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Six members of Axe Valley Pedallers have just passed their Level 2 Mountain Bike Leader/Instructor qualification at the mountain bike academy Fully Sussed.
Fully Sussed is run by the highly skilled husband and wife team of Maddie and Jay Horton had impressive credentials with Maddie currently holding the position of top rider in Mountain Bike Marathon riding in England and
Jay hot on her heals. Incidentally, Jay finished 5th in the Grizzly a few years ago, so you can see how fit these two are.
An intensive course covered a wide syllabus which included group management, navigation, route planning, coaching techniques, risk assessment and an in depth development of riding skills. The riders had to prove that they could look after a group in a rocky and demanding terrain like Dartmoor, where the course was run and show excellent confident riding skills at the same time. The riding skills were often demonstrated and developed during ‘fun sessions’, with cycle limbo and ‘track standing’ (balancing on the bike without moving) competitions taking place. Other skills were worked on the trail where speed jumps, hopping (on the bike), lifting wheels and descending or mounting steps required a real focus and nerve.
Congratulations go to Ben Dowell, David Holmes, Glenn Morgan, James Cope, Sebastian Cope and Alistair Cope of Axe Valley Pedallers.
Axe Valley Pedallers would like to encourage anyone interested in developing their Mountain Bike skills or looking to go out and tackle our local bridleways, to contact them. The club intends to develop the MTB section and plan more visits to challenging areas, like the Quantocks, Snowdonia and the Brecon Beacons.
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