The long bank holiday weekend got underway with the first velo evening 10 of the year.

Ten riders gathered across three categories, with velo’s Jon Graciano taking the overall win on his road bike in a time of 24:37, over a minute clear o the next riders, the Dartford RC pair of Euan Tuohy and Jack Wade who were the only entrants in the two up category. Other velo riders taking part were Keiran Lawlor (26:13), Fraser Blandford (27:16), Nigel Wharton (28:27), Simon Tucker (29:55) and Charlie Bruce (30:34). Two riders from Wigmore CC filled up the remaining places with Cameron Carthew (26:30) on his road bike and Dave Wastell the fastest rider on a TT bike (26:20).

Jon Graciano also repped the velo colours in the Pilgrims Hospice sportive on Sunday.

Elsewhere Matt Nunn was the sole velo in the Wigmore CC Bill Philbrook memorial 25 on Sunday, however his race came to an unfortunate end due to a puncture, although he was on for a good time having covered the first 10 miles in just under 23 minutes.

Club event standings after 1 race

Overall

1	Jon Graciano	6
2	Keiran Lawlor	5
3	Fraser Blandford	4
4	Nigel Wharton	3
5	Simon Tucker	2
6	Charlie Bruce	1

Road bikes

1	Jon Graciano	6
2	Keiran Lawlor	5
3	Fraser Blandford	4
4	Nigel Wharton	3
5	Simon Tucker	2

TT bikes

1

Charlie Bruce

1

Medway Velo Club

Club 10

Friday 28^th April 2023

2up – road bikes

Pos	Rider	Club	Time
1	Ewan Tuohy & Jack Wade	Dartford RC	25:46

Solo – TT bikes

Pos	Rider	Club	Time
1	Dave Wastall	Wigmore CC	26:20
2	Charlie Bruce	Medway Velo	30:34

Solo – Road Bikes

Pos	Rider	Club	Time
1	Jon Graciano	Medway Velo	24:37
2	Keiran Lawlor	Medway Velo	26:13
3	Cameron Carthew	Wigmore CC	26:30
4	Fraser Blandford	Medway Velo	27:16
5	Nigel Wharton	Medway Velo	28:27
6	Simon Tucker	Medway Velo	29:55

Timekeeper: Phil Booth

Marshals: Rodney Kennison, Rob Kennison, Steve Smith, Safiya Smith, Lottie Smith

Velo’s Rob Kennison travelled north to the Kielder Forest to take part in the Dirty Reiver gravel event.

Riding 200km over gravel is no walk in the park, and throw in some poor weather Rob described the event has having taken 20 years off his life! Completing the event in just over 9 hours, Rob also suffered two punctures and ended up putting tubes into his tubeless tyres.

Elsewhere, Sally Smith appeared to have lost her bike and went for a run around London, completing the marathon in 4 hours 11 minutes.

Well done both!

Two velos were in action over the weekend.

Mike Stanley continued his time trial season racing the KCA event on the Romney Marsh. Originally planned as a 25 mile event the distance had to be reduced to 10 miles following bridge works on the route.

Faced with a pancake flat course Mike came home in 25:26 in a race won by Nic Fennell (Thanet RC).

Jon Graciano travelled to the Redbridge circuit in east London to race in the Rapha CC April Crit, racing in the CD categories race the event was run off at 25 mph meaning Jon covered 28 miles in the hour and eight minutes of racing, including one breakaway from his group, however due a racing incident he didn’t record a final result.

Thank you to the KCA and BMCR and all their volunteers for organising these events.

Three velo riders travelled across the channel to ride the Paris Roubaix challenge, this year taking in 145km and 19 sectors of fearsome cobbles.

Debutante Matt Nunn completed the event in five and a half hours, whilst Steve Smith and Phil Booth came in either side of six hours.

The older hands from the velo described the conditions as worst than they had seen before due to the heavy rain in the preceding weeks, Mons en Pevele being particularly nasty, causing riders to pick careful lines through mud more suited to cyclo cross.

Well done all three.

Velo’s Sean Farley returned to his Zion, the Flemish Hills of the Tour of Flanders sportive, to tackle the 75km ride taking in some of climbs immortalised in the ride.

Sean, who has battled knee problems for a number of years completed climbs such as the Kwaremont and Paterberg on his ride starting and finishing in Oudenaarde.

Well done Sean.

4 velo riders travelled across the Medway to the Isle of Grain to race in the opening Kent time trial, a 10 mile event organised by fellow velo member Dave Mackey.

Faced with a stiff wind two riders opted for road bikes, with the other two dusting off their time trial bikes.

First to the start line was evergreen Charlie Bruce, riding his first open event for a few years, and returned a time of 32:10. Next up was Sally Smith, who sadly punctured, however she demonstrated the velo spirit of not giving up and fixed her puncture before finishing the event, her official time of 44:18 including her pit stop.

Strong TT rider Matt Nunn also went for a road bike set up, but this did not hold him back too much as he came home in 25:41, whilst strong TT rider Mike Stanley recorded a time of 27:32.

Overall winner was James Jenkins who came in two minutes ahead of the next fastest rider with a time of 20:10.

Well done to all those who rode and thanks to Dave Mackey and the VTTA for organising the event.

Four velos travelled to Brands Hatch to take on the Kentish Killer sportive, which takes in a number of challenging hills around West Kent, and into the Ashdown Forest.

The 70 miles began with a lap of the Brands Hatch circuit before heading out onto the open roads. First back for the velo was Rob Kennison is a time o 4:17:49, with Jon Graciano next home in 4:40:29. Rachel Hartridge finished in 5:08:51, and Andy Hawes completed the distance in an official time of 5:25:49.

Well done all.

Velo riders Rob Kennison and Rachel Hartridge travelled to Westerham to take on the Hell of the Ashdown sportive, an 100km event which takes in a number of tough climbs well known to the cyclists to West Kent, including Kidds Hill, Groombridge Hill and Ide Hill, with total altitude gain of 1,800 metres.

Rob completed the event in just under 4 hours, with Rachel taking just over 4 and half hours to cover the distance.

Well done both!

Velo’s Matt Nunn put on another show of strength at the Lea Valley Tack League, including grabbing a win in the block pursuit.

After claiming 9th in the opening scratch race, he took 4th place in the win out before leading his team across the line in the block pursuit. The final race of the evening, the elimination race saw Matt claim 7th place to round off an evening of top ten performances.

Well done Matt!