early morning sun

Daughter 2 enjoying some early morning sunshine while I awoke Miranda from her slumber.

What an amazing night we all had at the Velodrome last night doing Accreditation 3. It was a big jump up on skill level from Accreditation 2. We learnt 4 new skills - changing leader every half lap, Chain Gang, Track Stack and changing through the middle of two strings. It was absolutely amazing and the two hours went by like a puff of smoke. We all passed which was great. We got 10 minutes at the end to just play about so the my partners in crime made a string and practiced half lap changes at high speed. That, for me, was the best part of the evening. We really nailed it and go a true feeling of what can be done on the track.
 
The Chain Gang in particular is an extremely useful skill to have while riding on the road and is something that you see quite often when watching professional cycle races. A breakaway will work like this for mile after mile sharing the load until it comes time to go for the win. Cycling is probably one of the only sports in the world where opposing teams help each other to gain victory. I remember watching David Millar win stage 12 of the Tour de France last year using this technique. After descending the second cat 1 climb of the day Miller and 4 others had made 12 minutes on the peleton then they chain ganged until the last 4 km when they started attacking each other. One of the best stages I have ever watched and all the more poignant as it was on the anniversary of Tom Simpson's death on Mont Ventoux during the 13th stage of the 1967 tour.
 
Cannot wait to get booked into Accreditation 4 so we can do the drop in sessions or some further coached sessions. Will be great