Sprintfest

After a few warm-up laps John assessed the field and split us up into ability groups of 5 riders each. Initially each group was sent off for a one lap, "every man for him/herself" sprint. To start with in my group most riders were beginning their sprints too early and fading before the line. John then put out some distance markers before the line and we started to get more of an idea of when to jump and when to wheelsuck. Then our groups were split into 2/3 person teams where we practiced leading out our teammates. This was quite fun as it became very tactical, the best lead-out I had was when Olly gave a 1-2-3 signal and sprinted ahead of me much of the way down the final straight, I was literally sucked along. Unfortunately the other riders had also seen Olly's 'covert' signal and I got pipped at the line! Next up was 'throwing your bike at the line'. Rather than an expression of rage, this is an action where ideally keeping hold of the bike you push yourself backwards (and thus the bike forwards) just before the finish line, gaining a few inches over a competitor. After watching John noted that most of us weren't throwing the bike soon enough, which we worked on with another throwing session. Next up were some more one-lap team sprints to put the new skills into practice, then a much larger three-lap group sprint to finish things off. Unfortunately for me and my suffering team-mate Olly my legs were completely shot by this point from the morning TT and we didn't fare too well, maybe next time! In all it was a good afternoon out and much was learnt. It would take many road races to get near the level of sprint experience we had from a single day. Thanks John!