Saturday 13th December - Chilly Youth Rides and BMX

Claire, Katy & Sarah headed out with Hope, Tom & Luke:
The ride yesterday morning went very smoothly. It was a lovely morning and no sign of ice on the roads. We made our way up to the bird watching spot without stopping and we managed to keep the cold at bay. We stopped for a quick drink and snack and tried to spot a few birds ourselves. Katy picked out a cormorant then Tom's Dad arrived to give us some expert guidance and pointed out a greater crested grebe. We didn't hang around for long though and soon turned to head back to keep warm. We sang a couple of verses of jingle bells on the way back and were at Stocks Green before we knew it. Lovely riding from Tom and Hope and they were brave in the face of the cold. There were no complaints although there were a couple of "Are we nearly there yet?


Damian and I were joined by Polly, Toni, Calvin & Hannah:
We had a pacey ride along The Causeway and turned up towards Bough Beech Reservoir.  We had to stop for kit adjustment and met Tom's Dad who'd had an unscheduled dismount at The Wheatsheaf on one of the dreaded lids.  We hadn't been going long before we had to stop again for a puncture.  The girls seemed to wake up at this point and started nibbling on cereal bars and singing.  However by the time we were sorted everyone was cold, cold, cold.  We made a dash for home.  Well done to everyone who rode on this very chilly morning.  Next time we'll add in Carters to keep you warm :-)


BMX at Cyclopark
We had a great turnout for our session at Cyclopark BMX with 13 riders taking part on a clear, cold afternoon.  Our coach Keith Chandler quickly got to work assessing our riders and before long they were all making good progress on the berms and bumps.  By the end of the session they were all riding from the top of the start ramp with some even taking the pro line in the second straight.  As usual Keith was impressed at the high standard of our riders and assessed most as suitable to take part in open sessions immediately and others just needing a couple more coached sessions to get them to the same level.  Thanks to everyone who took part, it was a very enjoyable afternoon.

Sunday 7th December - PowerPack at Cyclopark

Calvin, Toni, Polly, Ellen and Lauren all made it up to Power Pack on Sunday.  Well done to Lauren who was trying the session for the first time on one of the club bikes. The next Power Pack is January 4th 1pm - 3pm.   See you there!

Saturday 29th November

Youth Ride
Not everyone could make it today, which was a shame as it was a beautiful morning.  Damian, Sarah A, Luke, Toni and Tom A were all off to Lee Valley for a track session but we struggled on without them.  Nico and Hope headed off with Claire, Katy and Nicky, while Clare M and I were joined by Calvin and Hannah.  We tackled a version of the KVG Club 25 ride with a couple of extra hills thrown in at the end.  We took advantage of the small group to practise changing position in the group on the go and eating and drinking.  I'm sure Calvin can ride one handed so maybe he didn't have anything in his pocket??  We were greeted enthusiastically along the way by other cyclists out enjoying the sunshine.  When we got back, the short ride had finished and headed home, no punctures or incidents this week so very successful riding.  Calvin and Hannah rode 24 miles at an average speed of 14 mph.

Go Ride

It's getting towards that time when everyone who should be riding their bike is either at a school fayre or a Christmas party.  So, it was great to see ten riders at Go Ride this afternoon.  We focussed on essential Go Ride skills such as picking up and putting down objects and getting under really low limbo bars.  We finished off by tackling some of our favourite obstacles including the see-saws.  Our final activity was a team relay over a varied course which pulled together all the skills we'd been working on.

Well done to everyone who took part in our last Go Ride session of 2014

Next week 6th December: Youth Ride 9.30am.  No Go Ride as Stocks Green have their School Fayre.

Saturday 13th December: BMX at Cyclopark
Sunday 21st December: Pimp by Bike Christmas Ride - TBC

Congratulations Hannah!!

Hannah became the first member of the Kent Velo Kids to become an accredited track rider.  Hannah has succesfully completed four accreditation training and assessment sessions at Lee Valley Velodrome.  Hannah was initially attracted to the sport because of an interest in track cycling and she has worked extremely hard on all aspects of her riding, embracing everything we do including muddy mountain bike rides.

Saturday 22nd November - Youth Ride and Go Ride

Today we tackled the Week 2 routes with our Youth Riders.  The shorter ride was a slightly longer version of last week's ride (15km), the longer ride headed over towards the infamous Col de Mote and totalled 33km. More details from Damian:


The long ride set off from Stocks Green to tackle Col de Mote, with a warm up via Nizels Lane.  Calvin powered to the top with a late attack.  With Bee temporarily out of action with a puncture, but with a promise to met the group on the way back,  the group made the fast decent into and out of Plaxtol and down Puttenden Road  / Higham Lane before looping back up Ashes Lane.  With the group pushing hard a brief halt allowed Ellen to stave of an asthma attack before heading back up Puttenden Road and Claygate Lane (where Sophia made an unscheduled dismount).

With Bee back in the group, it was the run for home via Hildenborough Road and Riding Lane, where a further stop was necessary to allow Toni to compose herself following an further incident with a squirrel (already deceased).  Along the route we picked up Kary , Claire and Michelle, who had finished the short ride and so we all finished the ride together.  All in all quite an incident packed ride this week, but everyone back safe and sound.  Good ride: 20.6 miles at an average speed of 13.1 mph in old money or 33.2km at 21.1km/h.  Thank too to Bee and Hamish 

Go Ride
By the afternoon the heavy showers that had plagued us earlier had disappeared and it was positively barmy (the weather that is not just the coaches).  With a good turnout and range of ages we split the riders into two groups; our less experienced riders worked with Katy and Claire, while Damian and I attempted some more core mountain biking techniques with our older riders.  Everyone was already comfortable riding out of their saddle and adopting a good ready position so we moved onto unweighting or lifting the front wheel.  The key to getting to grips with this is our old friend 'weight shift'.  Riders had lots of opportunity to practise, first over the painted lines on the playground and then progressing onto small obstacles and finally pallets.