Saturday 28th April Off Site Ride - Col de Coldharbour

Saturday morning dawned (after a busy evening at Cyclopark, more on that later..) and even afforded me a short lie in as I'd got my stuff ready the night before.  We had a few our of our newer riders coming along today, so I was determined to get to the park first.  A good try on my part but Lars and Leon beat me to it!

Fifteen youngsters signed on with a good selection of adults to keep them company.  We split into three groups, with Jez and Gary heading off with Joshua, Jago, Oliver, Leon and Hope.  Michele and Claire got their group together; Hannah, Bronnie, Alice, Emily and Alfie while Andrew and I headed off with Ivo, Daniel, Fin, Dylan and Thomas.

Mine and Michele's group taking a quick break before the home leg

Jez's group couldn't help going a bit further........ending up at Ightham Mote!

The first part of the ride requires good, controlled group riding; we are on the lane which is quiet but definitely not traffic free, there are quite a few of us and the road surface is variable.  Thanks to some excellent riding from the kids everybody made it up the lane, without incident, despite a new and particularly nasty section of potholes on the approach to Pooh Sticks Bridge.  I stopped briefly at The White House with my group before heading off onto the track and the final challenge of the last section of Col de Coldharbour.  Now that the barn isn't empty and available for playing we rode on with a promise of a refuelling stop after the bumpy field.  The bluebells where divine as we headed down to Chocolate Box Cottage and with the group slightly strung out I continued on along the driveway, added a quick turn turn challenge before retracing our wheels (mostly through the puddles I noticed) back to the start of the woods.  Andrew went on ahead to open the gate and check out conditions in the Bumpy Field.  Despite a serious mud quire after the gate everyone stayed upright and there were several squeals of delight as everyone cleared the gate and whizzed across the field.  We stopped at our usual spot (after a head to head sprint between the gates) for a jelly sweet, Michele's group appeared  headed up by Alice.

A perfect example of group riding from Michele's group

Jez's group at the bottom of the steep field

Fuelled by jelly sweets everyone attacked the final gradual climb back up to the lane.  Daniel was at pains to tell me that he knows this climb well as it's on his way to KVK.  Back at the lane, it was time to flick the control switch back on; my group demonstrated some good controlled descending.  We were first back at the park (and therefore first on the pump track) closely followed by Michele and then Jez.  Great riding from everybody, look forward to seeing you all again at Go Ride next week.

Still riding like pros!

Saturday 28th at Cyclopark

Hildenborough is home for the KVK but some of them get around the region and can often be spotted out on the roads and paths or at other cycling destinations; once of those is Cyclopark in Gravesend. I had to go up to Cyclopark to resolve some Friday night technical issues.  So it was lovely to see some KVKs!  Fraser, Ewan , Ethan, Jacob, Ella and Zara were all at the park for the Medway Velo Duathlon.  Great Work Kids! 

Saturday 21st April 2018 - Go Ride at Stocks Green

When I drove past the school and saw that the field had been mown, I took it as a good omen for this weekend's weather; I wasn't disappointed.

As expected the sunshine brought out lots of bike riders, including five new starters.  As any keen bike rider will tell you, the first dose of sun on your knees marks the beginning of what you've been waiting for all year!

Warming up on the infant playground

Getting ready to sprint........

Whilst everyone was arriving, Michele and Luke set up a saddle push practise zone; a great skill to have, especially if you like triathlon.  Once everyone was signed on, we headed over to the field the check out riding conditions.  The ground has really firmed up this week, with short grass too, we had another area available to use.  We kicked off with some straight line sprinting in heats, with a held start to challenge the riders (and some of the helpers).

Then we split into two groups and worked on cornering skills; tight turns, straight line slaloms and carving turns.  I was interested to see that my group found the tight turn challenge particularly difficult; definitely more practise needed, especially with slow riding.  My riders were impressed when they looked over and saw some Jez's riders making the tight turn, one handed, you can't say they don't have anything to aspire to!  We moved onto slalom and carving turns.  Some extra speed makes riding much easier and lends itself better to working on pedal position, the pin end turn still requires a big turn of the head to take the bike and rider round in a small arc.  After lots of practise it was time for a quick break while we putting the final touches to our endurance circuit.

This week we opted to reverse the circuit and included a post office queue, some carving turns and the willow shelter, the dismount section gave everyone a chance to put their saddle push skills into action.  It was a hot day for a fifteen minute endurance block but everyone made it and pushed hard to the end.

I'm relieved to say that by the end of the session everyone agreed they were top bike riders!

Next week we'll be off site, riding the Col de Coldharbour.

and they're off...............

Saturday 7th April - Go Ride at Stocks Green

This week thirteen youngsters signed on to take part in Go Ride.  With the weather improving we can finally focus on skills other than just trying to prevent our riders from freezing to death!

Our chosen distraction activity for this week was Cone Heads; Michele, Calvin and Luke got started, loading a cone on each rider's helmet, the challenge is to ride without letting it fall to the ground, this takes a good, still upper body (a grippy helmet helps as well).

Next up, we got going with Thread the Needle, good, controlled riding from everyone, especially those who'd practised at Bedgebury last week too.  

Once everyone had had a go at threading, we split into two groups and worked on some slow riding techniques.  Using body position, brakes and part pedalling to really slow everything down.  The younger riders had a few games of sardines to practise;  Alfie was unbeaten in my group!

We moved onto our endurance block; this week we'd added a slalom section, a slow section and a sprint section.  The coaches reported excellent riding in all three areas.  Despite the sprint section being followed by a tight bend including a tree and a fence, everyone stayed upright, proving that they had their sprints under control and had full use of their brakes.  The re-fuelling break was particularly appreciated after all that exertion.

Lap board and bell in action!

To finish off we split into three teams and ran a couple of relays.  The Slow Relay, where the penalty for putting a foot down was to ride as fast as you could to the end (fortunately the kids didn't twig the possibilities here), followed by The Egg & Spoon Race, a KVK special which produced the usual range of skilled riding and expert cheating.  All done in good humour, it's fair to say none of the eggs survived in tact.

Anna, Ewan, Fin, Leon, Alfie, Hannah, Fraser, Bronnie, Lucy, Isaac, William, Alice, Ivo

Thanks to coaches, parents, volunteers and riders for contributing to another great morning of bike riding.

Next weekend Saturday 14th April we are racing at Bedgebury.