Spring In The Park #9 - 30th June

Another beautiful evening for racing and a few positions to defend in the overall standings.  On the starting lines this evening: Ivo, Oliver, Lucy, Jago, Hope, Eloise, Toni, Polly & Ellen.

U10's: Jago 11th, Oliver 12th & Lucy 3rd Girl

Ivo battling it out with his regular rivals! He was placed 3rd this evening after some great riding

Jago has taken to racing like a duck to water.  He was placed 11th this evening

Lucy continues to go from strength to strength, finishing 3rd Girl this evening.

Oliver's consistent approach is paying dividends, he finished 12th this evening

Hope and Eloise have both raced on through illness this series, finishing 4th & 6th respectively this evening

Classic KVK rider!

Ellen marking Tilly with series standings at stake.

Toni was keen to keep her unblemished points record of straight 10's ;-)

Mixing it up with SDW.  The girls finished 1st, 2nd and 4th tonight (Toni, Polly & Ellen)

Saturday 24th June - Go Ride Racing & Picnic

It was quite a shock to me when I discovered that Calvin was unavailable today; I was back in the driving seat, just when I thought I was safely ensconced in the back!  It then transpired that all the other Young Volunteers had had more interesting offers (D of E, shopping trips, village fetes etc,), so I also had to take on the role of pacer for Devil racing.

Once again our new coaches stepped into the breach, and under the masterful leadership of Damian set about organising the riders for our first event the Individual Time Trial.  We followed that up with some Scratch Races, then the Devil and finally some Slow Races for the younger riders and Longest Lap for the older categories.  As a final fun race we split the riders into four and did a couple of Italian Pursuit events, these were fast paced and closely contested, a great final demo of the riders' skill and fitness.

The Super Minis lining up for their Scratch Race

The thing that struck me most was just how good at racing our riders are;  we'd made a conscious decision to include lots of race focused coaching in the preceding weeks and it was brilliant to see the riders putting it into practise.  I just hope they all enjoyed it as much as I did.  Despite the fact I managed to delegate pretty much all of the work to the rest of the team I still seem to have only taken this one photo :-(. So, Parents, if you have podium photos do let me have them.

Look forward to seeing everyone next week, Saturday 1st July for our final coached session at Stocks Green this term.

SIP#8 Time Trial 23rd June

TT Night at Spring in the Park.  This is the second year that one of the evenings has been dedicated to running an individual TT or 'Race of Truth' as our friend Terry calls it.

Riders experience the discipline of a pre-determined start interval and a held start, in addition they have to keep track of their laps as well as ride as fast as they can.  Many thanks to BC Luke and Colin and his son Oli from Thanet RC, who managed to make the timing look like a walk in the park.

The U8's gather round for a briefing from BC Luke.  For many of them it will be there first proper individual time time.

The points gained this evening had quite an impact on the series standings as follows:

U16 Girls: Toni 10 pts, Polly 9 pts, Ellen 8 pts.  This means that Toni is overall 1st position with Polly and Ellen tied behind her on 50 points.  Tilly Malbon is in 4th with 49 points.

U14 Boys: Nico wasn't at the TT this evening, he currently has 5 series points and is in 28th position overall.

U12 Girls: Hope 7 pts, Eloise 5 pts.  This means that Hope is tied in 2nd place with Freyja on 48 points, Eloise is in 5th place overall with 32 points.

U10 Girls: Lucy gained 6 pts, and is in a solid 4th position overall with 36 points.

U10 Boys: Albert and Oliver both gained 1 pt, and are 8th and 9th overall respectively

U8 Boys: Ivo gained 9 pts and is currently in 2nd position with 52 points, the rider placed 3rd has 51 points.

We wish all our riders the best of luck for their final race for series points on Friday 30th June.

Go Ride & Youth Ride Saturday 17th June

Thanks to Damian and the team for leading today's sessions in my absence, Damian even sent me this report:

A good turnout of 20 riders braved the glorious weather today. Hydration was obviously an issue and all our riders were encouraged to drink plenty throughout the session.

With Go-Ride racing next week the focus of the session was on some essential skills, particularly starting (as our more experienced racers confirmed, a good start almost invariably results in a better placing, avoiding the effort of getting back in with the bunch or getting dropped early on), gear selection and braking.  After a drink and biscuit break we moved onto the grass track, with each rider doing a one lap ITT (with some riders choosing to take the opportunity for a held start) and then, in small groups (based on ITT times), some scratch races, so that riders could put into practice what we had been working on earlier (and in previous sessions), getting used to the dash for the first corner and the need for constant observation.  Unfortunately we ran out of time for any pursuit races, but did have time to sing Happy Birthday for Ethan, who had forgone opening his presents to come to the session (what an awesome attitude!) and enjoyed the sweeties he had brought to share. Well done to all the riders and hopefully the session gave a taste of what to expect next week.  
 
With 11 riders making a large group and with enough adult riders, we split into two, with Toni, Ellen and Calvin heading out with myself and Malcolm and Hope, Eloise and Matisse riding with Claire, Christophe and Sarah.  Both groups followed the same route and it was a pleasure to ride in such great weather with such fantastic riders. 

SIP #7 16th June

I was away on the Isle of Sheppey today, no worries though as the KVK team were on good form; in fact I think it's fair to say nobody missed me! Great photos as ever from Christophe, which together with the results seem to say it all.  Oh, and Happy Birthday Polly!  

KVK & KVRT results: Ivo 3rd, Thomas 6th U8 Boys, Oliver 8th U10 Boys, Lucy 3rd U10 Girls, Hope 2nd U12 Girls, Nico 25th U14 Boys, Toni 1st U16 Girls, Ellen 2nd U16 Girls, Polly 4th U16 Girls

Kicking off with the U8's Ivo and Thomas looking super cool and relaxed on the start line.  Thomas started the series riding his regular bike but has upgraded to one of the club road bikes; great to see this progression in our young riders.

Penny for your thoughts Ivo!

U10 Super Stars Oliver & Lucy, post race refuelling

Seen here, Ivo enjoying some post race nutrition.  This along with the 'KVK base camp' is all part of Spring in the Park for the KVK.  Next up the U10's; Albert, Oliver and Lucy have all raced regularly, and all seem to be riding bigger bikes than when they started (maybe down to post race nutrition again??) It's great to see them signing on and lining up and even better to watch them race and hear them chatting afterwards, they could almost be part of the pro peleton!

In the U12's we ve had Hope and Eloise racing most weeks.  Eloise has taken to racing like a duck to water and has made some good progress in her first Spring in the Park despite being poorly for several weeks.  Hope continues to battle with Freya from Thanet..........

The long drag up from the bottom of the circuit

Freya keeps an eye on Hope, as she needs to!

This week's battle victory goes to Hope

Nico has been our sole representative in the U14's this year.  He has been battling with a couple of individuals from various clubs, his dogged determination and naturally competitive nature have seen him win a few of these in a very strong U14s field.  Go Nico!

U14's get off to a quick start.

Nico stays with the opposition

Nico loses out to Big Foot rider this week :-(

Despite being a small club we continue to dominate the U16 Girls race with Toni, Ellen and Polly racing pretty much every week.  I'm hoping that by the time our current racing girls Hope, Eloise and Lucy reach this stage they will not be racing in front of/behind the boys, they will have their own dedicated races..........#closethegap, #girlsracetoo.  In the mean time these three continue to surprise and delight their established fan club with a combination of great riding, great kit and their thoroughly good sporting nature

Trying to avoid a puncture, pre race

Starting with the boys this week, and they are off.

Staying with the boys in the early part of the race

Ellen finds her groove and sticks with it

At least is was a nice evening for a long solo ride

Ellen's strong sprint places her in 2nd place this week.

Toni finishes 1st Girl

Helping out on the night is what makes it possible, the KVK will always lend a hand.

Next week is the time trial, and then it's the final race for series points.  Good luck to all our riders.

Go Ride 10th June & Youth Ride

Great turnout today with thirty one riders signing on.  Thankfully our three freshly qualified coaches Jez, Gareth and Andrew were ready for action, Andrew even took photos and did a write up:

“It must have been the sun or Kary’s national marketing campaign, but we amazed to have seven new riders today.  They all got involved straight away and showed the bike skills that they already had.  At least one had ridden at another club before and showed themselves very capable.  The challenge for the coaches was to learn all the names, though it was clear that the riders progressed more with their riding than the coaches did with remembering names - name badges in the future / or personalised jerseys?

The group progressed well riding as a line and learning to stop in a small space as well as picking up those essentials of covering the brakes and keeping up the inside leg round corners.  So we were pleased that by mid-way through the session Kary said that we could join the big endurance challenge with all of the other riders on the grass.  We quickly split into two teams (green - because they were on green bikes or jerseys) and red / orange (for the same reason) and joined into the endurance relay; this being in full swing there was an initial trepidation on the part of the green team as so many riders seems to be involved, but Alice quickly took the lead and helped her team get fully involved.


What an amazing turn-out and we will look forward to getting to know the individual skills of the new riders.  Everyone had a great time!" By Coach Andrew

Getting organised for our sprinting drills. Paced by one of the YV's, then sprinting for the line on the whistle

Our pre-session practise session; tights turns and stopping in the box

Gareth takes our newest riders through a quick skills check

Older riders "Chasing the Snake" - paced by Luke

Jez gives the riders their briefing "stay behind Toni's back wheel until I blow my whistle"

A round of applause for the riders, coaches and volunteers

Panorama!

Youth Ride
This week we tackled Reverse ISO Henry VIII. A select group of young riders and some willing adults enjoyed a 22 mile route taking in Hever Castle (hence the Henry VIII) reference.  I learnt from Christophe that the French don't have cat's eyes, but I'm sure french cats have eyes???

Anyway it was a good ride, nobody crashed, nobody cried.  In fact they were all smiling at the end.

Nico, Hope and Eloise - we never did find  Henry VIII!