Go Ride & Youth Ride 21st May 2016

I'd planned a big cornering session for today, with the playing field dry and back in action we have more space and more options.  Damian and I set to work taping out a classic 'Y' circuit.  As riders started to arrive, YV's Toni and Calvin took charge of bottle pick on the infant playground.

Our off site group this week was Caitlin, Serena and Freddie.  They headed off with Damian to tackle Col de Coldharbour.

Back from a successful ascent of the Col de Coldharbour, Freddie, Caitlin and Serena

 
On site we set to work perfecting our U turns, before moving onto the grass to practise cornering on our mini circuit.  Riding on the grass even now it's dry and short is hard work and our younger riders tired quickly.  We headed over to sign on for a biscuit break and set up some expert racing to watch; Calvin and Luke pin end racing.  Inspired by this display the other riders were soon lining up to try their hand (or their legs) at these short, intense races.

To finish off we headed back over to the 'Y' and had a go at Australian Pursuit; an elimination race made more interesting by the addition of our tight turns.  Some exciting racing followed, culminating in a few tense laps with Kieran and Nico trying to catch and pass Izzy.  She held them off with a combination of skill and speed as you'd expect from such a tidy bike rider.  Great session, but no pictures..........aaaaaarghhh.


Seven riders joined the Youth Ride, splitting into two groups.

No Go Ride at Stocks Green until 11th June, but we will be getting together on the 4th June, details TBC.

Friday 20th May - Spring in the Park #3

Another Friday night at Cyclopark, another opportunity to be endlessly impressed by our young riders, those from other clubs and all the club volunteers and parents who make it happen.  The start/finish was relocated on the other side of the circuit this evening with the riders riding 'the wrong way'.  With Michele away locking Calvin in the Tower of London (???) Claire had to take on the baking mantel and seemed to do so effortlessly and with good results!  Hannah was racing for the first time after the girls crashed at Redbridge, good to have you back Hannah we've missed you.  Toni built on her previous races to take 1st place in the U16 Girls bagging some BC points and some valuable series points. Well done Toni.

Official Results: U8's Albert 3rd, U12's Hope 6th girl (23rd overall), Nico 25th, U14's Polly 4th girl (21st overall), Ellen 6th girl (26th overall), Toni 1st Girl (19th overall), Hannah 3rd girl (23rd overall

Albert considering just how he's going to come first next time, after his third third in a row!

Our U12 team shaping up nicely

Saturday 14th May - Go Ride Racing at Bedgebury

One of our aims is to give our young riders the opportunity to  experience riding their bikes in different places with different people, so this year we are trying a few Go Ride racing events at other clubs.  Go Ride racing is entry level competition and is ideal for anyone who wants to have a go.  No special equipment is necessary. We received a warm welcome from Bedgebury Boars at the first race in their summer series.  It was great to see our experienced racers being joined by new and younger members.  Pictures below, full results to follow.

Barney, Thomas and Oliver all raced in the U8's

Lottie raced in the U12's, captured here post race with Toni & Polly

Joel getting the chequered flag in the U12's

Calvin, Andrew (Thomas's Dad) Toni, Luke, Polly & Dan post race(s)

Calvin, Luke, Toni, Polly & Dan, in the start pen for the U14 & U16 races

Spring in the Park #2

This is the second race in this ten week series. Racing this week were Albert, Hope, Ellen, Polly, Toni & Calvin.  Hannah came along to cheer on her team mates and show us her road rash.

No pictures from me this week (anyone else?)

Sunday 8th May - Power Pack at Cyclopark and Lee Valley Velodrome

Power Pack
Great to see a good turnout from KVK at Power Pack.  Congratulations to Zara who gave one of the club bikes it's second run out this year.

Lee Valley Velodrome
Malcolm and I went up to Lee Valley with Ellen and Polly to take part in a last minute Velodrome session.  It was a good session, I made loads of progress in the novice group, while the girls impressed all the adults in the advanced group, the familiar phrase was "did you really say they were thirteen?".  Terry was happy too :-)

Saturday 7th May - Go Ride, Off Site Ride & Youth Ride

Go Ride
With the weather finally improving we sent our off-site ride out to tackle Col de Coldharbour this week, while the new and younger riders stayed on site and worked on lumps and bumps, particularly trying to ride out of their saddles.

A quick blast up Col de Coldharbour for Nico, Joel, Hope, Dan & Luke. Skilfully back marked by Calvin, led by Damian and assisted by Juan & Katy - great team work gang!

Potential new member??

By the end of the session everyone was zooming over the far hillock and swooping down through the limbo on the other side, so all in all we achieved our objectives!  We finished our session with the Tyre Maze challenge; riders have to get from one side of tyres to the other without putting a foot down.

The Col de Coldharbour riders returned promptly; no punctures, no tears, so all good there.

Youth Ride
We had another good turnout for Youth Ride, especially from the adults!  We split into two groups and rolled out for EASY PEASY and LESS EASY PEASY (the latter takes in Carters so it is well named)

Next Week: Bedgbury Off Site, no sessions at Stocks Green

Spring in the Park #1

Ok, so this is a special race series for us; it's our local one and it's where we started with Regional Racing.  I think it's fair to say that our riders have gained a reputation for being classy riders and excellent sports people at this event. This is where they learnt about being monumentally dropped but also experienced elation the first time they weren't!  Needless to say, there is always much laughter, good humour and Michele's baking which  is very welcome, especially if you've had a bad race.

Over the next nine races, riders gain points for places.  If they do well they may also pick up some BC points and the series ends with a Championship Night.  Pictures below give you a flavour of the evening, my race reports tend to be patchy as I despatch marshals on the evening so often miss the key moments - I'm hoping to improve on this but don't hold your breath!

Albert with Toni & Polly.  Albert got a taste for racing last year, he is currently the youngest member of the team with some regional podium positions under his belt already - Go Albert!

One to watch - Ellen has worked hard to recover from a broken wrist in the Autumn which interrupted her winter training.  An accomplished track and circuit rider, SIP #1 was a triumph for Ellen, her first bunch finish in a field of ten riders.

Calvin and Toni are both in there! Coping with the various demand of school and other interests can make training difficult for riders as they get older.  Calvin is famous for "getting away with it", this evening was no exception, he put on a good show in a strong field and finished just behind his SDW rivals Cameron and Marc

The U16 Girls got a separate start; Toni tuned in and got a great start and stayed with the group despite repeated attacked from Josie (Rider 12).  The final attack that split the group came with two laps to go. A great ride and some good lessons learnt for Toni this evening.

Young enough to still have a sense of fun, Hope posed for me for this photo.  Stuck in the cage after her race.  A good start to the season, Hope sussed out the competition and knows who her rivals are for next time.

Next Race Friday 13th May - Cyclopark Gravesend.

Saturday 30th April - Go Ride, Off Site Ride & Youth Ride

There was lots of going on today; some of our older riders headed off to Redbridge in Essex for a circuit race, meanwhile at Stocks Green we had a coached session running and a group of our youngest riders going off site for the first time.  To top it all the sun was shining, even if it was a little chilly.

Go Ride

Before we set off I tackled Franklin's Star War Quiz

Cycle-Ops in Tonbridge had offered to give us a small Frog road bike to be used by young riders in the club, they just wanted us to ride down to the shop to take delivery.  Each week we've been taking a different group of riders off site and this week it was the turn of our youngest riders.

Ready for their first off site ride

I'd chosen a simple route via Powder Mills into the back of Tonbridge Park, but this did mean negotiating a section of road before reaching the cycle path.  All our riders listened carefully and peddled smoothly with the result that we arrived together and at Cycle-Ops where we met Jake who presented us with the bike.

A quick pit stop at the swings to refuel with flapjack and jelly snakes (did you know it was Jacob B's birthday????) before we set off back to Stocks Green

At the swings before the return journey

On site Damian got to work, focussing on riding close and in contact with other riders.  A fun session as it includes some old favourites like Thread the Needle and Ride the Funnel.  Just in case they were finding this all too relaxing the middle of the session included an endurance block of continuous riding but the reward was finishing off with  the ever popular exercise Jail Break; a real test of co-operation and skill for the riders.  As usual they excelled and finished in time to greet the riders returning from Tonbridge.

Youth Ride
A good turn out for Youth Ride today with seven riders signing on.  Katy, Izzy and Sophia rode from Crockham Hill to start the ride so they already had ten miles in their legs.

We headed over to Plaxtol, with a choice of climbing Roughway or going straight up School Lane.  A pretty but challenging ride, tackled well by all our riders.

Both groups arrived back at base within a few minutes of each other, which made a great team photo opportunity.  Katy, Sophia and Izzy still had to ride home, making it Izzy's longest ever ride.

Next Week: Go Ride as normal at Stocks Green School 9.30am - 11am