Trailbuilding Cancelled / Race this Thursday

This Tuesday should be our next trailbuilding session.  However, as the trails are in such good condition at the moment we have elected to cancel this month's trailbuilding session.  In the next month or so, we are hoping to agree a new section of race singletrack to add in time for the SXC and we will be looking to use future trail building sessions to cut this trail in. Some club members for more details of the race that is taking place this Thursday at Heathhall in place of our regular coaching sessions.  Further to this, the parking will be at the edge of the old runway and along the side of the road opposite the Aviation Museum at Heathhall.  Ewan Clark, the newest member of the Drumlanrig coaching team will be running a course familiarisation session at the race venue from 1800 to 1830 for all club members  - please turn up for 1745 to take part in this session.  This will help to give you the best chance in the race.

Drumlanrig Root Rats Coaching Thursday 27th May

Coaching is on as usual at Drumlanrig this Thursday, so Sprogs please aim to arrive by 5pm and Yoofs by 6:45pm.  Lead coach for the Sprogs group will be our new Scottish Cycling Coach, Alan Denman and the Sprogs session will focus on riding one handed.  Alan will introduce bottle jousting and bike ten pin bowling as the session progresses.   The lead coach for the Yoofs will be our own Ewan Clark and we will be continuing with Ewan's brand of high quality MTB based coaching and trail riding.  This week, Ewan will be aiming to teach us the bunny hop, that is, how get both wheels over an obstacle.

Next week's session is replaced by the Stepping Stanes Dirt Crit Race.  The race venue is the new off-road circuit that the Forestry Commission have built at Heathhall see the Root Rats blog for more details.  This is the second round of the D&G Youth MTB series and we are encouraging all riders in the club to take part.  The race is a Dirt Crit, which means that there will be a little bit more pedalling needed than in the last race, but it'll be fun!.  Don't forget that coaching session fees are 2.50 per session.

This Friday sees town centre racing returning to our area with Elite level circuit racing on the streets of Dumfries.  Racing starts just after 6pm with the start line in the region of Jessops and the race looping over a short circuit of High, Great King, English and Shakespere streets.  Why note come along and see what it is all about. 

Finally, two important matters.  First of all our treasurer, Michelle Clark is aiming to send off the orders for Root Rats cycling shirts early next week so we are looking for any remaining order forms to be returned to her by the end of the week.  Secondly,  some riders have yet to renew their club membership.  We'd be grateful if you could do this as soon as possible as membership is a condition for attending club sessions.  Let me know by reply if you would like a membership form or shirt order form e-mailed to you.

Stepping Stanes Dirt Crit Thursday 3rd June

Root Rats Coaching Thursday 20th May

Root Rats coaching is on as usual this Thursday for both the Sprogs and Yoofs groups.   Please aim to arrive for 17:00 to start the Sprogs session and 18:45 to start the Yoofs session.  End times are 18:30 and 20:30 respectively.  Our local Scottish Cycling coach, Alan Denman will be standing in fro Rik with the Sprogs this week and Ewan Clark will be our lead coach with the Yoofs.  This is the second week of Ewan's six week program of coaching and trail riding and we will be out on the trails for the whole session this week to look at technique for avoiding obstacles such as roots and rocks. Please don't forget to get your Root Rats shirt orders in and to renew your membership if you haven't done so already.

Drumlanrig Root Rats Shirts

Drumlanrig Root Rats cycling shirts are now available to order.   Please note that the club are providing these shirts at cost price to club members in order to encourage all of our members to obtain one. 

To order a shirt, please print out and complete an order form and send these together with payment to our club treasurer, Michelle Clark.  We are planning to send in an order to the manufacturers at the end of May, so all orders must be with Michelle by Friday the 28th May.

Root Rats Coaching Thursday 13th May

Root Rats coaching is on as usual this Thursday for both the Sprogs and Yoofs groups.   Please aim to arrive for 17:00 to start the Sprogs session and 18:45 to start the Yoofs session.  End times are 18:30 and 20:30 respectively. 

Ewan Clark will be our lead coach with the Yoofs group.  Ewan has just passed his Trail Cycle Leader assessment and will lead the Yoofs group through a combination of top level coaching and trail riding which will take their skills to a whole new level. Ewan has prepared a six week program of coaching and riding - it's going to be good, so please feel free to spread the news!

Did you enjoy the Mini DH last Thursday?  The next race in the D&G series is at Heathhall on Thursday the 3rd June and this will be a cross-country race.  The race is in place of our regular coaching session, so why not give it a go - more details will be available soon.

Finally, don't forget to get your Root Rats shirt orders in and to renew your membership if you haven't done so already.

Drumlanrig Root Rats Mini DH Results

Well done to everyone who took part in Drumlanrig Root Rats Mini DH race. Thanks to the marshals, commissaires, parents, the Drumlanrig Estate and Rik's Bike Shed for helping to make the event such a big success.  Results and pictures from the race are available below.

Full results and timings of the race are as follows:

Drumlanrig Root Rats Mini Downhill Results, 6th May 2010

Under 8 Boys

Position

Name

Club

1st Run

2nd Run

3rd Run

Best 2 runs overall

1st

Kyle Colchester

Drumlanrig Root Rats

18

20

18

36

2nd

Campbell Huddleston

Drumlanrig Root Rats

21

20

22

41

3rd

Sam Godfrey

Drumlanrig Root Rats

23.5

20

22

42

4th

James Hunter

Drumlanrig Root Rats

25

23

22

45

5th

Murray Colchester

Drumlanrig Root Rats

24

24

24

48

Under 8 Girls

Position

Name

Club

1st Run

2nd Run

3rd Run

Best 2 runs overall

1st

Emily Hunter

Drumlanrig Root Rats

31

22

23

45

Under 10 Boys

Position

Name

Club

1st Run

2nd Run

3rd Run

Best 2 runs overall

1st

Fergus Hiddleston

Drumlanrig Root Rats

17

18

16

33

Under 10 Girls

Position

Name

Club

1st Run

2nd Run

3rd Run

Best 2 runs overall

1st

Polly Henderson

Stepping Stanes

17

16

17

33

2nd

Eloise Coombs

Drumlanrig Root Rats

22

20

21

41

3rd

Ariana Willoughby

Drumlanrig Root Rats

24

23

19

42

Under 12 Boys

Position

Name

Club

1st Run

2nd Run

Best Run Time

1st

Ewan McKay

Peebles CC

01:55:50

01:56:10

01:55:50

2nd

Adam Burgoyne

Stepping Stanes

02:10.8

02:02.3

02:02.3

3rd

Rory Blundell

Peebles CC

02:21.2

02:26.0

02:21.2

4th

Fergus Hiddleston

Drumlanrig Root Rats

02:47.4

03:00.3

02:47.4

Under 12 Girls

Position

Name

Club

1st Run

2nd Run

Best Run Time

1st

Polly Henderson

Stepping Stanes

02:22.9

02:15.1

02:15.1

2nd

Katie Allen

Wallace Warriors

02:20.0

02:17.1

02:17.1

3rd

Ariana Willoughby

Drumlanrig Root Rats

03:56.3

03:29.7

03:29.7

Under 14 Boys

Position

Name

Club

1st Run

2nd Run

Best Run Time

1st

Adam Hughes

01:43.4

01:44.3

01:43.4

2nd

Connor Holland

01:57.1

02:07.1

01:57.1

3rd

Guy Palmer

Drumlanrig Root Rats

01:59.9

02:03.3

01:59.9

4th

Rory Perkins

Stepping Stanes

02:11.3

02:08.9

02:08.9

5th

Rian Hill

Drumlanrig Root Rats

02:26.0

02:10.9

02:10.9

6th

Ewan Fletcher

02:11.3

02:15.0

02:11.3

7th

Connor O'Neil

Stepping Stanes

02:38.2

02:40.0

02:38.2

Under 14 Girls

Position

Name

Club

1st Run

2nd Run

Best Run Time

1st

Erika Allen

Wallace Warriors

02:23.3

02:24.9

02:23.3

Under 16 Boys

Position

Name

Club

1st Run

2nd Run

Best Run Time

1st

Ben Sinden

Stewartry Wheelers

01:38.5

01:37.3

01:37.3

2nd

Douglas Halliday

01:44.6

01:44.5

01:44.5

3rd

Dan Wright

Stepping Stanes

01:50.9

01:47.9

01:47.9

4th

Jordan Crawford

Stepping Stanes

01:57.0

01:55.6

01:55.6

Under 18 Boys

Position

Name

Club

1st Run

2nd Run

Best Run Time

1st

Ruaridh McCleod

Stepping Stanes

02:33.8

02:30.3

02:30.3

Thanks to Alan Denman, our new Scottish Cycling RDC for compiling the above table and thanks to Fiona Willoughby for taking the photos of the race that are displayed on this post.

Apologies to regular blog readers for the sudden change in format.  This has been necessary in order to allow enough characters on the screen to fit the full results - let us know if you prefer this format (or have any other comments) by clicking on the COMMENTS option below this post.

Don't forget that the next round of the D&G series takes place at Heathhall on Thursday the 3rd June in place of regular Root Rats coaching sessions.