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VCR
Newport Track Weekend
12th
- 13th Jan 2008
On Sunday 13th January 2007,
eleven members of VCR took part in a three hour coaching
session led by John Capelin
www.sports-coaching.com at Newport’s 250 metre
indoor Velodrome, in Wales.
Due to the length of the journey from
Colchester to Wales a hotel was booked for the Saturday
night in Gloucestershire, by Andrew Elderfield
(organiser of the trip). Five VCR’s (Andrew, Rob Kemp,
Andrew Minns, James Wylie and I) travelled down in the
morning to meet John Capelin for a pre-arranged ride in
the snow covered Cotswold Hills.
Andrew Elderfield in
the experts group
Richard Norris, Paul Dewberry, Alan
Lawrence, Joe Skipper and Steffan Toscano journeyed down
in the afternoon.
A local pub meal followed by an early
night was the perfect pre-requisite for Sunday morning’s
9.00am start at Newport velodrome, where we met Tom
Starmer.
At the velodrome, John Capelin and his
assistant coach Helen Paull issued out the impressive
pool of track bikes. The group of VCR and Finsbury Park
Cycling Club riders was then spilt into those that had
ridden at Newport before and those that hadn’t. It is
worth noting that some of our party had never ridden on
a track before, or ridden a fixed-wheel bike (which you
have to keep pedalling), with no brakes on.
The session was managed extremely well.
The Newport novices, like me, would sit watching the
experienced riders like Andrew Elderfield train under
the coaches’ guidance. Before their stint had ended, we
would be told to line-up on the inner-railings waiting
for our turn.
Confidence is the key to most things in
life and this track session was no exception. At first,
John Capelin had us ‘newbies’ moving round on the light
blue flat inner track, within five minutes we were
circling at the top of the steeply banked velodrome.
Riders take a break
between sessions
During the three hour session a number of
training routines were carried out; the final event was
a race called ‘Devil take the hindmost’, whereby the
rider at the back of the group is pulled out each lap.
Eventually, the finale of the race was a three-way
battle between Tom Starmer, Joe Skipper and me. It was
literally a tyre’s width that separated all three riders
at the finish (but as a modest man and author of this
piece I will let you guess who won!)
Everyone that took part agreed that it
was a well organised weekend and a brilliant experience,
which acted as a track appetiser for a number of VCR
riders who now cannot wait for the Olympic Velodrome to
be built in East London.
Brett Travers |
