White Rose Youth League Cycling Round 2 - Richard Dunn Sports Centre

Dry but pretty windy tonight, the sun was out and it made look like hard work.

Finlay had another good result, in the time trial he improved with a lap time of 1:58, this put him in 1st place in the Under 8's. 

Jack didn't do a time trial, there are just too many kids racing so he went straight into his 10 lap race. He didn't do well tonight with an average lap time of 1:50 leaving him well down the field, Jack just didn't try tonight, just sat up and didn't push hard at all. It is pretty soul destroying when the kids who are a year older than him just leave him behind. I kept quiet and didn't talk through how it all went, Jack knew he hadn't tried hard, better luck next time.

Finlay did great in his race, again winning his age group, he had quite a good race with a couple of kids and did really well. It's great to see Finlay doing well and he like the positive attention he gets after working hard on the bike!

BSCA Yorkshire Regional Circuit Race - Richard Dunn Sports Centre

After Bike club on Saturday afternoon Jack and Finlay entered the BSCA Yorkshire Regional Circuit Championship races.These racers are not as competitive as he White Rose League and the rider numbers are smaller.

Both Jack and Finlay tried hard in their races. Finlay won his race! Jack came 4th in his race and managed to get on one of the other kids wheel, working hard to stay in touch he got dragged along and averaged 1 minute 47 second laps. He even managed to do a fast last lap, it really took it out of him and he was pretty knackered at the end.

White Rose Youth League Cycling Round 1 - Richard Dunn Sports Centre

Jack in the middle of the pack

The White Rose Youth League runs at several venues across Yorkshire, each venue is independent and runs its own competition. Jack is in the 'Youth C Boys' (Under 12's) and Finlay is in the 'Youth E Boys' (Under 8's)

First the kids do a single time trial lap. Finlay did it in 2 minutes 7 seconds, good enough for 3rd, Finlay is the perfect age for his group so has a good chance of doing okay. To win his class he would have needed to do a lap in 1 minute 57 seconds. Jack came 13, in his class with a time of 1 minute 34, he's one of the younger ones in his class, and will be able to stay in this group next year. Jack would have needed to do a time of 1 minute 22 seconds to win.

Finlay trying hard

The kids then each had a race. Finlay did 6 laps and finished 2nd, he had a good race and tried really hard, the kids were all quite evenly matched and Finlay did really well to come out on top at the end. Jack had to do 12 laps and finished 15th, he got dropped by the pack straight away and had a very lonely race, really hard work when you are on your own, but he will learn from this.

This was the first race that the kids have done on tarmac and they both enjoyed the evening, a positive experience. It's going to be character building for Jack this year he's in a tough age group.

Kirkby Lonsdale Camping

Leck Beck Waterfalls

Got away as soon as we finished work on Friday and headed up the Aire valley to Skipton and up the A65 making good time. We soon arrived at Wood close Park, we've stayed here several times so soon had everything setup. After tea we headed over devils bridge and had a walk around town. Andrea booked a table at the Royal Hotel Pizzeria for Saturday evening. It was nice to see the building back in use, the last time we were here all the windows were boarded up.

Heading back to the camp site and settled down for the night. Saturday morning and the weather was overcast, but at least it wasn't raining. We headed towards Cowan Bridge and headed up Leck Beck. We followed the watercourse up stream and had some lunch at the waterside. We soon reached a ravine with some interesting waterfalls, further up the valley we could see Bull Pot and the area where many potholes are found. The kids didn't want to go any further so we headed back down to Cowan Bridge. Stopping at the local shop we had coffees at the tables outside.

Once back at the camp site we got cleaned up ready to go out for tea. The kids played on their skateboards and got told off by one of the people in the residential caravans. The pizza at the Royal Hotel was really nice band we all enjoyed a really nice meal.

Off roading near Bull Pot

Sunday morning and we decided to do a bike ride, however the weather was pretty poor, it was raining and there was low cloud. By lunch time it started to brighten so we set off heading towards Bull Pot, there was some pretty steep hills to climb as we headed up onto the tops using Fell Road. Finlay bailed out and I had to push his bike up the steepest parts of the road. Once on top the kids settled down and started enjoying the ride. At Bull Pot we turned right and headed off road, Jack setoff at speed, it was all down hill and this is just what Jack likes. Finlay did really well and made steady progress over the boggy ground.

The off road section ended when we met the Barbondale Road. From here we headed down into Barb on and stopped for a drink at The Barb on Inn for a drink, we were all caked in mud, but the kids didn't mind. From here we headed back towards the camp site, stopping for another drink at the Pheasant before using the bridle path by the golf course back to the camp site.

We wanted to have a barbeque but needed to get some meat. I headed into town with the kids but the supermarket was closed, we stopped in the skate park as the kids had bought their boards. To my amazement Jack wanted to learn how to drop in, rt he ramp was over a metre . I told him to bang the front wheels down and lean forward. I got ready to catch him, for the first few tries I had to stop him from having a huge accident but it didn't scare or put him off, after a few more tries he cracked it, we were well chuffed. Finlay decided to have a go and to be fair he did pretty good, he's still only 7 so just having a go was pretty good.

We headed back into town and got bacon, burgers, chicken breasts and sausages. Straight back to the camp site and we had a great barbeque, and the weather was good enough for us to eat outside.

Monday morning and time to pack up and head home, we'd had a good weekend and kept busy even though the weather was mixed.

Jack moves up to Scouts

Goodbye Cubs

Doesn't seem like 2 minutes since Jack started Cubs. When he started he was scared of going away on camp and didn't feel too comfortable when joining in with many of the activities, how things have changed!

Into Scouts

Jack got his silver award as he checked out of cubs, and shook hands with all the other kids and the leaders, he's enjoyed it that much that he asked if he could come back and help out, but he'll need to be older before he can do this.

So when Jack was invested into Scouts he went from being one of the oldest in Cubs to one of the youngest in Scouts! Straight away he's enjoying everything, spending time out and about doing stuff that all kids should do.

All good fun.