Matt Nunn opened his road racing season at the GFTL Kent League Circuit Race at the Gravesend cyclopark.
Racing with other third category riders in blustery conditions Matt finished a creditable 26th, leading his bunch home.
Matt’s main season goal is an ironman triathlon but we will watch his other races with interest.
Fourteen Velo riders met to ride routes of 100km or 100 miles in memory of Neil Ord who died earlier in the year.
Tackling the hills along the North Downs all of the participants were raising money for the Motor Neurone Disease Association.
Thank you to all those who donated.
A wet and windy Ardingly Showground greeted three mighty Medway Velo riders as they closed the cyclocross season at the London League CX Team Champs.
On Sunday 13 February Rob Kennison, Michael Stanley and Sally Smith teamed up to showcase the red, white and green at the fun event.
Hosted by Crawley Wheelers the 50 min lap race involved a staggered start with strongest rider taking grid one, next grid 2 and so on with each wave starting 45secs apart.
Rob started in the first grid and got off to a flyer as the rain lashed down. He finished lap 1 in the top ten but a series of spills in the sand school resulted in him take 26th overall.
Michael took grid 2 starting strong and improving throughout. A few offs in the sand saw him drop a few places but he finished with a smile on his face in 102nd.
Sally was 3rd and final rider off for the team and had a good tussle with a few riders. Despite a few slips and scoots she managed to stay upright to finish a few places behind Michael in 107th (8th lady & 2nd Vet lady).
Overall a fun event enjoyed by all. Thanks to Crawley Wheelers.
Rob Kennison rode the HSBC British Cycling National Cyclocross Championships at the South of England Showground in Sussex on Saturday 8 January.
The course was very muddy with some difficult cambered sections and a huge wall of a run up.
Rob started 82nd on the grid but made a good start and managed to slide his way past others through the mud, and ride a little further than some “had to run” sections.
He managed to complete the whole 4 lap, 13km race without incident and managed a satisfying 21st place in his age category.
Afterwards Rob said: “I have never ridden such a challenging course in such difficult conditions, the mud was both slippery and sticky at the same time! Big thanks to Matt Nunn who was my pit man keeping my bikes clean and offering invaluable vocal advice.”
It’s fair to say as a club we are pretty proud of our chair Rob Kennison who took on the UCI World masters cyclocross on Friday. His unlucky habit for starting at the back of the grid continued but despite that he rode an epic race. His report is below.
On Friday I rode the UCI World Masters Championship at Trinity Park in Ipswich in the 55-59 category. A full field of 70 riders took the line for the 40 minute, 5 lap race. Gridding was drawn at random and I was very disappointed to be drawn at 62 in the 10th row, close to the back. My only strategy was to give everything from the start and hope to find space to move up on the 200m tarmac start straight. With rain all morning the flat course was slippery and it was a struggle to judge just how fast you could take the corners as many riders found to their cost. I managed to find gaps from the start and in spite of a few sketchy moments I kept things rubber side down as I moved up to the front half of the race. Having moved up well I was hoping to hold my position, but on such a wide track there were lots of opportunities for my rivals to overtake as I paid for my early efforts I faded to a final finish position of 44th.I thoroughly enjoyed every second of the race and was incredibly proud to pull on my Medway Velo skinsuit and represent the club on the world stage. Next week I have the National Trophy at Cyclopark on Saturday and the Clanfield Cross in Hampshire on Sunday.
It has been an action packed week for the riders of the Medway Velo.
First up for the team was Matt Nunn who did a fantastic job of repping the red, white and green at the Full Gas track league held at Lee Valley Velodrome on Thursday evening.
A brave breakaway in the reverse win out saw the rider claim important league points with 3rd place. He was also up there in the elimination race where he took 6th. A strong ride in the points race saw him placed 9th.
Three very good rides, well done Matt.
With his shoulder on the mend from a crash in the London Leage CX last week it was Rob Kennison up next for the team where he decided to play with the big boys at the cyclocross National Trophy held in Falkirk on Saturday.
Despite starting near the back of the field and being faced with a rather daunting tough and, in parts, scary course he rode well finishing in 55th out of a field of over 100.
Last up it was Sally Smith who raced the Fast and Furious Duathlon held at Cyclopark on Sunday.
The course consisted of a 5.5km run, 20km bike and a final 3km run. She finished in 1hr 20mins placing 3rd lady.
On Sunday Rob Kennison raced the King’s Cup British Masters Gravel Champs in the 55-59 category.
The race consisted of three laps of 22km.
Rob made a strong start taking the lead briefly and riding in front group for first half lap when, due to pressure from the 50-54 riders who started with the 55+, the group split and he couldn’t close gap.
Rob settled into a good chasing group of about a dozen but as distance went on it reduced to just 4, they were all 50-54s.
Rob caught a few riders on final lap and was very pleased to take 5th considering it was such a long race and his preparation at ToB wasn’t ideal. Rob said he very much enjoyed it and will be back next time.
Well done Rob!
Club Hill Climb held on 29th August 2021 on QHC/11
| Position | Rider | Club | Time |
| 1 | Dan Pink | GS Avanti | 3:34.5 |
| 2 | Mike Stanley | Medway Velo | 4:31.0 |
| 3 | Roger Hutchings | East Grinstead CC | 4:51.6 |
| 4 | Rob Kennison | Medway Velo | 4:52.4 |
| 5 | Matt Nunn | Medway Velo | 5:04.9 |
MVC Points Standings after 5 events
| 1 | Matt Nunn | 21 |
| 2 | Alex Cook | 16 |
| 3 | Rob Kennison | 13 |
| 4 | Mike Stanley | 11 |
| 5 | Steve Smith | 7 |
| 6 | Rob Sapp | 5 |
| 7 | Andy Hawes | 5 |
| 8 | Daniel Berkhauer | 3 |
| 9 | Lee Kingston | 3 |
| 10 | Tom Kennison | 2 |
| 11 | Nigel Wharton | 1 |
| 12 | George Fisher | 1 |
Some of our members have been adding swimming and running to their activities by taking on some fun and tough triathlon events this week.
First up was Keith Johnson who raced at Dorney Lake, Eton in the sprint event on Friday. He completed the event in 1hr 20min 27secs placing 29th out of 170 racers. Later that day he did the run leg of a team sprint tri which clocked 1hr 18mins 48 secs.
On Saturday Michael Stanley joined his Swale Tri friend Jason Dighton for the South Coast Triathlon. It was a standard distance 1500m swim, 25mike bike and 10km run.
Michael ‘Specs’ Stanley just about managed to make out the bouys on the swim and though he took a few whacks in the mass start he made it onto the bike leg, a 12 lap seafront course. With that done he was trotting splendidly on the run to clock a 10km – a pb of 48mins. Official full results are TBC but from his watch Michael clocked 2hrs 34mins.
Onto Sunday and Sally Smith headed for the Hythe Bay Super Sprint Tri run by Ashford Tri.
This is a fun event with a 250m swim, 16km bike and 5km run. The swim was over quickly and then it was onto a rather wet and windy bike which went smoothly. Next was a seafront run which turned into a good headwind for the final 2.5km for a final sting in the tail. Sally hoped to beat the hour which she did finishing in 59mins 30secs taking 3rd place in the womens event.
Onto the proper cycling and it was Matt Nunn repping the velo at Cyclopark on Thursday in the evening crit. Another good ride by Matt saw this newly crowned 3rd cat finish 12th.
Medway Velo Cycling Club 