27th May Go Ride & Youth Ride

Go Ride
Another well attended session today with seventeen riders signing on.  No photographic evidence though, so you will have to take my word for it!  I did actually take a photo of the torrential rain that we had just prior to the session, but with hindsight it's not that interesting ;-)

All the surfaces were very wet though, so before we started we talked about what effect that has on bike handling, braking etc.

After a quick warm-up drill of "Peel the Banana" we moved onto some group riding skills, including riding close and in contact with other riders.

After lots of of concentration the riders needed a blast, Andrew and I ran a couple of Australian Pursuit races with our group.  The key techniques for this race are good cornering and accelerating on the straights.  The riders were very evenly matched so after a few initial catches, we declared a draw before everyone was completely exhausted.

Meanwhile Calvin was still working with the older riders on riding effectively as a team; hopefully we'll get to see this in action at our next Go Ride Racing event on 24th June.

Youth Ride

A challenging ride today, slightly shorter but more hilly and appropriately named Ups and Downs.

https://ridewithgps.com/routes/21417860

Racing in the Forest with Bedgebury Boars 20th May 2017

The team was slightly smaller today than usual with a few of our regulars away on holiday but nevertheless we had seven riders including Anna and Jago who were racing for the first time at Bedgebury.

The course had been adapted slightly too and included a giant inflatable start gantry, very professional.

Top Team: Franklin, Hope, Oliver, Lucy and Polly (Anna and Jago escaped!)

Franklin looks very pleased with himself, and that was before he'd got his medal!  Great riding from everyone as usual, together with some sunshine and a couple of podiums it was a good morning.  Thanks to all the parents, riders and volunteers who make it happen.

Full results available here: http://www.boarsonbikes.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/ResultofBedgeburyForestGoRaces20May2017Final.docx.pdf

KVK Results:

U8 Boys: Franklin 3rd Place
U8 Girls: Anna 2nd Place

U10 Boys: Oliver 10th, Jago 14th
U10 Girls: Lucy 4th

U12 Girls: Hope 2nd

U16 Girls: Polly 1st

Women: Kary 4th

Franklin and Anna before the U8's race

Franklin's skilfull riding put him in 3rd place and earned him a bronze medal

Spring In The Park #4 - It's Not All About The Bike Riding

Another Friday night, another Spring in The Park and once again a cracking team from the KVK and KVRT.  I got a special treat this evening as the latest addition to the Hacker family came to support his siblings and I got to hold him.  As some of you know I am an absolute sucker for a baby, so I really paid little attention to anything else until I really couldn't get out of doing what I was supposed to be doing anylonger.  Now, I wonder whether the kit supplier would do us snuggle suits................

Luke was helping me out with the timing system, he set to work with Russ from Team Darenth, that left Calvin with the bucket and clippers.

Riding this evening were Toni, Polly, Ellen, Nico, Hope, Oliver, Lucy, Albert and Ivo. The thing I love most is watching our new and younger riders making progress every week; this might be getting a better place on the start line, or holding a wheel, or winning a sprint.  This week the thing that stood out most to me was seeing three KVK jerseys riding in the U10s bunch; Albert, Lucy and Oliver.  Riding amongst other riders is when it starts to feel like real bike racing (for me anyway).  

So after four races all our riders are well placed in the overall standings.  Now is the time to start studying who you need to watch, stay with, or beat.  Current overall standings are:

Ivo 2nd, Albert 7th, Oliver 10th, Nico 32nd, Lucy 5th, Hope 2nd, Eloise 6th, Polly 1st, Toni 3rd and Ellen 5th.

This could well all change at round 5, so there is still eveything to ride for.

http://sitp.teamdarenthcycling.com/results/

Go Ride 13th May & Youth Ride

Today was the first of a couple of Go Ride sessions focusing on Group Riding skills.  But first of all while everyone was arriving we set up the limbo, just to limber up before the session.

Francesca can definitely ride one handed!

Moving on, we split into two groups, Damian took the older riders and I headed onto the infant playground with some of the younger ones.  First off we practised riding close next to one other rider, when this was going well we added in another pair, so four riders set off together with the aim of keeping level with each other inside the channel.  Not an easy thing to do and one that requires good communication as well as bike riding skill.

First attempt at riding level with Lucy, some more work needed here........

Ready to try again.  They were awesome I just didn't get a photo :-(

Jago, Oliver, Rosemary, Eloise and Zara, looking good and in control

Double the number of riders this, just one 'hole'

Once my riders were confident with that we introduced a contact element; one rider placed their hand on the other rider's arm while riding along.  A couple of riders were confident enough to link hands whilst going along.  We needed a break after so much concentration so we headed over to the field to see what the others were up to.  They were riding in threes, one behind the other, and switching riders to share the work.  We decided to come up with our own version, taking it in turns to lead another couple of riders between the goal posts.

Damian's group seemed to have beaten us to the biscuit break, treats brought in by Ivo this week who had recently celebrated his 8th birthday.  After that it was back to work with Thread The Needle.  This is a standard race training drill, designed to give riders practise and confidence at moving through a group of riders.  With Andrew's help we got the riders organised and riding smoothly, before long they were moving from the front to the back with no problems at all, quite amazing when you consider our youngest riders are six years old.
Once we'd packed up and sorted ourselves out we headed out for Youth Ride with Luke, Nico, Eloise and Hope.  I think we had more adults than kids again, just shows you how much fun it is!  This week our route was called Down to Seal (19 miles), unsurprisingly it took us down hill to Seal, and inevitably back up hill again, Christophe shot this footage of us on our to the top.  With Damian and Luke setting a steady pace at the front it was a good workout for the younger riders, especially as we didn't stop for our customary fuel break.  Nice work everyone.

Looking pleased after a very nice ride.

Next Week Saturday 21st May: Racing at Bedgebury.

Spring In The Park #3

This evening we added course marshals to our team as Malcolm, Damian, Rob & Calvin all stepped up to wear a high viz vest and wave a flag or blow a whistle.

Feels like we had a full racing team too:

U8's - Ivo and Thomas
U10's - Lucy, Albert & Oliver
U12's - Eloise & Hope
U14's - Nico
U16's - Polly, Ellen & Toni

Claire had been baking again (or at least melting and stirring), Christophe was taking photos, Luke was on transponder duty again.

Another great evening of racing with good results all round. Thomas and Ivo came 6th & 2nd in the U8 Boys, Oliver and Albert were 8th & 8th in U10 Boys with Lucy finishing 6th Girl.  In the U12 Girls, Hope and Eloise went for a consistent 4th & 6th.  Nico finished 24th in a strong field of U14 Boys.  Ellen lunged for the line to take 3rd in the U16 Girls with Toni ahead in 2nd place and Polly behind in 5th.

Look forward to seeing everyone again next week, in the mean time, some pictures courtesy of Christophe.

Thomas finishing strongly in the U8s

Ivo and Thomas post race

Friday nights were made for bike racing! Nico, Hope & Eloise

And they're off, good start from Albert in the U10s

Oliver powering up the hill in the U10s

Lucy attacking up the hill

U12 Girls started ahead of the Boys this week

Eloise finishes in true KVK style just ahead of the race leader

Nico putting his new bike through it's paces in the U14s

Friday nights are made for bike racing #2 and crispy cakes of course :-)

Just part of our amazing volunteer team for the evening - Chairman Malcolm taking control.

U16 Girls started ahead of the Boys this evening, Toni, Polly & Ellen on the start line

Ellen working hard up the hill

Toni and Megan off the front of the main girls group

B & D, Polly, Ellen on the back straight

The Girls giving the Boys a tow up the hill ;-)

Lunging for the line paid off for Ellen as she took 2nd place ahead of B & D

Saturday 6th May Go Ride & Youth Ride

Another good turnout this morning with nineteen young riders signing on for Go Ride.  Michele & Calvin got the riders started, practising saddle push; a vital skill for looking cool ;-).  Once everyone had signed on we started with a warm up of Chase the Snake, the younger riders are really starting to get good at riding in a loose bunch - like a perfect bunch of grapes.

Today was essentially a skills session and our first challenge was looking behind whilst riding and maintaining a fairly straight line.  We mixed this up with coloured cones and numbers of fingers to count, then tried it one handed as well.  After so much concentration, biscuits were required, special treats today brought by Caitlin as she'd celebrated her 9th birthday in the Easter holidays.

Rider in the pit, waiting to start.

After lots of slow and controlled riding it's always good to have a 'blast', so we split into teams and ran a team enduro style relay, with two riders in the pit and one rider out on the course at any one time.  It was so much fun we had to do it again, but this time as just one lap per rider.

Post Office Queue

Giant Stop Box

Watching Damian fix a puncture!

Meanwhile, Calvin, Luke and Toni set up a monster skills circuit on the main playground including all our favourites: ride the line, slalom, dismount/remount, post office queue, bottle pick and stop box.  I swear the kids would do this all day if you let them.  However it was time to pack up so we thanked the coaches and volunteers and gave riders the opportunity to look at and try our club road bikes.  Eventually we managed to get packed up and kitted up for Youth Ride.

I named this week's route Leg of Lamb.  Well it was a combo of a vague resemblance in the shape of the route and the fact that there are so many adorable lambs in the fields at the moment.  Toni and Damian joined us (no racing for them today ahead of Sunday's Omnium), so with Malcolm, Claire, Christophe, Eloise, Hope, Luke and me we were nine.

An early puncture at Penshurst meant a brief spell in the sunshine outside the garage, then we were back on the road and enjoying the quiet lanes and hedgerows between Penshurst and The Causeway.  We turned up Hale Oak Road and climbed up to Weald before returning via Scabharbour Road.  A very pleasant 19 miler, tipping in just over 13 mph.  Well done to all the riders and many thanks to our adult riders.

Spring in the Park #2

Another excellent turnout and results this evening.  Marshmallow crispy cakes provided by Claire and great photos from Christophe.

Results:

U8 Boys - Ivo 3rd
U10 Boys - Albert 8th, Oliver 10th
U10 Girls - Lucy 5th
U12 Girls - Hope 4th, Eloise 6th
U16 Girls - Toni 1st, Ellen 3rd & Polly 4th

Congratulations to everyone who raced this evening.  I still didn't really make it away from my transponders to catch much of the action but I saw a great attack from Lucy in the home straight and I heard on the grapevine that Toni had put in one of her trade mark attacks to bridge the gap between the girls bunch and the boys bunch, she went on to win the girl's race so the effort was obviously worth while.  Ivo was pleased to improve on his position from last week (4th to 3rd), with Albert and Lucy also making gains on week one.  Oliver put in a steady performance to maintain 10th position.  In the U12's Hope & Eloise dropped one position each with the return of Hope's close rival Freya from Thanet RC. Toni won the U16s girls race, a double delight after last week's unfortunate puncture and Ellen made her 2017 SIP debut with a strong 3rd place, Polly followed up 4th.

Time to start thinking about strategies for next week, in the mean time here are some pictures.......

U8 Boys - Ivo looking determined (and straight ahead!)

U10's - Oliver, Albert and Lucy (pink spotty fleece)

I think this might be the start of Lucy's attack!

Behind bars! The only way to control the spectators.

Hope and Eloise in the warm up area

U12 Girls Start

Nice lunge Hope!

Eloise crossing the line

Cooling down and warming up

U16 Girls Start

Nice wheels ;-) Toni bridging the gap?

Polly spots a possible wheel.........

Despite a big effort Ellen just misses 2nd place on the line.

Go Ride 29th April 2017 and Youth Ride

Twenty three riders signed on for our first Go Ride session of the summer term. The morning was bright and sunny and everyone seemed keen to get on their bikes.  We set up a 'cone heads' skills challenge to keep everyone busy before the warm up started.  This activity requires concentration and a really still upper body to keep a marker cone on top of your helmet.




For the warm up proper we used the small circuit around the infant field and added a 'slow zone' on the infant playground, every time riders entered the slow zone they had to try to be the last rider out of the zone.  After everyone had ridden a few laps we got a couple of expert demos from Nico and Joel and I offered up the reward of a chocolate bar of choice to any rider who could beat Nico in a slow race at the end of the session...........more on that later.

'Challenge Nico'

So, we split into three groups and got to work practising our slow riding.  Once that was done, we moved onto our endurance block, using our regular circuit but throwing in a sprint zone on the field, encouraging riders to get out of their saddles and pick a good gear for a really big effort.  It seemed to do the trick and soon everyone was riding faster and faster each lap.  Once the riders were thoroughly exhausted we stopped for a break, Jacob's mum had brought crispy cakes to celebrate his birthday, so we investigated the new play equipment on the playground and enjoyed some birthday treats.  Next up was Sardines, working in small groups we put our new found slow riding skills into practise.   To finish off it was Challenge Nico, everyone wanted to have a go and despite some valiant efforts the only rider to beat him was Joel, although we awarded Eloise a prize too as Calvin thwarted her ride with a foot in the wrong place ;-).  Hope had been heavily handicapped so just a couple of chocolate bars to buy for next week.

Thanks to all our riders, coaches and volunteers for contributing to a fun session.  See you next week at the usual time for Go Ride.

Our Youth Ride actually had more adult riders than Youths today, Claire was a bit anxious that she would slow us down but we assured here she'd be fine as we set off to ride Castle Chaos; a route that takes in Hever and Chiddingstone. A nice smooth ride, no incidents and I didn't have to share the emergency Mars Bar :-)

Next Week: Go Ride 9.30am - 11am