Saturday 21st January Go Ride & Youth Ride (Col de Coldharbour)

Go Ride - The good thing about this persistent cold weather is I'm getting used to it and given that we managed to run our session last weekend when the ice on the playground was concealed by frozen hail I felt positively relaxed when I turned up to Stocks Green School to a dry black tarmac.  I checked the areas that were iced last week but not a hint of the slippery stuff so all was looking good.  The netball posts where however frozen solid into the playground, so not entirely hazard free.

We spent some time on our feet, running and jumping and generally getting some warm blood into our fingers and toes before splitting into small groups and working on some basic but essential skills; riding in a straight line, riding one handed, looking behind and wiggling around obstacles.  All good stuff.  We even took advantage of the slightly frozen grass and used the field for some long run none handed practise.

Snack time came around and we wished Franklin a Happy Birthday for the following day.  We finished off the session with a team endurance sprint relay, Franklin took the win for his team with his final lap which seemed a good way to celebrate a bike rider's birthday.

Youth Ride - a combination of factors meant that the Youth Ride was a little depleted; Hope had taken a tumble in the final activity and was nursing a sore knee, Calvin had to rush off to practise his trumpet, Luke was at a birthday party and the girls were at the velodrome so that left Nico and Dan.  We'd opted for mountain bikes given the icy roads so we headed up the Col de Coldharbour for a quick leg spin.  A couple of diversions and add ons gave us an hour's riding, not bad for an icy Saturday in January.

Well done to everyone who rode today, you'll be flying by Easter!

Next Week: Col de Coldharbour Ride Out.  Usual rules: please bring an inner tube, drink, pocket snack and packable jacket.  Please contact me to sign on.

Sunday 15th January - Cyclocross racing at Betteshanger

It was cold, wet and muddy, I haven't managed to get Polly's jersey clean :-(

Great work from our riders though, in tough conditions they raced well and came out smiling.  Provisional results are Toni 1st U16 Girl, Polly 2nd U16 Girl & Hope 4th U12 Girl.

Saturday 14th January - Go Ride

Against all odds we managed to run our Go Ride session as normal on Saturday.  Thanks to Ellen for the write up and James for the pictures:

Sardines in full flow

On Saturday we had the first Go-ride of 2017.  12 riders came along to the session despite the cold and slightly snowy conditions!  The riders started off with riding around the field and doing an off bike warm up including star jumps and burpees. The focus of the session was slow riding so to begin everyone found a partner and had a slow race- a competition where the riders had to see who could get to to the line the slowest without putting their foot down.  We then had quite a few games of sardines and sumo to practice trackstanding.

Toni and I were with Nico, Eloise, Joel, Oliver and Hope and we had to make the circle very small before the riders put their feet down!  After a quick stop for some of the delicious rice crispy cakes that Oliver had brought along the riders practised picking up a baton from the ground.  Everyone improved lots and managed to pick up a baton. 

There was time for a quick competition to see which team could pick up the batons the fastest before some Marymoor crawl races to finish of the session.  Well done to everyone who came, especially Megan as it was her first time

Sunday 8th January - Club Cluster Track Session at Lee Valley Velodrome

Congratulations to Ellen who completed her Young Volunteers workshop during the school holidays.  As well as helping out at Go-Ride Ellen has offered to give me a hand with the blog, so here's what she had to say about the last club cluster session at Lee Valley:

On Sunday, Toni, Hannah and I went up to Lee Valley Velodrome.  The session looked at different skills like taking a hand off the bars and accelerating over the top of the bunch.  Towards the end of the session we got an opportunity to practice using tri bars- we did lumps and bumps as well as a 1km pursuit.  It was my first time using tri bars so i was a bit nervous but I really enjoyed it and was pleased that I got to try them out.  It was a fast session but fun and worth getting up early


Future Dates:
29th January - Novice & Intermediate
12th February - Intermediate & Advanced
26th February - Novice & Intermediate

Full details and how to book on follow the link below:

http://www.bc-regions.co.uk/southeast/index.php/regional-sessions/lee-valley-track-sessions/

January 2017 - Happy New Year

So, it's finally here, 2017 kicks off and as usual there is lots of planning going on at KVK HQ.  The combination of ages, disciplines and family/work commitments makes planning a  schedule that works a real headache.......................but at the end of the day what we all really want to do is ride our bikes, have some fun with the kids and watch them learning to love bike riding in whatever way makes them tick.  So that's what I did the day all our plans went out of the window and we weren't able to start Go-Ride on 7th January. I treated myself to a ride with some of the best bike riders I know.  We met at Toni's house, there was some confusion as our meeting coincided with the arrival of a white stretch limo, the kids thought I'd arranged a treat for them until the neighbours emerged, suited and booted and it became apparent that the car was not for us.

It was a gentle ride, just to spin the legs and test out some recovering lungs after the inevitable end of term lurgies and excessive consumption of chocolate and turkey over the holidays. We set off along the Causeway and out towards Hever.  After a while Toni and Polly took the lead, I sat in and Calvin and Luke talked astrophysics at the back.  After climbing up to The Rock we took a short break to re-fuel and chat, then the girls suggested the boys led out the ride for a while.  After that the ride took on a slightly less relaxed feel; lets just say Calvin and Luke don't have the same smooth pedalling action as the earlier leaders, add to that a close encounter with a deer and a large curb and you should be getting the idea.  We arrived safely back and were met by Heather and Cody, just back from their walk.  A perfect way to start 2017.  Wishing all our riders a fantastic year of bike riding,