We will start with Ben’s description of the first CCN race followed by Josh and Darren’s training ride then Jakes description of Chris Young’s training days and finally Josh’s account of the last CCN race.

BEN
I enjoyed the first CCN practise race. It was a handicapped race and I set off with Paul Herrington. I sat on the front of our group for the first lap and managed to get away on the hill near the start / finish area. I was pleased that I had gotten away from the possibility of a sprint finish but I had to do the remainder of the race on my own. I even managed to lap my big brother josh because he punctured half way through the second lap (hahahaha). I had a good race overall and came away with first place for the under 8’s. Jake my middle brother had a good race with Tom and Angus and finished second. There are some great photos on picsaweb from the forum off the NECCL website. (Dad helped me with that bit).

On Sunday after the practice race my mam took us three boys, Jess and Ella two of our dogs to the sheepwash at Osmotherly it’s a place on the North Yorks Moors where we can run riot. I put my bike in the back and dad rode up after work so we could ride the twenty or so miles back together. We set off down Swainby bank which is mega steep dad had warned me that it was very slippy towards the bottom where the sun hadn’t reached so we went down very slowly once in Swainby village we picked up the pace and sat side by side at about 18mph all the way to Ingleby Barwick. We reached Queen Elizabeth Way quite quickly and we were only about 3 miles from home dad tried to drop me going down a hill but I managed to hang on until the uphill, luckily dad only had the same gearing as me as he was on cross bike with road tyres on we were both spinning our biggest gears (48x16) and I was sat right on his wheel until the finish point of our sprint which is a lay-by near the end of that road where I managed to pull out and beat dad to the line. Much too dad’s surprise.

 JAKE
HI, on Thursday me and my brothers went to Hetton for the first day of the training with Chris Young. We were all split up into groups some went with John and some went with Chris. We practiced skills such as through and off, raced as a group in the Italian pursuit, and practiced cornering, which was all good fun. We only stayed till dinner time because after that we went Manchester Velodrome with The Teasdale’s ( Stockton wheelers) Jamie Tyreman and Alex Hopper, unfortunately me, Ben and Alex couldn’t go on the track as you had to be twelve and Alex’s dad had forgot to book him on. It looked really exciting I can’t wait till we go in April! We didn’t get back till late so it was pretty much straight to bed. On Friday we went back to Hetton for the 2^nd day of training and it was really windy we learnt how to use drafting to rest properly when we are racing knowing where to put your bike behind the person in front really helps. Then we went on the BMX’s to do speedway on the car park after that we played tiggy and the box game on our road bikes which was a bit slippy but we all managed really good. After that we had dinner then the big kids did bicycle speedway including dad and Sarfraz. Sarfraz fell off twice Joe Curran fell off when he tried to overtake my dad and then in the 2^nd last race my dad hurt his back so he couldn’t race on Saturday. After all that we finished off with another Italian Pursuit with everybody joining in. We all had a great time made some new friends and learnt a lot.
See ya later Jakey.

JOSH
Hi its Josh again first to set off in 2^nd CCN race was Ben and Paul and Chloe Ben took the lead only to be passed by Paul who was flying down the hill, Ben seemed to be struggling and was getting upset cos he couldn’t breath he pulled off after 2 laps and had his inhaler which made him better. The next group was the under 10’s they all set off together and waited till they were all clipped in and formed up into a peloton which looked really good and showed they had been listening to Chris. They all took turns on the front until it was down to just Jake Tom and Angus. Jake tried to make a break for it going past the cabin but was brought back by the other two to contest a sprint up the hill to the finish which Tom won again. Well done. Angus was 2^nd and our Jake 3rd. In my race there was me Josh Teasdale, Ali Rowland and Alex Hopper we sat in a group taking turns until Josh Teasdale made a break 2 laps from the end me and Alex chased but we couldn’t close the gap, leaving me and Alex to contest 2^nd Alex led out up the hill and nip and tuck until the final couple of metres when Alex just got it. Well done mate.

To get some extra miles in me and Josh T lined up with Joe Home and James Rowland in the adult race it got really windy and it was hard work on restricted gears as I kept spinning out on the down hill and the flat but I managed to keep going for 35 mins.
Hope to see you all on Saturday Josh!