Saturday 12th November Go Ride at Stocks Green

Kary was away for the weekend and the weather was duly miserable; not so the small bunch of hardy riders who turned up to our Go-Ride session, including new rider Ivo, who were all raring to go. 







The session continued our focus on cyclocross skills and there was much dismounting and mounting, pushing bikes up the mound and hopping back on, before working on our cornering with the well-established favourite, the post office queue. We finished off with some games of sardines (and Hope did not win all of them).  





As always, it is amazing to see just how much progress riders can make in a single session; really well done to all on some great riding.  Now we just need some more mud for the authentic cyclocross experience

Saturday 5th November Club Cluster Go Ride at Cyclopark

This weekend we were invited to take part in a Go Ride Club Cluster session at Cyclopark, organised by resident BC coach Jimmy McCormack and ably assisted by club coaches from Woolwich CC.  After a slightly hectic start we headed down to the bottom oval via the mountain bike trails before splitting into smaller groups to work on an essential cyclocross skill; mounting and dismounting.  Following on from that Jimmy gave the riders a sneak preview of some sections of the Regional Cyclocross course that has started to take shape at the park.  This also involved dodging riders from Club Cyclopark who were busy with their road session.  Great to see so many young people enjoying riding their bikes, even though it was extremely cold!

Towards the end of the session riders split into groups again and tackled some different sections of gradient, the older riders paid a visit to the Cyclopark equivalent of Big Bob at Herne Hill, maybe Towering Tina??  The session finished with a two team relay race, before we regrouped as the KVK and refuelled on jam doughnuts, kindly sourced by Michele.  Thanks to all the coaches and riders who made the session possible.  Next Club Club Go Ride session at Cyclopark will be Saturday 3rd December.  It should have a choice of MTB or Road sessions.

John Leitch's Power Pack 30th October 2016

Two opportunities to ride the tarmac in one weekend, someone is really spoiling us!  A great turnout from KVK today; Eloise, Hope, Mathys, Joshua and Albert all enjoyed the session at Cyclopark with John Leitch and Stephen Peate from Bigfoot CC.  Eloise is riding one of our club road bikes, don't forget I have a couple to borrow if you'd like to have a go.  The next Power Pack session is November 20th 2016 10am - 12 noon

Eloise, Hope, Mathys & Joshua

KVK line out, waiting to attack?

Eloise & Hope making contact

Claire's trusty chair in action :-)

Saturday 29th October Kent Velo Kids at Cyclopark

Hand on shoulder with added facial expressions

Club Cyclopark is the host club at Cyclopark, Gravesend.  They run their own Go Ride sessions most weekends but there is also a section of the circuit (the small oval and the hairpin) which is available for other local clubs to book.  It's a good opportunity for all clubs to take advantage of this amazing facility which sadly many people still don't know about.  We'd booked the circuit today and the aim was to work on some group riding skills with some cornering and racing thrown in for good measure.  Coach Damian took the lead as I'd managed to get myself double booked.   The first half of the session kicked off with some riding in pairs, progressing to fours and sixes.  Riders then had to 'thread the needle', which means moving from the back of the group through the middle to the front.  This requires good smooth riding from everyone, concentration and the all important communication.  After that we moved onto a few rounds of the game Jail Break; one rider is imprisoned by four other riders, the aim being to prevent the prisoner from escaping by riding close and preventing any gaps developing.  This all took place at fairly low speed so also required some good slow riding skills.  Before the break we moved onto some speedier stuff with a few laps to loosen the legs before splitting into two and going head to head in a classic Italian pursuit race.

Lee Valley Youth Track League #1

Today saw all four of our Kent Velo RT riders racing together which was a very impressive sight!

Ellen and Polly joined Toni and Hannah at the Lee Valley Velodrome for the first on ten track league races over the winter.  Hannah and Toni are old hands, having competed last year but this was the first time for Polly & Ellen.  

Fantastic racing from all our riders with good results - available here https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_RrU0MnitCcdm1zMzluNThqclk/view

Just a few pictures, you really have to be there to get the buzz!!

Polly (92), Ellen (102), Toni (113) & Coach Damian

Hannah (101), Josie (VCL)

The race programme

Saturday 15th October - Bedgebury Forest Ride Out

We all headed up to the water tower to start our rides. Three groups; Big, Medium, Mini.

Minis headed off with Michele and Andrew; Thomas, Charlotte, Dylan & Ewan

Mediums came with Me and Katy; Joel, Eloise, Hope, Nico, Oliver.  We ended up doing the whole red trail

Dan, Polly, Calvin and Luke tackled the red trail with Anna, we met up with them at the end of Cake Run

And there was real cake because it was Luke's birthday! We all sang to him and ate cake ;-)

Joel found a perfect post ride recovery spot to enjoy his cake.

Saturday 8th October & Sunday 9th October

So here's the thing, I woke up, I felt exhausted and it was forecast to rain (heavily), just another Saturday morning then! As usual things just got better, and better............

Go-Ride - I'd planned to do the giant Y cornering session.  We split the riders into two groups and headed our separate ways.  Damian started on the course proper and the riders were soon taking the pin end turns at speed and in small groups.  I seemed to have a fairly boisterous group of riders so nothing for it but to tire them out on the grass too.  Toni and Ellen attempted to be human cones on a simple two pin end course, that did however prove quite challenging for the riders.  We progressed towards an Australian Pursuit style race.  Some super impressive riding combining skill and endurance.  Rider of the week definitely went to Thomas for steadfastly resisting being overtaken!  It never did rain and Damian told me he'd been really impressed with his group; we know from experience that the skill involved in these tight turns will stand the riders in good stead in the future if they get into racing.

Moving swiftly on to Youth Ride.  Damian & Sarah headed out with Toni and Calvin, on a longer hillier ride, meanwhile Dan, Nico, Luke, Hope, Polly headed out with myself and Ruth.  We re-ran (rode?) the route we've called Whale, hopefully one day these guys will be able to navigate themselves.  No accidents or incidents, possibly slightly less moaning about hills but definitely not less talking! Luke sat on the front with me at the end and we blasted back along the causeway, great to see the young riders really coming into their own.



Sunday 9th October - London League Cyclocross at Happy Valley

Polly, Toni & Damian have all raced the LondonXLeague

Some of our older riders (some of them much older ;-)) have been checking out the cyclocross scene this year by competing in the London League http://www.londonxleague.co.uk/ .  Toni and Polly are half way through and Damian has just launched his cycle racing career last week at Sumner Ponds.  Cyclocross racing is a winter thing, courses are mainly on grass/trails with man made obstacles such as hurdles thrown in.  You can take part on a mountain bike, cyclocross bikes themselves look like road bikes but have nobbly tyres (Isla/Frog bikes can be made into cross bikes just by switching the tyres). The bunch quickly gets strung out so it's easy to get lost in the race.  These races have a great atmosphere, and it's common to see parents and kids competing on the same day.  We'll have a chance to practise some cyclocross terrain and techniques at the Go Ride Cluster session at Cyclopark on 5th November and then put them into practise at the Regional Champs to be held at Cyclopark on Sunday December 4th http://www.londonxleague.co.uk/2016/08/south-east-east-championship-20162017-sun-4th-dec/