Summer Camps off to a great start!

Summer Camps off to a great start!

The first week of the summer holiday was full of adventure and fun as we ran beginner, intermediate and advanced camps as well as our first ever adventure ride for kids.

Since 2013 we have run mountain bike holiday camps for kids from Queen Elizabeth Country Park in Hampshire, our favourite local riding spot. Over the last two years we are also used a great location closer to London for our advance riders to give more variety and depth to our coaching.

For the first year we have also started running adventure rides, these three hour long rides are full of trail time giving the kids optimal opportunity to practise their mountain biking as well as pick up new trail skills and ride in new locations around the South Downs.

Here are a few pictures from the first week!

 

Mountain Biking Trail Tip Tuesday – wheelies

Mountain Biking Trail Tip Tuesday – wheelies

TRAIL TIP TUESDAY – WHEELIES WITH BEN MATTHEWS

Watch this awesome video by our friend Ben Matthews on Wheelies.


Each week we will bring you a new trail tip that you can put into practise in your own time when out riding your mountain bike. We hope you find these coaching tips helpful. Get in touch if you have a specific skill you would like to improve on.

 

Mountain Biking Trail Tip Tuesday – steep descents

Mountain Biking Trail Tip Tuesday – steep descents

TRAIL TIP TUESDAY – STEEP DESCENTS⁠

Whether you’re doing casual trail riding or racing, you’re bound to encounter some steep descents. Being able to not only ride but enjoy your ride on steeper terrain is a real game changer!⁠ ⁠

How to:⁠
1. First things first pick a day when you’re feeling good, have a nice warm up and then head to somewhere steep, ideally with friends so you can spot each other.⁠
2. Start in your ‘attack or ready’ position.⁠
3. Remain relaxed and roll into the descent looking where you want to go, not at the scary root/rock or drop!⁠
4. A roiling wheel is more stable so don’t grab your brakes instead sponge them lightly to maintain a speed you feel comfortable with.⁠
5. Keep yourself pointing down the trail – On bumpy terrain the bike will move around, keep your body pointing down and in the middle of the bike, let the bike float underneath you.⁠ ⁠ Start on smaller slopes and work up to steeper terrain.

Each week we will bring you a new trail tip that you can put into practise in your own time when out riding your mountain bike. We hope you find these coaching tips helpful. Get in touch if you have a specific skill you would like to improve on.

 

HSBC UK 2020 National Cross-country Championships taking place in Plymouth.

HSBC UK 2020 National Cross-country Championships taking place in Plymouth.

Plymouth has been chosen to host the 2020 National Cross-Country Championships. British Cycling announced the HSBC UK championships would take place at Plympton’s Newnham Park, which is said to have a long history of hosting mountain bike racing and even staged a world cup round in 1984.

The event is taking place over the weekend of 18 and 19 July, along with the four-day off-road cycling event, Exposure Lights TwentyFour12 Festival, ultimately creating a week-long celebration of mountain biking. Newham Park has long been a classic mountain bike race venues and has hosted the Exposure Lights TwentyFour12 event for the last 15 years.

Event organiser, Matt Williams, said: “We are hugely excited to bring the HSBC UK National Cross-country Championships back to Newnham Park in Plymouth, particularly as 2020 will already be a significant year for the city, as it commemorates 400 years since the sailing of the Mayflower.

The HSBC UK National Cross-country Championships and the Exposure Lights TwentyFour12 Festival will complement a summer of cultural and community Mayflower 400 events and exhibitions in Plymouth, which mark the 400th year of the sailing of the iconic ship from the city to its city in Massachusetts, USA.

“This year, that event falls the weekend after the national championships, and with mountain biking continuing to grow in popularity in the south-west, we are looking forward to hosting a fantastic week of mountain biking and other activities for people to enjoy,” continued Matt Williams.

Full details of the HSBC Cross-Country Series and Championships can be found on the British Cycling website.

If you’re interested in taking up a new activity in 2020 and looking for beginners mountain bike coaching, then get in touch today.

Mountain Biking Trail Tip Tuesday – rock gardens

Mountain Biking Trail Tip Tuesday – rock gardens

TRAIL TIP TUESDAY – ROCK GARDENS⁠

Rock gardens may seem scary at first, but get them right and they can be a whole lot of fun.⁠ ⁠

How to:⁠

1. Approach at a brisk walk/jogging pace, in the ready or attache position.⁠

2. Look for the smoothest line through the rocks.⁠

3. Keep your upper body loose, avoid ‘death grip’ and let your forks pump through the rocks with bent elbows.⁠ Bend your knees and bring your centre of gravity lower over the centre of the bike.⁠

4. Spot your exit and keep your momentum , this helps the bike glide over the rocks.⁠ ⁠

Watch a short video on one of our clients taking on a rock garden.

Each week we will bring you a new trail tip that you can put into practise in your own time when out riding your mountain bike. We hope you find these coaching tips helpful. Get in touch if you have a specific skill you would like to improve on.

 

Mountain Bike Holiday Camps

Mountain Bike Holiday Camps

Mountain Bike Holiday Camps

Despite Storm Dennis and the aftermath of wind and rain, our mountain bike holiday camps for kids went ahead last week without too much disruption. Over the half term week over 50 children braced the wild conditions, wrapped up warm and headed out onto the trails for some great outdoors fun from Queen Elizabeth Country Park in Horndean, Hampshire.

Over each day we ran different groups based on ability from our beginners learning about bike control and handling skills like cornering and braking, to more advance sessions for riders who where looking to progress their riding and start jumping.

All the sessions link together progressive coaching using fun games and feedback. Our young riders also got to play coach, in the advance group, giving feedback to each other making positive suggestions and giving helpful tips to other riders.

Thank you to our super coaching team Renee, Francie and Jools who passed on their own mountain biking experiences and made the sessions enjoyable for all riders.