Summer Holiday - Amiens

The camp-site Camping Parc Des Cygnes was next to a park, on the bank of the river Somme, it was about 2 and a half miles from Amiens, via a path on the side of the river, ideal for the kids, no traffic.

Jack in Action!

Once we got settled we headed to the park, there was a kids play area with some fountains, Finlay thought this was ace and spent over an hour running through the water, cooling off. Looking around we noticed there was a skate park. lt looked like a huge swimming pool that had been drained, not the sort of place for little kids to learn how to skate.

We had some tea in the van and the kids got their state boards, we headed back to the park! Both Jack and Finlay did pretty well and flowed around the park taking care not to have accidents. Jack got braver and wanted to "drop in", I said I'd catch him, before long he'd cracked it, the smallest ramp was over 6 feet, Jack wasn't phased even after the odd near miss.

Finlay in Amiens

Andrea had been doing a reckie mission and had found the path into Amiens so we rode the bikes into town. We headed to the Cathedral,  the amount of detail, fine carving, and sheer size was pretty impressive. Everywhere was closed so we decided to return in the morning to have a good look around.

The weather was still okay so we headed into town as planned. We soon found a toy shop and the kids got some "cheap tat". We walked around and enjoyed the atmosphere Amiens is a nice place and we relaxed, looking at the shops. We went inside the Cathedral which was pretty stunning, lots to look at!

We got everything needed for a barbecue, heading back. The weather looked to be deteriorating, dark clouds were gathering.

I set the barbecue up and started cooking, the heavens opened, there was thunder and lightening, the wind picked up, thankfully the horning on the van kept me dry. The storm passed but the weather didn't look settled. We stayed in the van, tidying up ready for our next move to Paris. Overnight there was more rain and I was concerned that we'd struggle to get off the pitch, I was relieved when we reversed off the pitch safely. We were only a couple of hours drive south to our next site in Paris.

Summer Holiday - To Amiens

The trip didn't start well, we got onto the A1 and started heading south. After about 70 miles I ran over a lump of metal in the road, straight away I thought it might have caused some damage, but kept going being careful. I soon passed a car on the hard shoulder with a knackered exhaust, it looked like a bracket had fallen off and I'd gone over it. Sure enough within another mile there was a bang and the rear drives side tyre let go, the van swerved and felt petty unstable. I ran to a halt luckily in an sos area.

I got the spare tyre off the van but couldn't jack the van up, the one supplied with the van was a joke. Time to phone the breakdown company and ask for assistance, a guy arrived in a van with 20 minutes of our phone call, he swapped the tyre is no time. I asked him if he knew where we could get a replacement, but he wasn't interested, just said we'd have trouble finding a replacement at short notice. Looked like we'd have to risk the rest of the trip with no spare! The knackered tyre had a lump out of the tyre wall so there was no way we could get it fixed.

We continued on our way, taking it carefully just in case the front tyre was damaged we started to make good time. Although we'd been delayed we made it to Dover by 7pm. Parking on Marine Drive, we headed into town for a takeaway. The weather took a turn for the worse and it started bouncing down. Thunder and lightening, we got soaked!

It had been a pretty bad day, fingers crossed for the rest of the holiday.

Edgar Moore, Died 16th March 1918

Up early and away on the ferry, we were soon in France. First of all we headed into Belgium, to Ypres and the Aeroplane Cemetery by Zonnebeke.  lt made sense to pay our respect to Edgar Moore, one of my Mums relatives, it's something I've wanted to do for a while. We soon found the grave yard, kept immaculately we looked around, Jack pinpointed his grave, we paid or respect, took some photos and read about the battles that had taken place in the area. Finally we left our name in the journal at the graveyard gate.

We headed back into France and after a few hours found the camp-site at Amiens, on the Somme River.

White Rose Youth League Cycling Round 6 - Richard Dunn Sports Centre

Interesting tonight the track was reversed. First up was Finlay On his one lap time trail, which he did in 1 minute 57.2. This was good enough for 2nd Place.

In Jacks race he made a good start and got behind a girl, after a couple of laps he made a break and caught up with another group  of riders. they stayed together, but kept trying to break away from each other. When it came to the sprint at the end he was well beaten but he'd tried hard and had an interesting race.

Finlay didn't want to race, a couple of kids who he normally races with were not taking part, and were playing on the BMX track. After a pep talk Finlay got his head around racing. He got off to a good start and tucked in behind one of the older kids, he was dragged around for the whole race, unbelievably on the sprint for the line Finlay made a break and beat the other lad! All this effort was rewarded with a win in his age group. A good night.

The races are always unpredictable sometimes the kids do well other nights it's a nightmare. Thankfully tonight had gone well.

Cadwell Park Track Day

We've been experiencing a heat wave for quite a while now so we set off to Cadwell knowing we were in for a hot, dry day. Over the last couple of years the weather hasn't inspired much confidence.

After signing on and sitting through the riders meeting I got ready for the first session. On the sighting lap a bike near the front was smoking badly, my visor was covered in an oily mist, so the track was getting its fair share of oil. The session was red flagged, after a short break we managed to get back out on track, only for me to find out that my bike was running on two cylinders.

l headed back to the paddock to try and sort it out. Initially it looked like the electronics had fried, part of the wiring loom had melted and the loom was a bit of a mess. We chopped out the problem wires and I went out in the second session only to find that we hadn't cured the problem, one slow lap and back to the paddock. We were a bit flummoxed, I asked around for advice, we swapped the coils and the problem didn't change still the back two cylinders. I started to trace all the electric connectors and found a couple that were partly undone. I reseated the connectors and the engine sounded better. By this time I'd missed the 3rd session so I was glad that out on track the bike was back to normal.

So l took it easy making sure the bike was all okay, looking forward to the 3 afternoon sessions.

In the break we helped a young guy with a CBR600 who was having mechanical trouble, he'd petty much gave up on getting his bike working, several people were giving him advice, but no one was rolling their sleeves up an helping. It was good to get stuck in and we soon found a fuelling problem. It was nice to get him running again.

In the afternoon I pushed hard and had 3 really good session. I think I know Cadwell pretty well now and I'm happy to "have a go" overtaking wherever a gap appears. In One session I nearly got shoved onto the grass going into Charlies 2, but it didn't bother me and l just kept on going.

I really enjoyed the afternoon, I must of been trying hard as I ached all week!

On the Way home I got pulled by the police, they had seen me in the outside lane with a trailer on! I was given the option of a''Driver awareness course" better than 3 points on my license.

Jack at Manchester Velodrome

There are some really good benefit from being a member of a bike club. Jack is eligible to attend sessions at Manchester Velodrome, became he's a member of East Bradford Cycle Club he has the opportunity to attend regional training sessions. I booked him onto this session via the British Cycling website, so we set off to Manchester not knowing what to expect.

On arriving we headed for the main reception we were asked to go into the velodrome down the staircase opposite the reception.

It was one of those cool moments when we entered the track. Emerging from under the track the first visible part of the track that we could see was the steep part of the bend, because we were several feet below the track it made everything much more dramatic.

The first thing Jack had to do was pick a bike, we used the height chart to tell us that Jack needed the smallest bike! (what a surprise). It only took a moment to adjust the seat and alter the straps on the peddles.,, Next we signed in at the desk in the centre of the track. There was a couple of Juts friends from bike club, this put Jack at ease straight away.

The coaches began by splitting the kids by ability, naturally Jack was in with people who hadn't done it before. The first thing the kids had to do was mange to get going. The bikes have a single cog and it is fixed so you can't stop peddling. There isn't any brakes either so it's one of those things that you have to get used to.

All the kids started cautiously, working in pairs. Initially they didn't even get onto the wooden boards, they simply ran around on the inside of the track, nice and flat. Jack soon started to use the very bottom of the track.

The first session was soon over, the coach spent time with the kids explaining what they needed to do next. the tuition was spot on, there were 4 kids to each coach. After the de-brief we wait e) far the other kids to finish there sessions. All together there was 3 groups so Jack had about half an hour before his next session.

As the afternoon went on Jack more and more confident he was soon pretty high up on the banking an enjoying the experience, by the end he. J got above the blue line, something that is a bit of a badge of honour, he was chuffed.

I went for a walk with Finlay, we went up into the stands and took photos. Finlay posed by the statue of Reg Harris and ran a full lap around the outside of the track.

After Jack finished we went to have a look at the inside BMX track, this is pretty impressive, the Facilities are amazing.

Jack had a really good positive experience, and of course wants to do it again in the near future.

White Rose Youth League Cycling Round 5 - Richard Dunn Sports Centre

It was one of those nights for both Jack and Finlay, they tried had but both struggled. Finlay did is time trial in 2 minutes and 3 seconds, this was pretty Slow for him. It was good enough for another 3rd place.

Jack had one of those lonely races, he couldn't stay with anyone so it was really hard work for him. His lap times were not consistent and he found it really hard. To be fair Jack did keep trying, but he was well down the field.

It was the same again in Finlays race, there was no one to race with and he had to do his best.In the end Finlay got another 3rd place.The results shower that Jack finished 7th, but the truth is the adjudicators counted the laps wrongly.

Better look next time boys.