Hi everyone.

I’ve had a few weeks where I have hardly done any training, but I’m starting again properly this week. I’m enjoying it and I’m really motivated. I was going to train for the cyclocross and concentrate on that because it is my last year as a junior, but I think I might have left it a bit too late. Instead, I think I’ll start to build up stamina and get ready for the mtb season next year because that will be my last year in the juniors.

Cyclocross training was on at Hetton on Saturday. We were practising bunny hops over an obstacle and then moved on to dismounting and running with the bike. Kier had a spectacular fall when we were doing the bunny hops. He got the front wheel over, and I’m not sure what he did, but he somehow managed to throw himself over the handlebars and do a belly flop into the ground! After carrying the bikes, I went to the hurdles with Sam, Ross and Alex. We practised going through them at race pace, and then we had races over them. I think I won it in the end, but my tactics were a bit dodgy because I had to block them to stop them coming past! If Ross didn’t crash into the hurdles as much, I think he’d have been in with a shout! Thanks to Tony , Alex, other Tony and everyone else who helped with the session.

After the session, Sarfraz grabbed me and Alex and stayed back for a bit to help decide on a skills course to use at the Durham Big Ride on Sunday. We got all the stuff out and it took a while, but we made a good one in the end with chicanes, a limbo, slaloms and the bottle pick up. Somehow we managed to squeeze it all into the back of Sarfraz’s car - there was a lot of stuff - and we were just about to lock up when we realised we didn’t have a key! We had to wait ages for John (the guy in the hut) to come back so we could get the key.

Alex and I weren’t planning to go to the Durham Big Ride, but Sarfraz talked us into it and we met there an hour before the start to put the tent up and get the skills course sorted out. Although it wasn’t a race, Sarfraz said that either me or Alex had to get back first because it would have been good publicity as there were nearly 2000 riders. Last year, I turned up 10 minutes after everybody had started, and by the time I had signed on, I was 15 minutes late. To avoid starting right at the back of the line, we headed for the start 15 minutes early, thinking this would be enough to get to the front. When we got there, there were people lined up as far as I could see down the road. I was going to go towards the back, but Alex just ducked under the tape and stood right at the front. I joined him, and so did all the other ‘Hawks. We took over the first line and got ourselves in all the pictures! When we started, we had to take it easy out of the gate, but after that we settled into a rhythm. I sat behind Alex for a bit because I was finding it hard. We had a gap on the guy in 2nd place, and it was gradually getting bigger. We pulled away from him up the first big climb and he was out of sight after that. I was still struggling, so I wasn’t doing any work. I think it was because I didn’t have a warm up - I always feel much worse.

After about 20 minutes, I felt better and did a bit of work. Because we were at the front, there was a van with flashing lights on the top leading us round and making sure the roads and junctions were clear of traffic. We accelerated to try and draft it near the start, but he noticed and kept a distance for the rest of the ride! On the return part of the journey, we had built up a big gap because we couldn’t see anybody behind us on the long straight sections. We were taking it easier on the first half, but we started to go for it towards the end. We caught up to some people who were doing the medium ride and we had to keep slowing down and speeding up to get past them. That was the hardest part of the ride. We went over the finish line together and went to collect our goodie bags. The next person to come through was Emma who had dropped her dad towards the end. We got our photos taken and got loads of publicity from it.

When all the Hetton hawks had finished, there was a stunt show near the finish. Jez Avery was riding his mountain bike and was asking for volunteers. Kier and I got picked and joined in. He was doing stoppies and things over Kier when he was lying down and then he ran over his stomach! After that he did some pretty big jumps over us to finish the show. Everyone helped to pack the tent up and then we went home. Hopefully next years ride will be even bigger and even better, and we’ll have another big turnout.

That’s it from me today because I’m going to put my motivation to good use and do some training.

See you Saturday,
Joe.

p.s: Go to

http://www.bbc.co.uk/wear/content/image_galleries/durham_big_ride_2008_g...

To look at pictures of the Durham big ride, particularly numbers 4,6,7 and 8.