Stories
The Hatching of a Fledgling Cyclist by Helene
Helene is a mainstay of our cycling club, usually winning the annual awards for both the most miles and the most elevation. In 2021 she cycled nearly 9,000 miles with elevation the equivalent of 22 Everests. She often smashes her own miles goal just through her joy of...
A Passion for Cyclocross by Liz
I joined KVG March 2015 as I'd entered The Three Peaks Cyclocross Challenge, which was taking place 6 months later. I hadn't been on a bike for 30 years! I needed to spend time on a bike, get bike fit and acquire some handling skills for the race. My dad had been...
The One Day Tour 2021 by Janet
Most years, Kent Velo Girls have a special day out in summer called the One Day Tour (ODT) where we travel somewhere completely different for a long ride. In 2021 the ODT was back after a few years off and involved a ferry trip...
Hell of The Ashdown 2022 by Candy
Positivity is definitely contagious and everything seems more manageable if you know you will have the support and company of others! As a member of KVG we have access to the Club’s closed Facebook group, where we post routes for our rides. On many occasions, the...
A Bike Ride, a Sauna and a Sea Swim by Suzie
January isn’t a month which easily gives itself to cycling adventures, with its short daylight hours and the weather generally being either grey and wet or freezing cold. This is a time when many of us stick to indoor training, with any outdoor rides being short and...
Chase the Sun 2021 by Suzie
The first event I attended after I joined the Kent Velo Girls in 2018 was a ‘Goal Setting Evening’, at which Clare Midgley (one of KVG’s founders) talked about Chase the Sun, a self supported ride across the UK in the daylight hours of a single day, leaving at sunrise...
My First 50 Miles by Ellen
My 50 mile course I decided that I had to stop kerfuffling around the easy rides some time previously and I promised myself (talked myself into it) that if I completed the 50 mile course I would have to go up to the intermediate rides finally! The first thing I did...
Chase the Sun 2017
June 17, 2017 the longest weekend day of the year. Sunrise 4:39am Sunset 9:32pm, coast to coast, 206 miles. This year there were over 300 riders who had 16 hours and 53minutes to ride the distance before the sun goes down, an average of 14 mph....
London Revolution; 187 miles in 2 days.
It was a very early start, on a lack lustre day in May that I rolled up in east London with a few good friends. The plan?, to cycle around the circumference of London over 2 days. Bags deposited, clothing for the day donned, bacon sarnie scoffed and we were off. The...
Albi, UCI Gran Fondo World Masters Road Race Championship 2017
Here's a first hand account from Janice (70+), who we proudly saw take part in the UCI Gran Fondo World Masters Road Race Championship in August 2017. I recently competed in the UCI Gran Fondo World Masters Road Race Championship, held in Albi France, which is in the...
Alp D’Huez
Having been thinking about joining KVG for a long time I finally joined in July ahead of my trip to the Alpes to cycle Alpe D'Huez - my 2016 challenge! Nothing like leaving it to the last minute - 2 weeks before our holiday I switched pedals and fell off practicing in...
Club Des Cingles Challenge.
Hamish has been wanting to make a pilgrimage to the Giant of Provence for some time. We decided to spend a couple of days there in September. We had been told of the beautiful Tour de Ventoux, a ride around the base of the mountain and we wanted also to climb the...
Linda rides the Amateur World Championships.
UCI World Cycling Tour Final 2015 Road Race On 6th September 2015 I was on the start line in Aalborg, Denmark representing GB, about to do my first women’s road race. Luckily the torrential rain from the day before had moved on and it was a bright, sunny day albeit...