Intermediate course 271011

Great day yet again when John and Tim came both from down south somewhere (sorry for being largely ignorant of anything south of Birmingham, although lots of names of places to ride down south sounds very interesting so might venture south at some point!) to build on their skills. John had done the beginners course last year but was now ready for more challenges and it was clear nothing would stop him as he flung himself off everything I showed them. Tim was slightly more cautious needing a few attempts before being able to override the feeling that maybe the bike wasn't up to all these strange, steep and occasionally scary obstacles, but I knew early on that he wasn't giving up. He always rode stuff eventually and when he did, he did so perfectly, making it look very easy.

For Tim it was largely to encourage him to look further forwards that improved his riding the most and to make him realize just how capable mountain bikes are at even the roughest stuff.  John, who had all the basics already in place, just needed to build on the repertoire regarding bunny hopping, wheeling and jumping, this to encourage him to move his weight more on the bike to more stylishly negotiate very rough stuff by unweighting the front resp back wheel at the right times.

It all made for a good day with only the odd hilarious dismount to occasionally break the never-ending demonstrations of perfect riding!