Velo’s Jon Graciano took on the UCI Grand Fondo World Championships held in Trento in Northern Italy.

Over a distance of 90 miles Jon faced 4,000 metres of climbing including climbs of 20km, 18km and 4km. There were also a number of lumpy undulations between the climbs.

Jon described the ride as the toughest ride he had ever done, and remarked that whilst the climbing was tough the descents were awesome. Competing in the 50 – 54 mens age group Jon completed the distance in just under six hours, claiming 129th place in the event in which many failed to finish.

Well done Jon!

Velo’s Rob Kennison raced in the opening round of the East Kent Cyclo Cross Series, held at Sandwich Technology College.

Having spent the previous week working on the Tour of Britain, Rob admitted that he was lacking in race fitness, however despite being passed by a few riders on laps 2 and 3, Rob was able to pick off about 7 riders on the last couple of laps to finish mid field.

Elsewhere, Tom Knight raced the Exmouth Olympic Triathlon in Devon. A choppy swim made the first 400 metres tough going, however Tom finished in a time of 2:36:16, taking 16th out of 73 starters, and claiming fourth place in his age category.

After the race Tom remarked that he was “happy with that”.

Thank you to both sets of organisers, and well done both!

Well done to our member Dan Berkhauer who, along with his friend Jamie, undertook a ride from London to Newcastle upon Tyne to raise money for Great Ormond Street Hospital. The pair completed the unsupported ride of 312 miles in just under 23 hours.

Saturday 20th August saw the velo promote the Kent Cycle Racing League races at the cyclopark at Gravesend.

Led by Matt Nunn three races were staged, the 3/4 women’s race was won by Steph Wheatley (Full Gas racing) ahead of Harriet Kefford, and the 4th category men’s race was taken by Chris Parsons-Green (Southborough Wheelers) ahead of Ben Durbridge and Edward Howard.

Velo’s Matt Nunn competed in the 3rd category race staying in the main bunch for the majority of the race before dropping back to finish 18th out of 30 starters. This race was won by Keke Orth (Maldon and District) from Liam McLaughlin and James Hawkins.

Thanks to those from the club who helped: Matt Nunn, Rob Kennison, Phil Booth, Rodney Kennison, Nigel Wharton, Keith Johnson, and Cameron Carthew.

Velo’s Matt Nunn recorded a 3 minute improvement on his 25 mile personal best, ducking under the fabled hour mark for the first time in the KCA 25 held for the first time on the Q25/3 course on the A2070.

Starting early in the field of TT bikes Matt was first to finish and looked strong throughout. He took full advantage of the new configuration of the course including more of the fast flat roads between Hamstreet and the Brenzett roundabout.

Matt came home in an excellent time of 59:21, in an event won by Chris Fennell.

Earlier in the week Matt had also performed strongly in the Wigmore CC evening ten, finishing in 23:59.

Well done Matt on an excellent time!

Thank you to the organisers: KCA/Woolwich CC, and John Longbottom for the 25, and Wigmore CC for the 10.

Velo’s Matt Nunn maintained his reputation for being a strong multi sporter with a fourth place at the Oysterman triathlon held at Whitstable.

With the North Sea like a mill pond, Matt led the 500m sea swim and coming out of the water with one other headed out onto the bike course. The eventual winner went by strongly in the first half of the ride and Matt couldn’t hang on, so focused pulling away from those behind him in the less technical later half of the 20km bike course.

Coming into T2 in second place Matt knew he had a tough job keeping a couple of strong runners from catching him, which wasn’t helped when my shoe laces come undone early on! A quick stop to sort that and over the 5 kilometre run he was passed only twice which sadly just nudged him off the podium for fourth place. After the event Matt remarked that he was happy that he’d done everything he could.

Well done Matt.

Velo’s Rob Kennison travelled to the Oostvoorne Netherlands and took on a derny paced race as part of the a post Tour de France criterium.

Lining up against a number of former members of the professional peloton, including former yellow jersey wearer Erik Breukink (ex Panasonic and PDM), Martin Den Bakker (ex PDM, TVM, and Rabobank) and Bart Voskamp (ex TVM).

Racing behind a derny guarantees a fast pace and Rob’s race was run off in just over 46 minutes, and despite the strong field Rob finished midway through the field.

Well done Rob!

Two Medway Velo riders were in midweek time trial action.

Down in Devon Tom Knight raced in a field of 32 riders in Honiton, finishing in a time of 25:28, placing him 11th in the event, whilst closer to Medway Kieran Lawlor raced the Wigmore Club 10, claiming sixth place, recording a time of 25:40.

Well done both, and thank you to both clubs for putting on the events.

Despite not running any club time trials in 2022, six velo members repped the club colours at the annual inter club time trial with the Wigmore CC.

Following a run of several years of velo wins, the time was unable to beat a strong Wigmore team, with the combined times of the velo riders being 1:43:44 against 1:34:42 for the men from the Wigmore.

First off for the velo was the evergreen Charlie Bruce who recorded a time of 29:43. Fresh from his road race at the weekend, Mike Stanley was next up and was second fastest velo with a time of 25:36, with our other BMRC road racer Rob Kennison next to come home in 25:58.

Fastest velo of the night was Keiran Lawlor who came in just ahead of Mike, recording 25:34, whilst last velo off was Alex Cook who finished the course in 26:36.

The overall podium for the night was filled by Wigmore riders, Ryan Cottis claiming the win in 23:11, Keith Walker second in 23:19, and Phil Appleby taking third spot with a time of 23:47.

Thank you to our friends at the Wigmore for their organisation, and the velo send their congratulations for their team victory.

Betteshanger Country Park was the venue for the BMCR promotion for Masters riders. Sally Smith was the first Velo to line up in the E,F,G,H race which was contested over an hour plus 3 laps for the 2 mile circuit. As usual the wind blew across the circuit adding to the challenge or racing in a field predominantly made up of men on a day where temperatures passed the 30c mark. For 3/4 of the race Sal managed to hold a good position towards the front, but eventually the difficulty of responding to a flurry of attacks became too much and the field split. Not to be downhearted Sally dug in to keep on chasing with one of the men, eventually taking a fantastic 9th place overall and second woman.

In the A,B,C,D race, which took the same format, Velo was represented by a strong trio of Mike Stanley, Jonny Graciano and Rob Kennison. The first attack came straight off the line and the pattern of the race was established, attack after attack was thrown down but each and every time the peloton clawed their way back. Jonny was very active at the front whilst Rob patrolled the back of the group in the hope of a bunch sprint. Unfortunately Mike found the pace a little too hot and dropped back from the group. After 45 minutes of racing a moment’s inattention resulted in a nasty crash which nearly claimed Rob who used his cyclocross skills to ride right over a fallen rider’s back wheel. Everything looked set for Rob’s preferred sprint finish when with 3 laps to go Jonny  struck out for glory and miraculously began to draw away from the peloton, 5 seconds soon became 10 and still the bunch did not react. Unfortunately at 2 laps to go Jonny and the rest of  the chasing peloton were stopped by a red flag and the race was abandoned to allow the Air Ambulance to land and treat one of the fallen riders.

The Velo riders were philosophical about losing the likely win and the club and all involved wish the rider involved a speedy recovery.

Big thanks to Ollie McPherson and his band of helpers for putting on such a well organised event.

Rob had already had the opportunity to exercise his cyclocross skills on Friday evening at round 2 of the Beastway London Summer Cross Series at Herne Hill. Despite a strong start Rob punctured after two laps and withdrew from the race.