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 29^th 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.

From Ernie Mackey: It’s with much regret to report the passing of a former club member. Arthur Heath, who did a lot of marshalling and was a recorder at time trials, passed away this morning.

All at Medway Velo pass on their condolences to Arthur’s family.

We had two members in action at the weekend and both returned some impressive results.

First up was Matt Nunn, and it’s fair to say Matt’s clubmates have very much enjoyed seeing him go from strength to strength this season. He has had a handful of promising road results hinting of some brilliance to come and this weekend it all came together at the SERRL two-day stage race held at Cyclopark.

Matt finish 11th in the opening time trial on the first day and good positioning in stage two, a crit race, resulted in him finishing 6th.

The following day he raced a team time trial with two randomly selected riders and they placed strongly leaving Matt eyeing up a potential top 10 finish on general classification.

The final race was a 12 lap crit and here he claimed 7th. This earned him 7th place overall on GC.

The points totted up means Matt has achieved his 3rd category racing licence – congratulations!

Though his clubmates are all thrilled for him they were sad to hear that fellow Velo Nathan Delaney took a tumble in the TT stage and required hospital treatment. All his friends wish him a speedy recovery.

Also racing on Saturday was Rob Kennison in the Herne Hill Vets Track League.

A win in the Kierin and Scratch mean that he is now 2nd overall in the league. His work commitments on the Tour of Britain means he won’t be able to make the final event but there is hope he may have done enough to take a podium spot come the last round.

It is rumored his clubmate Steve Smith will be racing this final round and plans to mop up all the points in an evil plan hatched up in jest! (Kidding not kidding?)

A big thank you to all of the race organisers and photo credit to Graham Lingham.

Well done Matt Nunn who took 10th place and well fought BC points at the Cyclopark on Thursday. Despite deluge and grim conditions he stayed near enough to the front to contest the sprint and sneak a top 10!

Club time trial held on 4^th August 2021 on Q10/20

Position	Rider	Club	Time
1	Antony Bee	Wigmore CC	23:11
2	Matt Nunn	Medway Velo	24:03
3	Phil Appleby	Wigmore CC	24:41
4	Alex Cook	Medway Velo	24:44
5	Cameron Carthew	Wigmore CC	25:17
6	Julien Barton	Wigmore CC	25:51
	Jamie Harris	Wigmore CC	25:51
8	Steve Harman	Wigmore CC	26:31
9	Kate Savage	Wigmore CC	26:47
10	Dave Bishop	Wigmore CC	27:23
11	Steve Bishop	Wigmore CC	28:51

MVC Points Standings after 4 events

1	Matt Nunn	20
2	Alex Cook	16
3	Rob Kennison	11
4	Mike Stanley	8
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

Thank you Thanet RC for your excellent promotion today. Well done to our riders Steve Smith, Rob Kennison and Matt Nunn who all put in strong performances. Great to see Steve well and truly back in the game with Rob nipping at his heels. Matt was back on it despite smashing his parkrun PB the previous day and can now pound out a foot flapping 5km in 20mins! Go team!