Saturday 18th January 2014



Hannah - our Rider of the Week



We kicked of the year with one of our favourite Youth Ride routes, the Penshurst Loop, taking in the infamous Grove Road.  Our six young riders tackled the challenge head on, after some restorative jelly babies we enjoyed the descent towards Chiddingstone Causeway that gave us an amazing view of the flooded fields.  Ignoring the "Road Closed" sign near Weald we experienced first hand a mini flood across the road and there was much whooping and cheering and only moaning and groaning from the adults.  Well done to everyone who rode today, especially Tom and Ellen who were testing out new shoes and cleats and Hannah who was nominated rider of the week for tackling the climbs with confidence and speed.

An hour later we were meeting up again for our puncture repair workshop.  This was a chance to share ideas about the best way to deal with this thorny problem.  Everyone got stuck in and by the end of the session we'd all had a go at repairing a tube and taking a wheel and tyre off to replace a tube.  Just need to keep practising now.

Have you done it yet Mum?

Ashley brought his own thorn (in his tyre), Luke and Toni playing inner tube hoopla

 

Ellen getting to grips with the track pump

 
 

Intrepid Youth Riders who braved the floods

Last Session of 2013 - 30th December @ Cyclopark

2013 was a fab year for Kent Velo Kids.  What a pleasure to see over thirty riders from KVK, KVG and KVB at Cyclopark on 30th December for our family session.  With the whole circuit to play with everyone had a chance to stretch their legs, we threw in a game and a couple of racing opportunities.  Whilst some of us took advantage of half time refreshments, others recorded a lap time for the fastest lap competition.

Fastest Lap Results: Sophie M 5.20, Toni W 5.51, Polly B 6.00, Hope I 6.50, Jacob B 4.58, Fergus G 5.32, Olli 4.14, Malcolm I, 5.00, Hamish G 5.10, Robin C 5.12

Everyone loves a race really - start of the Devil Race

MTBer turned roadie (even wearing lycra!!)

Pre race briefing from Bee

Pimp My Bike Ride - Bringing the Spirit of Christmas to Hildenborough

Wow, what an amazing morning.  After 48 hours on checking weather forecasts and re-arranging the ride to try and coincide with a break in the rain cloud, it actually happened, it stopped raining and it was all systems go for the KVK pimp my bike Christmas Ride.

Saturday 14th December

Last Youth Ride of 2013
Well done to Toni, Calvin, Polly, Tom and Hannah who all braved a chilly morning for the last Youth Ride of the year.  We rolled out on our original 10 mile route, which feels like a breeze now for our regulars.  Damian was keen to throw in an extra challenge so Toni, Calvin and Polly made a small diversion to ride the first third of Carter's Hill.  No major problems there so I'm sure we will be adding the Col de Carters to our regular schedule.  Back in Hildenborough in good time we took the opportunity to test our riders judgment by going solo on a couple of tricky junctions.  I am happy to report that they all demonstrated a strong sense of self preservation.

Last Go Ride of 2013
In the afternoon we met up for our last Go Ride session.  The grass is way to muddy to use now but we constructed a giant circuit on the playground with ALL the cones that we own and worked on group riding skills. We finished off with a new variation on a bottle relay game, conclusion: good fun but could benefit from a few tweaks!

Next week: Pimp My Bike - meet at Tonbridge park 9.30am

Saturday 7th December

A small but select turn out for the Ride Out this morning; Ashley, Tom and Hope.  That's the trouble with the festive season, people get busy!  We had a great ride, back in under an hour and no punctures - good job as we didn't have Damian with us.  Pleased to report that all the fallen trees blocking the path through the woods have been cleared and the muddy field is still passable.

Later that day it was off to Cyclopark for Powerpack with John Leitch.  Ellen, Hope, Georgia and Shoshana were all spotted by Jacob (who was riding the trails with his friend). Thanks to Claire for the photos, looked like you all worked hard on your cornering!

Meanwhile, I attended a meeting about the planned Summer in Park racing series for 2014.  This is set to follow a similar format to last year; ten Fridays starting on 9th May 2014.

Next week: Youth Ride 9.30am - contact me to sign on
Go Ride at Stocks Green sign on 1.45pm

Racing Event at Stocks Green 23rd November 2013

We enjoyed a great afternoon of racing this weekend. Well done to all our riders, race reports to follow.  Some pictures to give you a flavour of the afternoon.

Saturday 30th November: no session today, enjoy a ride with your family or a day off :-)

Wildside Ladies Night 19/11/13

Ellen, Sophia, Toni, Polly & Hannah all attended the Wildside Ladies Night this week. They learnt about bike fitting, maintenance and cleaning, had a go a puncture repair and best of all tried out the fancy TACX trainer.  Pictures below, thanks to Wildside for a fun evening, I look forward to seeing our young riders put their new knowledge into practise!

No need to fix any punctures for these guys now Damian!

Or these two!

Toni was victorious on the velodrome

Hannah checking out this cost effective training tool :-)