Solo – TT bikes

Pos	Rider	Club	Time	Points
1	Matt Nunn	MVC	24:19	4
2	Cameron Carthew	Wigmore CC	25:49

Solo – Road Bikes

Pos	Rider	Club	Time	Points
1	Kieran Lawlor	MVC	25:40	3
2	Fraser Blandford	MVC	28:59	2
3	Rachel Hartridge	MVC	29:14	1

Club series standings after 2 events

Overall

1	Jon Graciano	6
2	Keiran Lawlor	8
3	Fraser Blandford	6
4	Matt Nunn	4
5	Nigel Wharton	3
6	Simon Tucker	2
7	Charlie Bruce	1
8	Rachel Hartridge	1

Road bikes

1	Jon Graciano	6
2	Keiran Lawlor	8
3	Fraser Blandford	6
4	Nigel Wharton	3
5	Simon Tucker	2
6	Rachel Hartridge	1

TT bikes

1	Matt Nunn	4
2	Charlie Bruce	1

Another busy weekend of competitive action for the velo saw them promote the first of their two open time trials of the season.

Taking place on the flat course on the Isle of Grain, and without the usual strong winds, 40 riders were on the start sheet with separate categories for road bikes and time trial bikes in line with the new CTT guidelines. Nick Fennell (Thanet RC) took the overall victory in a time of 20:24, coming home 30 seconds ahead of Sam Thienel (Elysium Kalas RT) with third place Alex Pearson (Woolwich CC) claiming the final spot on the podium with 21:55. The evergreen Charlie Bruce represented the velo and came home in under 30 minutes for the first time this season with a time of 29:59.

The women’s race saw young gun Emily Tanner (Woolwich CC) take the win on her road bike in a time of 27:09, local rider Debbie Percival (Kent Velo Girls / boys) taking second just 11 seconds behind Tanner. Velo’s Sally Smith, also on her road bike took third woman in 28:15 with another Woolwich rider Rianna Mahoney on fourth.

The Thanet RC claimed their second victor with Paul Burrows taking the win in the road bike category in a time of 22:10, which was also enough to take fifth place overall, whilst the fastest tandem was Anthony Whale (Gravesend CC) and Jeremy Parker (Blue Light CC).

Well done to all those who rode, and organiser Matt Nunn would also like to thank the following volunteers from the velo who marshalled and helped at the event: Rachel Hartridge, David Mackey, Rob Kennison, Rodney Kennison, Phil Booth, Michael Stanley and Kieran Lawlor.

On Sunday road racer Jon Graciano competed in the Ken Wright Memorial Circuit Race organise by the BMCR held in Colchester. Whilst Jon says he is still working on his fitness he still had a good race, taking to the front with two laps to go, and finishing just inside the top 15.

Well done Jon, and thanks to all the organisers at VC Revolution and helpers.

Friday 12th May saw the unveiling of a plaque remembering velo founding member Vic Williams who sadly passed away in 2022.

Some of his friends, family and club mates gathered at Bethersden village with representation from the KCA and CTT as well as the velo a reminder of the great number of roles he filled and organisations he served in a lifetime dedicated to cycling.

Thank you to club Vice President Geoff Wiles for organising, and for bringing along the first velo jersey to be produced, as well as a Medway Road Club jersey.

RIP Vic.

A message from club Vice President, Geoff Wiles

Friday 12th of May will be the unveiling of the plaque on a seat at Bethersden village hall (TN26 3AF) to commemorate the life and service of Vic Williams. Vic, or Rivets as he was also known, was always prepared to give his time to the Medway Road Club, the Medway Velo Club and Kent cycling to ensure the enjoyment for us all. I propose gathering at 11:30am, unveiling the plaque by Wendy at 12:00 noon.

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.