This Saturday’s Team Ride, will meet again at the Renaissance Park Short Track. Coach Shawn can not attend this time since he will be at a NICA Coaches’ retreat all weekend - however, his trusted Assistant Coaches, Matilda, Quinn, Addison, Julia, and Paul will be there to help organize groups, stagger starts so everyone can get nicely spread out on the trail, and direct some .
ALL parents who ride are always welcome to ride along at Saturday rides. Also, the course at Renaissance Short Track is VERY spectator-friendly. So, if you do not ride, this is an awesome opportunity for you to find a spot in the woods to hand out, drink your coffee, and watch the action! Assistant Coaches can show you some prime spots for that.
The Reni Short Track is the perfect spot for us all to ride together, at our own pace, and have developing fundamentals. More advanced riders will be encouraged to group together with a parent to explore the full course on their own, at their own comfortable pace. This is done by taking a RIGHT at the first fork in the trail, where we usually go left. Less experienced riders will spend more time following Assistant Coaches to get feedback so you can work on perfecting those fundamentals and essential skills.
Everyone is welcome to arrive a little early - also, please try to have tire pressures set as we discussed at our first meeting. Ask your young rider to teach you what they learned. They should be placing both hands on top of the tire and pressing down, while looking at the bottom of the tire where it meets the ground. A mountain bike tire that is properly inflated for trail riding should flex/flatten out a bit at the bottom, allowing the knobbies on the sides of the tires to almost touch the ground without the sidewall of the tire wrinkling. wrinkles mean the tire is under-inflated / good squishy flex with side knobbies almost touching is the goal. I will start to keep track of this and will share information with all parents regarding each rider’s optimum baseline tire pressure. The best rule of thumb is to ride with the front a little bit (1-2 lbs) less pressure than the rear.
As always, feel free to call or text Coach Shawn with any questions.