Bedgebury Boars XC Racing Saturday 25th June

Today was our second time racing at Bedgebury.  I wasn't sure who was going to turn up today; it's a busy time of year and school fair season, so I was pleased to see a spattering of KVK shirts in the car park.

Charlotte, Betsy, Oliver and Franklin all raced in the U8's

Our team ending up being:

Albert, Betsy, Charlotte, Oliver, Kieran, Nico, Franklin, Polly & Calvin plus myself, Jez and Gareth. In the U8's Charlotte was 1st Girl and Betsy 3rd Girl. Oliver 6th, Franklin 11th. Albert came 4th riding up in the U10's, Nico came 10th and Keiran 16th in the U12's.  The Adult, Youth and U14's all race together with a staggered start.  Jez, Gareth and me joined Calvin & Polly on the full circuit.  Polly & Calvin both finished 5th in their age groups (Polly was 1st Girl). Jez was 11th, Gareth 8th and I sneaked a second place in the women's category.  Great fun and definitely worth a trip to Bedgebury.  Well done to all our riders for putting on a great show, we literally turned the forest turquoise!

Albert raced in the U10's

Full results here: http://www.boarsonbikes.co.uk/provisional-results-bfcc-mtb-races-25-june-2016/

Spring In The Park Round 7 - TT Night - Friday 24th July

There was great excitement and trepidation from the SIP team this evening as we embarked on our first ever time trial.  BC Luke was ably assisted by Clive (Team Darenth), Colin and Oli from Thanet RC.  Alan Newman took some great photos but I can't find one of Albert.

Riders were set off at 20 second intervals and timed over a set distance.  Time trialling is not something that we practise that often but everyone agreed it was good experience and we came out with good results.  Next week we are back to the normal race format.

Results from TT Night:
Albert 3rd
Hope 4th
Nico 17th
Calvin 11th
Toni 1st
Polly 2nd
Ellen 6th

Busy Weekend for the KVK

It's Friday afternoon and the calm before the storm (apologies for rather brief blog post of late I' ve got a bit behind).  So this evening is Round 7 of Spring in the Park and the first time that we've included a TT as part of the series.  Tomorrow some of us are heading over to Bedgebury, do join us if you can, meanwhile Toni and Hannah are off to Milton Keynes racing.  On Sunday our regular Youth Riders will be riding down to Dymchurch, the older riders will ride back too, that's a total of 103 miles.

My challenge is to update the blog so you can see what happens at all these great activities, watch this space..........................................

Today (Sunday) was an epic day, beautiful weather, great riding and no crashes or tears (not on the outside anyway).  Stuart took all the punctures for us, everyone else was puncture free all day. We were fuelled by Carrot cake (bars and cake), brownies, crispy cakes, bananas, cheese straws and cheese slices, not to mention the sandwiches, crisps and tea and coffee provided by The Varne Boat Club.  Well done to everyone who took part or supported our riders on this 105 mile/54 mile or 48 mile ride.

We got a warm welcome in Littlestone this year, a big improvement on the car park and dodgy toilets in Dymchurch

Sunday 19th June - Youth Ride - Loopy Loop

Damian and I tend to share the planning of our Sunday Youth Rides.  These are aimed at our older riders and adult volunteers and start at around 30 miles.  This week it was Damian's turn to plan, this is what he came up with:

Go Ride Saturday 18th June

Today we put together a big multi skills circuit on the playground and the riders went round and round and round and eventually we had to tell them to stop because it was home time.  Great to everyone having so much fun on their bikes.

Taking a break in the playground shelter after alot of bike riding.

After Go Ride our Youth Ride headed off.  Two new riders joined us this week; Dan and Kieran.  We headed up towards Weald where the older riders tackled Baileys Hill and we took in the Mur de Weald.  Congratulations to Keiran who made it to the top without stopping.

Next week we will be heading over to Bedgebury for some XC racing - see you there!

Go Ride Saturday 11th June

We practised track style riding today and finished with some Devil races.  Toni acted as the pacer, Polly helped Damian track centre.

Spring in the Park #5 - Friday 10th June

Tonight was a special night; Hannah let me take a photo of her :-)

Eastbourne Festival of Cycling - Sunday 5th June

Our riders came home from Eastbourne with big smiles, great sun tans and impressive results:  Calvin 14th, Hannah 6th, Ellen 5th, Hope, Toni & Polly 3rd.  Here's what happened:

The day dawned bright and sunny and we were off to the seaside!  Excitement mounted as we spotted other cars loaded with bikes that were heading the same way.  That is until we realised the Inglis's were in front of us.  Fortunately fate was on our side, a road closure ahead meant everyone had to turn around so we ended up in front.  We arrived on Eastbourne seafront to clear skies and amazingly a handy parking space. Once unloaded we headed towards King Alfred Lawns and 'pitched' our rollers.  Hannah, Toni, Polly, Ellen, Hope and Calvin were all racing along with plenty of SDWs including Jack and Marc.

Race preparation well under way

The first race to start was the U14's.  The nature of the course and the large field meant they'd organised a rolling start, or almost organised it.  As there was no sign of the planned motorbike, the commissaire Paul Tunnell jumped on a bike and led the riders around the course for a lap, then they were off!  The technical course suited Ellen and Polly who both handled the corners well.  They both rode well, making ground during the race and despite excellent riding both got stranded on their own with the leading bunch of boys hot on their heels by the last lap.

The U16's race followed directly afterwards, Hannah, Toni and Calvin made up our team for this race.  They'd located the motorbike this time so the riders were led around the course by a rather noisy (and smelly) bike which struggled to negotiate the corners.  They came through the start line and the race was well and truly on and straight into the first hairpin bend.  Calvin and Toni were well positioned and soon found themselves in group of eight or so riders racing confidently through the corners and making gains on the straights.  Hannah had missed the early acceleration and found herself in a smaller group working hard to make ground.  There was great excitement when the leading boys lost his wheel on our corner with one lap to go, went down with a bang but jumped straight back up and hopped back on his bikes, inciting enthusiastic cheering from the crowds.  An exciting race that ended with all riders safe and sound and pleased with their performance.

Megan (Woolwich) and Hannah on our corner

Our final racer was Hope; we'd started to realise that this was a good course for the KVK and given that I've seen Hope cornering on the playground with speed, skill and determination I figured this could be her moment.  With the race underway and all our supporters at the second hairpin we started giving Hope a few tips; attack, attack Hope. It took a few laps but she finally plucked up courage and passed Freja (TRC) on the hairpin and pulled away in the straight.  Soon she was just behind another female rider in pink kit.  Once again we shouted and once again Hope responded.  Everyone was very excited to see Hope making good progress through the race field and we kept shouting encouragement as she held her lead over the riders she'd passed.  We were pretty sure she was 3rd but we had to wait for the results to find out for sure.  In the mean time Michele was very excited about the Penny Farthing race................

Spot Hope

Calvin and Toni

First time on a penny farthing for Calvin

When those amazing bikes and riders had finally stopped racing (whoever would have thought they could ride for that long), we headed over to the lawns for the results.  Toni, Polly and Hope all had their positions confirmed as 3rd, everyone else had to wait.  Michele and Calvin were despatched to buy chips, everyone else headed down to the beach for a paddle or a swim (just me and Polly).  After the best chips ever (or maybe it was just because that water was SO cold) we headed back up to the lawn and Michele revealed a burning desire to ride a Penny Farthing; ten minutes later she was climbing up into the saddle and being helped along the promenade.  It transpires that your legs have to be long enough to reach the pedals, so for that particular bike Michele still has some growing to do but Calvin managed admirably - I wonder how Santa will squeeze a Penny Farthing down chimney this year???  A lovely way to end a day at the seaside seeing Calvin and Michele cycling high along the seafront.  Thanks everyone for contributing to such a memorable day.

Saturday 4th June - Penshurst Ride Out

We met at Tonbridge Park and split into three groups; big, medium and mini riders. Damian headed off with the 'Bigs', I followed on with the 'Mediums' and Michele and Claire left last with the 'Minis'.

The trail is quite overgrown in parts and I was glad of my long trousers! The wider sections provide a good opportunity for riding close to other riders and the few steep ascents are a good test of suitable gear selection.  I stopped with my group before we reached the concrete road and had a quick energy boost of Percy Pigs, before heading back via Hayesden play park.  The new play equipment was still protected by fencing so we will just have to go back to check it out again soon.

Great riding from everyone, see you next weekend at Go Ride.  Usual sign on time 9.15am for a 9.30am start.