

if you have BC membership yeah

Got that.

Was wondering what sort of level you need to be at?

It's a bit quicker than league, in the B cats

Cool.

Thanks for the help.

There's going to be some changes to that, today went OK as induction (although massive) didn't over run too much so you should have got a reasonable session.

It's nigh-on impossible to have a quality session with that many riders in the allotted time, fitting 4 different groups on in 5 hours with bike hiring and 80 in a group is a mega task.

I don't know if this has been asked before, but is it possible to have a second novice group maybe ?

I was going to move up to the intermediate group this week (yesterday) but I thought that would not be a wise move after reading comments on here and talking to people at the track yesterday.

As long as the novice induction sessions don't over run then we get a good novice track session, all good.

Induction started realllllly late today.

But that meant free novice training for all! :P

I am riding next Saturday. Will I be allowed in the intermediate?

Yes.

I am riding next Saturday. Will I be allowed in the intermediate?

We miss you Clive*

*Can I touch your bum?

Pretty chuffed to still be mixing it with the intermediates after nearly 3 months off :-)

Good fun yesterday.

Pretty chuffed to still be mixing it with the intermediates after nearly 3 months off :-)

Good fun yesterday.

wandering round the infield chewing the fat and trying to sell bling track stuff to intermediates isn't something to shout about.