Intermediate course 030811

Normally I have a little moan about the weather being too cold, too wet or too windy and today it was too hot! Being warm was nice for a change, but it certainly made it much harder especially on the climbs. It was nice to see Peter again who came on the beginner's course last October as a complete novice. He did exceptionally well that day so it was no surprise he had developed into a very good rider since seeing him last. He was ready to build more on his jumping skills having had a taste of it during a skills session at Cannock where he regularly rides.

David had come for similar reasons wanting to move on from riding mostly red routes to feel confident about tackling black graded routes, especially since he had booked a trip up to Fort William with his mountain biking sons.

Apart from getting the wheels off the ground and bunny hopping, we also spent some time on riding slowly. It is absolutely true that speed is your friend and both riders were great at speed so it made sense to increase their range off skills to improving their ability to negotiate stuff slower.  The track standing came in handy to increase their ability to balance and they were already better than average at this, while bunny hopping and independently unweighting the front and the rear wheel was applied to tackle some nice wheel hugging roots.

Both David and Peter weren't hanging about when it came to riding even quite scary looking features which made for quick progress through out the day. Even the "drop off doom" was ridden 3 times each until it had lost its scariness factor and both participants had re-evaluated what was actually possible to ride down.

Very enjoyable day which was finished off with an ice cream back at the cafe!