Team Gb in the making?

Sadly, the light this afternoon was not good - grey and flat and pretty rubbish for taking photos. However, I did go and stand and freeze to death for 20 minutes whilst the cycle club from school did some "team Pursuit" practice - we actually have some pretty good cyclists in a sporting sense - they really understand the principle of tucking in behind each other to take advantage of the aerodynamics. One group in particular stay really tightly packed and are quite slick when it comes to the 'overtake and tuck in at the front' process that is part of the team pursuit approach.

Cycling in schools has been seriously promoted since the success of Team GB in the Olympics last summer. My friend Lisa (in the picture looking assertive - she's my bridesmaid next year) is one of the PE staff in school and has strong links to the British Cycling team and has really engaged the pupils through lessons (cycling is now part of the PE curriculum in our school) and in a well attended cycle club. We provided the bikes and the helmets.

A really nice moment whilst I was there - two other students were on bikes on the outside edge of the circuit - when I chatted to Lisa, it turned out that one of the boys had never learned to ride a bike, and the other boy was teaching him - and we had a big round of applause and genuine support when he managed to balance and travel a small distance this afternoon. The big smile was priceless.