Saturday 31st March - Bedgebury Forest Ride Out

It doesn't seem to matter how many times I go to Begdgebury, I'm still excited at the thought of riding my bike there with the KVK, today was no exception.  As far as I'm concerned there is no better way to start the school holidays than a morning in the forest and I know that Michele agrees with me!

Jez, Andrew and I all arrived around the same time and got ready to greet the riders.  It was great to have our very newest recruits coming along for their first Ride Out.  We were a little low on numbers, we put that down to the school holidays, and of course the changing demographic of the club, nothing stays the same for ever.  Anyway, we had an enthusiastic bunch of twelve young riders as we set off for the first ascent of the day Col de Radio Tour.  The initial climb produces a natural split in the riders and when we re-grouped we had two nice groups to work with.

Jez and Calvin headed off first with Oliver, Ivo and Leon.  Michele and I set off soon after with Charlie, Daniel, Alfie, Thomas, Bronnie, Alice, Dylan, Fin & Zach.  Michele immediately set to work, putting the riders through their paces with some disciplined group riding drills, that develop fitness and skills at the same time.

The start of the next hilly section starts after a sharp left bend.  Just to get some extra climbing in, I headed back down the climb and set the riders off in twos and threes to race back up to the top.

Hill Climb Pairs Challenge: Thomas and Fin

After some hard and determined riding, it was good to spot the lake and stop for a quick snack.  As soon as I got the chocolate eggs out, Jez and Calvin's group appeared before racing off again to tackle Cardiac.

A quick break at Louisa Lake, we did see Jez and co briefly.........

Taking a well earned break at the top of Cardiac, a brilliant climb by Leon, Ivo and Oliver

At the next dividing point on the Family Trail, Michele's group took the right hand path, which took us straight past the play equipment, The Butterfly and The Lurcher were both very popular.

Climbing is such a great activity for developing strength, confidence and co-ordination, it's also fun!

Kids and adults alike jumped on The Lurcher!

Everyone agreeing that they'd had fun, after our final ride through Cake Run

 As everyone started to disappear off to various other weekend activities, Jez and Calvin appeared with their group; all very pleased with themselves having completed the entire single track, in pretty good time too!  Thanks as ever to all the riders for giving their best effort and adults for driving, encouraging and making the effort to get everyone out of bed at the start of the holidays.  Next week we'll be back at Stocks Green for Go Ride.

Saturday 24th March - Go Ride at Stocks Green School

Finally! No adverse weather today and we could get on with some bike riding.  Twenty young riders signed on including a few new recruits, which is always good to see.

Calvin ran an off the bike warm up for us before we all gathered in for a quick welcome and introduction to the session.  With our trip to Bedgebury next week in mind, we had decided to work on some essential trail skills; riding out of the saddle, unweighting the front of the bike and avoiding obstacles.  Before the session we'd identified some natural hazards around the site and some additional props to expand our repertoire of planks and logs.

Calvin leading out the middle group

With plenty of coaches today, we were able to split into three groups: Michele, Gareth and I worked with the youngest riders, while Damian and Andrew were assigned the older riders and Jez and Calvin took the middle group.  All the riders worked really hard and even our youngest riders were all confidently riding out of their saddles and managing to get their front wheels a little way of the ground and even over some obstacles.  Walter fetched the much needed biscuit tin for Michele's group, however given the number of Custard Creams that were left I'm not sure the other groups got their biscuit break!

Zara avoids some of the local hazards

A quick bit of course re-setting and we soon had an interesting endurance course to work with.  We added in escape routes for some of the obstacles and it was good to see the riders making decisions about whether to ride over or around.  It's surprising how the addition of a few obstacles really sees the riders fatiguing much more quickly than on a simple course.  A couple of our youngest, bounciest riders were begging to stop before the end!

There was just time for a quick de-brief and a reminder about next week's trip to Bedgebury before it was time to sign out.  Well done to all our riders and thanks to our parents, coaches and volunteers for enabling a big group of kids to enjoy a morning of bike riding.

Nicolas was reluctant to ride out of his saddle!

Raring to go, we start the endurance block.

Through the trees

Over the planks and up the bank

It proved to be a tiring circuit

Saturday 10th March - KVK @ Herne Hill Velodrome

Raring to Go!

As ever it was a privilege to be back at Herne Hill and in the capable hands of coaches Tony, Josef and Roger.  I'm delighted to say that we filled our 22 places with half kids, half parents which is really what we are about at the KVK. With a few exceptions everyone was new to riding a fixed wheel bike but once we got the bikes sorted out, our experienced coaching team had everyone riding on the Cote d'Azur, starting and stopping at the fence.  As it was pretty mixed session we decided to run an "induction" style session; so running through the basics and giving everyone a chance to ride high and ride fast at the end.  

Once the riders had mastered stopping on the bottom fence it was time to attempt the top fence, this is a little more tricky and you've got to get up the banking and slow down enough to grasp the rail.  There were a couple of less successful attempts but on the whole everyone made a good job of it.

Starting and stopping on the bottom fence

Next up was adjusting the gap between you and rider in front.  Josef called out an animal ranging from rhinocerous to rabbit and riders had to make a gap of the same size.  It's all about letting the riders practise holding their position with their legs rather than their brakes.  Being KVK riders everyone listened carefully and put the tips and advice from the coaches to good use.  After a short break it was time to try riding the coloured lines; black, red, blue, ghost and fence, were all conquered.  As the riders' confidence progressed they got to try a few more drills; squaring the oval first and then half lap changes.  Their final challenge was Stacking.  By this time we were down to twenty one  riders, so we had three groups of seven.  Stacking requires the riders to ride along side each up up the track.  At a designated point the rider at the bottom of the stack drop back slightly and climbs up behind their stack, the rest of the riders shuffle down and repositioning rider becomes the highest rider.  This requires lots of skill, concentration and team work.  Everyone was brilliant!

Top fence mastered!

To finish off we split into two groups for a head to head English Pursuit.  The two teams line up on either side of the track and race each other, relay style.  This gives everyone the chance to ride one lap as fast as they possibly can.  Even though they won by a good margin the winning team didn't even gloat, I think that everyone was too exhausted.

Back at the containers we helped put the bikes back and shared some cake with Jago who was celebrating his birthday.  Herne Hill, bike riding, cake eating, let's face it life doesn't get much better than this!

Once again many thanks to the fabulous team at Herne Hill for making us so welcome and looking after us so well, looking forward to our return trip in September.

Holding a wheel

Stacking - 7 deep!

With the fab new stadium in the background

 OUR FAB YOUNG RIDERS: Zara, Daniel, Oliver, Jago, William, Ivo, Thomas, Alfie, Hannah, Charlie, Hope & Pip. OUR FAB MATURE RIDERS: Malcom, David, Heidi, Gavin, Andrew, Cathy, Gary, Richard, Nicola and Jez

More stacking