Saturday 25th November - Big Day at PORC & Kingdom

Today the London League were coming to Penshurst for Round 10 of the Cyclocross League.  In a bid to try and accomodate as many of our riders as possible I'd made several suggestions including riding over there, racing or coming along to spectate and check out the beautiful Kingdom clubhouse.  

For me the morning started with an early morning meet up with Damian and a chilly ride to Hayesden Country Park where we met up with Calvin (bang on 8.30am), shortly afterwards Malcolm and Hope showed up, Hope definitely looked shocked not to still be in bed. We were just wondering if Hannah was going to make it when she came around the corner with her Dad.  We'd somehow missed them waiting in the car park.  Anyway we set off on the 8 mile ride to Kingdom, it was beautiful, but very cold.  Damian kept remarking he'd meant to bring his camera.  As the youngest member of the group, Hannah was struggling with the cold and when we made it to Penshurst Place, we decided to ask Rog to divert via the cafe and execute a rescue for Hannah.  I gave the others directions and we parted company while Hannah and I warmed up at the Porcupine Pantry.  Our rescue vehicle arrived shortly afterwards and Hannah was soon on her way to Kingdom for a large cup of hot chocolate and to meet up with her Mum and brother Nicholas.  Meanwhile I high tailed it the rest of the way on my own and arrived to find Malcolm attaching bikes to the roof of their car; at least they'd made it safely.

Ride to Penshurst: Hannah, Hope, Calvin, Damian, Malcolm and me. Lars and Leon decided the start was too early!

We couldn't find Betsy!

Onto the racing.  Even when you know the normal organisation of these things a new venue can be quite confusing (or maybe it was just the eventful morning I'd had), but I eventually spotted several KVK jerseys and knew I was in the right place.  Albert, Ivo, Oliver, Betsy and William were all racing up, down and round; Jez remarked it was a good course for spectators, I was feeling dizzy.  It was a good show from our team though, with everyone finishing in one piece with smiles on their faces and some excellent results.  Congratulations to William on his first race for KVK, Oliver for fighting back after an early unscheduled dismount. Ivo finished strongly and looked pleased with his performance.  Albert managed to hold onto second place finishing 34 seconds behind the leader and beating his regular rival Theo from SDW.  Betsy rode skilfully as ever and finished 8th in the U10 Girls.

Next up was Ellen in the U16 Girls.  The course was tough, not so much from a technical point of view more the fact that it was either up or down and the few bits were sticky mud.  Ellen was our only Youth rider today, she did well in the conditions and finished ahead of the field in first place, riding the last section with a puncture.

It was great to see lots of familiar faces, cheering our rides on and generally enjoying watching the race and the atmosphere of the place.  Apologies if you were there and I missed you!

KVK race team and supporters: Ellen, Hope, Oliver, Albert, Betsy, William, Ivo, Jim Joshua, Daniel, James and Ewan, Polly, Emily, Dominic & Leon

Results: https://www.londonxleagueresults.co.uk/RaceDB/Hub/CompetitionResults/18/

U10 Boys: Albert 2nd, Ivo 6th, Oliver 7th, William 15th
U10 Girls: Betsy 8th
U16 Girls: Ellen 1st
Vet 40 Men: Gareth 24th - out of 67 starters, consistently good racing :-)
Vet 40 Women: Kary 8th - out of 9 starters, not my finest moment :-)

A few shots of our riders in the U10's, they just don't really show how hard it was!

Oliver chasing back

Betsy making the most of the big wheels!

William racing for the first time as a KVK

Albert racing hard to hold onto his lead from Theo

Great race for Ivo

Oliver tackling the steep bank.

Saturday November 18th Go Ride & Youth Ride

Go Ride - Today we focused on some of the most basic bike skills that can easily get overlooked; stopping, riding in a straight line and avoiding obstacles.

As riders arrived the YV's set up several games of Sardines, which always go down well.  Meanwhile the coaches organised three groups to work on skills independently.  It's good to get the opportunity to work with smaller groups of riders and reminds me of the old days when we really were a very small club :-).  My group took a break and I headed over to see Michele's riders who were practising partner slalom, wow these guys are impressive!


Before the endurance block we had a quick break and then put together an interesting circuit that included riding over the lump at the far end of the site, behind the trees near the road, under the limbo bar, taking sweeping turns across the playground then tackling a tight slalom to return to the start.  Calvin and Luke set up a lap counting station and we set the riders off at short intervals.  For many of the riders this is their favourite part of the session where they get to ride fast and today we'd added some extra skills sections to challenge them.  Finally, it was time to wrap up; Luke took charge of "The Scores on the Doors" before it was time to sign out and head home.  Great riding from everyone, thanks to all our parents, volunteers and coaches for making these sessions happen.

Youth Ride
We tackled 'Whale' today; just under 18 miles long with 788 feet of climbing.  A small but select group, Mathys, Ellen, Eloise, Christophe and myself.  Ellen had already ridden 30 miles when she joined us. To be fair, it was pretty mucky out there and whilst I enjoyed my ride I was glad to get home and get cleaned up! #bringbacksummer #mudonyourface

Sunday 12th November - London League Cyclocross Round 8 - Leeds Castle

A great turnout today for this notoriously tough venue.  The views of the castle and surrounding countryside are stunning, but the site catches a chilly breeze, the outfield is  lumpy and that's before you've got to the sloppy mud and the brutal hill they call "The Wall".  By the time I arrived our U10 team were warming up and getting themselves prepared, shortly after the Youth A's and B's arrived all raring to go.

First off were Albert, Ivo and Betsy in the U10's.  They got off to a cracking start and rode well.  Albert battled it out with the leaders to finally take 4th place (although I notice the first two were tied, so maybe 3rd?), Ivo managed a classic KVK manoeuvre by being lapped by the winner a couple of metres before the finish to take 9th place and Betsy came 10th after an unscheduled dismount on her last lap.  

Hope, Ellen and Polly now all start in the same race, although Hope is a Youth B and Polly and Ellen are Youth A's.  The older riders race the full course, so after leaving the start there is a section in the park land which looks innocuous but is pretty bumpy which makes it amazingly hard going.  Before dropping down the valley, there is a smooth fast section that takes you into the off camber turns which require a combination of skill and confidence to negotiate at a decent speed.  A couple of short climbs follow, the last of which didn't seem to be rideable.  Next up is the "moat", recreated by a couple of large hurdles, either side of a stream (AKA mud bath).  Once this has been negotiated there is a short but slippy climb up to the base of "the wall".  This requires riders to shoulder the bike and climb the virtually sheer face.  Once at the top all you need to do is hop back on, ride a bit further to cross the finish line, then do it all again!

Our riders were brilliant and took 1st, 2nd 3rd across the two age groups.  Hope didn't manage to beat Polly and Ellen this week, think she might have shaken them up a bit last time ;-).  What skilfull and plucky riders they are,  which is what I kept telling myself when it was my turn to race.

It was a brilliant day for our riders, and thanks of course to London League and Dulwich Paragon for hosting Round 8.

Saturday 11th November 2017 - Go Ride & Youth Ride

We are definitely into the time of year when it's sometimes easier to turn off the alarm clock and snuggle back under the duvet on Saturday morning, but this just isn't an option when you are a hard core KVKer!  The forecast was dire, but we were lucky and got away with threatening drizzle and not too much wind.  Unsurprisingly this was our lowest turnout for a while, with fourteen enthusiastic and hardy riders signing on.  On the plus side I'd bought three packets of custard creams based on recent high numbers so it was 2nds and 3rds all round.

Our main focus this week was cornering.  Jez and Michele headed up two groups who both worked on cornering skills.  Starting with a Tight Turn Challenge and moving onto basic Slaloms which then turned into Post Office Queues.  After the break we joined our two skills circuits together with the permiter path to make a full circuit with lots of cornering skills involved.


Every winter session feels like a bonus and this was no exeption.  Loads of great riding from our wonderfully keen members and lots of tired young people at the start of the weekend.  We even managed to co-ordinate the end of the session with the sounding of the canon from Tonbridge to mark Remembrance Day.

Once our younger riders had headed off, our Youth Riders gathered for our road ride.  This week we were following another one of our favourite routes call Nice & Simple.  It heads away from Hildenborough on Riding Lane and then turns up School Lane to Plaxtol and keeps climbing to the top of Riverhill.  From there it's mostly down hill (apart from the flats and ups Calvin;-)) via Hubbards Hill and Philpots Lane.  A little further than week at 16.9 miles which we rode in an hour and quarter.  The roads were mucky so plenty of bike cleaning and laundry for the rest of the weekend!

See you next week, November 18th for Go Ride & Youth Ride again.

Saturday 4th November - Go Ride Club Cluster at Cyclopark, Gravesend

Today was a proper Cyclopark day, it was very very wet.  On the plus side is wasn't really windy and it was relatively mild ;-)  We had a great turnout from the KVK.  In fact I think we had the most riders of any one club there.  Luke came along too, clocking up hours as a Young Volunteer, Jez and Andrew were on hand to help with coaching and I was assigned the job of general factotum, which involved a few trips up and down to the Clubhouse, rescuing a few riders from unscheduled dismounts on the slippery banks and generally shouting encouragement.

Lucy, Charlie, Daniel, Ivo, Hannah, Joshua, Thomas, Oliver and Alfie all opted for Cyclocross with Jimmy & Jez

Meanwhile, Hope and Eloise opted for Road coached by Alan from Southborough Wheelers.  William also opted for Road and joined the younger riders on the top oval with Terry.  Unfortunately I didn't make it up to Circuit E, but Terry confirmed that William had ridden brilliantly and seemed to enjoy himself.

The Cyclocrossers worked really hard, riding on the sections of the course on the inside oval, only a couple had to give in to the weather and to be fair it would have tested the toughest riders out there.

Jimmy finished the session with some starts practise, straight into a pin end turn and back again.  Ivo impressed everyone with his cornering!

This was a really tough session, so well done to eveyone who took part, I really hope you enjoyed an afternoon on the sofa!

It was even too wet for a water fight! Riders got the chance to hose off their bikes at the end of the session