Pimp My Bike Ride - Bringing the Spirit of Christmas to Hildenborough

Wow, what an amazing morning.  After 48 hours on checking weather forecasts and re-arranging the ride to try and coincide with a break in the rain cloud, it actually happened, it stopped raining and it was all systems go for the KVK pimp my bike Christmas Ride.

Saturday 14th December

Last Youth Ride of 2013
Well done to Toni, Calvin, Polly, Tom and Hannah who all braved a chilly morning for the last Youth Ride of the year.  We rolled out on our original 10 mile route, which feels like a breeze now for our regulars.  Damian was keen to throw in an extra challenge so Toni, Calvin and Polly made a small diversion to ride the first third of Carter's Hill.  No major problems there so I'm sure we will be adding the Col de Carters to our regular schedule.  Back in Hildenborough in good time we took the opportunity to test our riders judgment by going solo on a couple of tricky junctions.  I am happy to report that they all demonstrated a strong sense of self preservation.

Last Go Ride of 2013
In the afternoon we met up for our last Go Ride session.  The grass is way to muddy to use now but we constructed a giant circuit on the playground with ALL the cones that we own and worked on group riding skills. We finished off with a new variation on a bottle relay game, conclusion: good fun but could benefit from a few tweaks!

Next week: Pimp My Bike - meet at Tonbridge park 9.30am

Saturday 7th December

A small but select turn out for the Ride Out this morning; Ashley, Tom and Hope.  That's the trouble with the festive season, people get busy!  We had a great ride, back in under an hour and no punctures - good job as we didn't have Damian with us.  Pleased to report that all the fallen trees blocking the path through the woods have been cleared and the muddy field is still passable.

Later that day it was off to Cyclopark for Powerpack with John Leitch.  Ellen, Hope, Georgia and Shoshana were all spotted by Jacob (who was riding the trails with his friend). Thanks to Claire for the photos, looked like you all worked hard on your cornering!

Meanwhile, I attended a meeting about the planned Summer in Park racing series for 2014.  This is set to follow a similar format to last year; ten Fridays starting on 9th May 2014.

Next week: Youth Ride 9.30am - contact me to sign on
Go Ride at Stocks Green sign on 1.45pm

Racing Event at Stocks Green 23rd November 2013

We enjoyed a great afternoon of racing this weekend. Well done to all our riders, race reports to follow.  Some pictures to give you a flavour of the afternoon.

Saturday 30th November: no session today, enjoy a ride with your family or a day off :-)

Wildside Ladies Night 19/11/13

Ellen, Sophia, Toni, Polly & Hannah all attended the Wildside Ladies Night this week. They learnt about bike fitting, maintenance and cleaning, had a go a puncture repair and best of all tried out the fancy TACX trainer.  Pictures below, thanks to Wildside for a fun evening, I look forward to seeing our young riders put their new knowledge into practise!

No need to fix any punctures for these guys now Damian!

Or these two!

Toni was victorious on the velodrome

Hannah checking out this cost effective training tool :-)

Ride Out 16th November - Tonbridge to Penshurst

Fantastic ride today, we met at Tonbridge park for our ride out.  Plan was to ride for 45 minutes and see how far we got, with no punctures and a group of strong riders we got to the bottom of the Penshurst hill in good time for everyone to reach the top and enjoy the sunshine and a selection of snacks at the summit!

A handicapped hill climb ensured everyone had a good work out

 

The dog wasn't interested in dropped jelly babies, obviously looking for something more savoury.

 

Snack chat: qualities of fancy peanut butter versus own brand.

A leisurely descent and an equally strong return ride ensured we were back just after 11am. Plenty of time left to enjoy the rest of the day.

Back at the park.

Well done to the nine KVKers and assorted parents, a very enjoyable ride.

Next week: 23rd November Go Ride Racing at Stocks Green 1pm - 3pm
Following week: 30th No session at Hildenborough, Cyclocross open coaching at Cyclopark 10am - 2pm

Youth Ride 9th November 2013

Twelve intrepid riders set out on Saturday morning despite the dire forecast.  It wasn't a John Fish day, they had got it right and we returned to Stocks Green very very very soggy, having ridden our challenging Penshurst route (15.5.miles).  Well done Sophia, Hannah, Toni, Polly, Luke and Calvin and thanks as ever to our adult riders.  Didn't stop for a photo, but here's the soggy kit as evidence!

Next week: morning ride out - meet Tonbridge park 9.30am - please email me to sign on.

Sunday 3rd November 2013 – Biggin Hill

 

Whilst the rest of the KVK were snoozing Toni dragged her Dad out of bed for a short ride........

 

On Sunday (far too early) morning I was at Biggin Hill for the Evans Ride-It sportive with my Dad.  We had signed up for the “short” route of 30 (actually more like 32) miles.  After registering and getting our free pack of High 5 energy products (yuk!) and cool timing chip that stuck to your helmet we joined the queue for the start – it was really windy and freezing despite winter gloves and woolly liner gloves but at least it wasn’t raining.  I think I was the youngest there – everyone else was really old.  Then we were off and settled into the ride.  What a lot of hills there are in Surrey; where are the flat roads (apparently there was approx. 2,500 feet of climbing on this route).  At least we warmed up.  I was really pleased that I made it up all the hills without stopping and even overtook some adults on a really big hill.  Some got off to walk!  If only I had remembered I had a triple chainring sooner it would have been so much easier (lol).  The feed station was at about 21 miles but I didn’t want anything except water (Dad tucked in to the flapjacks, brownies and jelly babies of course) and then we were on the final push (more hills – annoying MTB rider who used us to get up the steep hill without doing any work and then sped off).  So pleased to see the finish just as it started to rain.  My time was 3 hours 10 minutes (which included a few stops to eat energy bars - liked the coconut one but not the chocolate - and an unplanned dismount - oops).  At least I beat Dad - by 3 seconds!!  Really enjoyed the Snickers at the end. Very pleased I did it – I just need to sleep for a week now. 

 

Here’s a picture of me at the finish.




Still smiling after a hilly 30 mile ride

 

KVK @ Cyclopark Wednesday 30th October

KVK's took part in a beginners BMX session in the morning and our open Go Ride taster session in the afternoon

Six riders (and two dads me and Malcolm) took on the BMX track at Cyclopark.  After picking up the bikes and helmets there was a skills session to familiarise everyone with the handling of the bikes and to show the instructor we were competent to ride.  No problems here; KVK won all of the sumo/sardines heats leading to an all KVK final – well done Polly for winning that; those sessions in the playground at Stocks Green sure paid off.

 On to the track and our first experience of pumping the bikes over the rollers.  Everyone soon got the hang of it (even me after a wipe out on my first attempt) and we worked our way round the rest of the track getting to know the various rollers, tabletops etc. until we were allowed up to the start (which is really quite steep!!) and learnt how to set up for the start, balancing on the bike waiting for the gate to drop.  And then we were off for a full lap of the track.  Everyone managed that with ease and looked quite professional, zipping round the berms and gliding over the jumps.

 

 

 

After three hours everyone was ready for a lunch, thrilled with this new experience, which was great fun and although surprisingly tiring, as most of the time is spent standing on the pedals, there was a lot of enthusiasm for doing it again some time. How many requests for a BMX will Santa be getting I wonder? 

 

Well done Ellen, Hope, Polly, Calvin, Toni and Luke (and Malcolm of course).  Great photos from Claire as  well, a super record of a terrific morning.

 

Damian



Open Go Ride Taster Session - Bee & Kary

After lunch we hosted a two hour session on the road circuit.  This was open to young riders, their parents and friends.  Thirty riders took part with some riding a road bike for the first time.  After a warm up on the 200m oval of individual sprints mixed in with steady riding we split into two groups and focussed on cornering on the hairpin and group riding on the oval.  We finished off the session with a short handicap race just for fun!  Excellent riding from everyone.  Even then that wasn't enough for everyone and a few adults and kids took part in the fastest lap competition that was running all week on the circuit. Thanks to all the families that spent some or all of their day at Cyclopark.  We are hoping to do something similar in the Christmas holidays. Watch this space.
Kary

Awesome Go Ride Racing 26th October

Despite the dire predictions of wind and rain I was DETERMINED to do ahead with our Go Ride Racing this weekend.  On a whim I had invited SDW to join us and really didn't want to cancel. 


We ended up with 19 riders and ran races in two age groups for girls and boys.  We kicked off with an individual TT, moved onto a mass start race and then a relay of mixed teams based on TT times.  Our amazing results sections aready had everything sorted but we'd planned Sumo challenge so we went ahead with that in two age groups.  Results and presentations followed, with podium position winners receiving Halloween themed "medals".  We finished the session with the ever popular "chocolate pick".

The soft ground proved fairly challenging but our very skilled riders coped well and the occasional unplanned dismount provided interesting racing! 

Thanks to all the riders and their families for making it a fun afternoon of racing. 








Next week: Ride Out - any bike + Power Pack OR Invitation to Herne Hill Session with SDW (contact me for details)

Saturday 19th October

Still smiling after 16 miles

Today's Youth Ride was well attended with five riders.  We tried out a new slightly longer route (16.2 miles) and averaged 12.8mph.  Fortunately the rain held off and we made it back for 11am.  Post ride discussion included buying and fitting mudguards and the importance of pocket snacks and spares. Our next Youth Ride is on 9th November.

Our afternoon Go Ride session focussed on group riding skills.  We kicked off with some pairs slalom and then moved onto the main playground for a warm up of clock sprints on an oval circuit. After that we tried some hand on shoulder riding in pairs, fours and then eights.  This is a fun way to build up confidence about being close to other riders when you are all depending on each other to stay upright.  Back on our circuit we practised riding in a bunch and sprinting off the front before finishing off with a game of Jail Break.  Amazingly none of the prisoners escaped, we put this down to the skilled and well organised bunch riding of our jailers.  An afternoon of very impressive riding.

Jailers getting organised

Next weekend: October 26th Go Ride Racing at Stocks Green School 1pm - 3pm

Half term: Wednesday 30th October 2pm - 4pm at Cyclopark

November 2nd: Ride Out in the morning. John Leitch's Powerpack at Cyclopark 1pm- 3pm 

Hold on tight and keep pedalling

 

Saturday 12th October 2013

By the time we reached Ightham Mote we'd eaten all the jelly babies but at least the sun was shining

Damian got plenty of puncture repair practise. This was 2 of 4

We tried a new route this weekend for our ride out.  A slightly longer ride of 10 miles, including a killer climb on the bridlepath adjacent to Mote Road.  Heavy overnight rain had made it very slippy and despite our best efforts no one made it to the top uninterrupted (well apart from me :-))

Go ride in the afternoon was well attended with 13 riders.  This was the last of our individual skills session for a while, we worked on points of contact (so lots of one handed stuff and some none handed for our older riders.)

Next week Saturday 19th October: Youth Ride, Road Bikes Only - contact me
Go Ride - Stocks Green School sign on 1.45pm - Group Riding Skills

Saturday 5th October - Cycling Nuts at Cyclopark

Hope, Ellen, Georgia, Toni, Luke, Polly and Sophie all arrived at Cyclopark ready for action.  For Georgia, Luke and Sophie it was there first proper race.  Nine clubs competed for prizes and points in a complicated system that managed to reward performance and sheer numbers of riders from each club. As ever all our riders performed well, no crashes, no tears, and a place on the podium for Hope in the U8's (1st place again).

Full results have yet to be published but a quick tally of riders and positions place Kent Velo Kids fifth out of the nine clubs competing - AMAZING, WELL DONE KVK. 

A real treat was in store after the youth races, a Cat 4 men's race and a Cat3/4 women's race.  Myself, Linda and Damian all took part, Bee was officiating.  It was amazing to be racing with the kids cheering us on for a change. We managed to almost match the kids, no crashes, no tears and one podium place for Linda (3rd), but we certainly didn't drink as many milkshakes as them.

Next Go-Ride: Stocks Green School 1.45pm 12th October

Ride Out: longer ride with shorter option, suitable for mountain bikes.
Long route leaves Hildenborough, Coldharbour Lane 9am, joining shorter route at 9.30am Mote Road, Hildenborough. Riding on bridal paths and quiet lanes, with one BIG climb. Stopping for jelly babies at Ightham Mote before returning.

Please contact me if you would like to join this ride or have any queries

Go ride 28th September 2013

Fourteen rides took part in our Go Ride session this afternoon.  We focussed on pace, riding slowly and stopping.  So you guessed it, lots of slow races and games of sardines and sumo.  We tried the Pace Eight activity but just couldn't quite get it together!!

Next week there is no Go Ride session as we will be at Cyclopark for John Leitch's Cycling Nuts day.

Next Go Ride session 12th October
Next Ride: Ride Out start point TBC.

Youth Ride 28th September 2013

Our regular youth riders welcomed some new faces this week. We hope they'll join us again.  Our regular Penshurst route up Col de Porc was awash with riders taking part in the Hever Triathlon.  Many thanks to the patient drivers around this morning.  We managed just over 15 miles, averaging 11 mph

KVK at the Tour of Britain

Hope and Ellen made it up to London to catch the Sunday racing of The Tour of Britain.  They even managed to get their names on the leader board.