Thursday Night Chain Gang – 19th April

At last some proper spring weather for the chain gang. So, we’ll be departing at 1830 from outside St Saviours Church in Brockenhurst as usual.

Thanks for the riders who have supported the first two chain gangs this year. Standard of riding has been good for the first rides. Two coaching points to raise from those rides:

·     Week 1, number of riders in the fast line were in too much of a hurry to get to the front and accelerated in the faster line. This caused the line to fragment. Aim is to keep the two lines moving at slightly different paces and keep the group as tight as possible. Happy to say that in week 2 this was a lot better.

·     Week 2, we had several occurrences of riders moving across into the slower line not taking enough pace off. The caused the rider on the inside to have to take far too long a time on the front. So, if you’re the leader of the slower line and riders are not coming through try and control your pace to let the faster lane catch and pass.

Pace of rides will pick up over the next few weeks and if the group size gets any larger we may have to consider splitting into two groups.

As well as a good workout the chain gang is skill training. So think about your riding and its effect on the group, we are trying to move as efficiently as possible around the circuit. Keep the group tight, if there are an even number of riders you should see the front and back riders changing simultaneously and two even lines.

Aim tonight will be to keep the group together until the top of Wilverley and then if there are stronger riders to create two or more smaller groups for the fast finish into Brock. But please respect the pinch points where it is not our priority, try and predict where the oncoming cars are and plan passing through the pinch points with the minimum of disruption to the group.

Enjoy the ride

Barry