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

17th February 2018 - Col de Coldharbour - Ride & Full Report from Michele!

Hope you are having a great time. It was great to see Polly today! :)

Riders: Calvin, Polly, Malcolm, Jacks, Jimbo , Joshua, Ella, James, Ewan and me. Olly and Dylan didn't turn up.  Claire was home with Ellen who had been up sick all night.



What a smart-looking group of riders we had today.  Polly and Calvin zoomed off to ride the track twice while the rest of us formed a super-compact group of 8 (4 pairs) seamlessly moving between doubles and singles given the various obstacles of parked cars, walkers, dogs, horses and vehicles sharing the road with us.

Ella was a super ride-leader (by my side) managing her speed really well to keep everyone in a bunch. Joshua loves a challenge and really pushed himself to be first up the hills. Ewan demonstrated super group-riding skills keeping to the wheel in front of him and Jimbo mastered keeping a steady pace up the hills so there was no need to walk--even when it got really muddy!  Ah yes, the mud. While we might have had sun to rival Kary's in Spain, we doubt she had to spend the rest of the day cleaning her bike!

Saturday 10th February Go Ride at Stocks Green

Oliver demonstrated just how cold it was!

Oh my goodness, another chilly start to the weekend that looked set to jeopardise our Go Ride session.  Last weekend Michele was at pains to point out that it is never really cold enough not to go outside here compared to her native Minnesota so I was determined to prove that the KVK will always ride if we can. We don't want to put anyone off so ahead of the session I made sure that Soigneurs were aware of the likely conditions and were well prepared to support their young riders should they choose to take on the challenge of a very chilly morning at Go Ride.

Following on from our comprehensive risk assessment, Luke and Jacob coned off a safe channel across the playground to link sections of the perimeter path.  That gave us our basic circuit.  Riders could get moving as soon as they arrived.  By 9.45am we had ten hardy KVKs signed on, all riding their bikes and breathing hard in the cold air.



Our plan was to keep everyone moving as much as possible.  We stopped briefly to give riders some pointers on mounting/dismounting, followed by a really good practise session that saw everyone getting to grips with quick transitions from riding to running.

We also ran through some drills using different gears; the idea being that by the end of it riders had practised changing from gear to gear and would feel more confidence choosing and changing gears while riding.

We worked through our normal half-time break but stopped briefly before the end of the session for a quick biscuit.  We set up our final endurance circuit and challenged riders to ride hard for five minutes.  Perfect timing; just as they finished it started to rain.  Time to go home.  

Well done to everyone who rode and all our volunteers and parents for facilitating a hard session.  I hope everyone is curled at home with a mug of something warming and a good book (or something similar).

Damian chatting to the riders about mounting and dismounting

Cayden practising some speedy re-mounts

Charlie practising "hopping on"

They really did have fun (even though it doesn't look like it!)

Meanwhile in Minnesota..............

Saturday 3rd February & Sunday 4th February

We've done quite well this year with a couple of off site rides and an indoor session but the weather was against us today so I decided to cancel our first Go Ride session at Stocks Green :-(.

However, one of the many advantages of belonging to a Go Ride club is that our riders are invited to Club Clusters for a variety of disciplines at different venues.  Some of them took advantage of the opportunity to ride at Cyclopark and Lee Valley Velodrome this weekend.

Cyclopark Club Cluster

Ivo & Thomas setting off on the MTB trails

I headed up to Cyclopark where five of our hardiest riders took part in the Club Cluster session.  Chapeau to Ella, Thomas, Ivo, Hope and Eloise who flew the KVK flag despite the freezing conditions.

Ivo and Thomas opted for Cyclocross, which seemed to lead into some trail riding .....Hope, Eloise and Ella all chose road.  While the coaches put all the riders through their paces, I got the job of tidying up the sign on desk and drifting around waiting for stuff to happen.  Fortunately, other than some frozen fingers, not much bad stuff happened so I got to see what was happening and catch up with some parents.  It's always good to see young people whizzing about Cyclopark.

Ella joined the Beginners road session. She persevered despite very chilly fingers ;-)

Eloise and Hope with the Intermediate/Advanced Road Group

Second Club Cluster of the Weekend at Lee Valley

Hope and Eloise rode at Lee Valley on Sunday (much warmer indoors). Mathys took advantage of the opportunity to ride outside, I guess Christophe was running alongside!

Bedgebury Forest Ride Out - Saturday 27th January

There are lots of Go Ride clubs who don't run sessions in the dark days of January and February but there again perhaps they don't have such a committed and enthusiastic team of coaches and volunteers!  If there is any doubt about which session to run Michele's first suggestion is always Bedgebury!  So that is how I found myself scraping my windscreen and loading my van at 8.15am this morning.  The weather was on side though, the sun was shining and no rain forecast, a perfect day for a bike ride.

When I arrived, there were lots of cars but not many bikes in sight and not a single KVK jersey; then a few people started to emerge.........phew.  Most people had stories of disrupte/disorganised starts, but they'd made it, so time to get riding!

A few groups met up at Louisa Lake; a regular snack spot when we are Bedgebury

Posing for photos at the end of Cake Run

Michele is very pleased with her new pressure washer

Meanwhile James is using the on site Bike Wash

Malcolm & Juan headed off with Nico, Hope and Eloise.  This was the small, speedy group.  Next up, Michele and Claire headed off with some of our youngest riders and newcomers to Bedgebury.  Finally Jez and I set off with a mixed group including a few latecomers of varying age/size/speed.  Fortunately Andrew was amongst them and he has a good way of coping with whatever we throw at him!  After a slight re-group/shuffle about at the Radio Mast we were all well and truly underway.

Jez's group cracked on with the family trail and added a three sections of the Red Route to their ride; Genesis, Dad's Army and of course Cake Run.  Meanwhile Michele and Claire used the space available to drill their group in group riding, even managing some Thread The Needle Practise, all supplemented by numerous play stops!  Alfie, Daniel and William all conquered the hills, Hannah came out smiling from Cake Run, after not really thinking it was for her. 

Having fun on The Lurcher!

My group rode the family trail and made good progress with their hill climbing; Thomas took me up on my invitation to ride the Hill Climb TT section twice and rode confidently to the top of the following hilly section too.  We need to go back soon so everyone can have another go!  By the time we reached Cake Run, I was convinced that Fraser had a motor in his seat tube!

Jez and Malcolm's groups at Louisa Lake