Introducing the Kinesis Morvélo Project, a joint venture between Sussex-based Kinesis and clothing company Morvélo.

The KMP is made up of 11 riders who cover a diverse range of age, nature, lifestyles and priorities and each one contributes their tales of cycling adventures and challenges, photos and videos to the KMP website on a weekly basis. In the first of a regular series of blog updates, KMP’s Oli Pepper gives us his account of criterium racing near Brighton:

“Road races don’t come around all that regularly for me. Despite the best intentions I seem to miss most of my local thrashes around the Sussex lanes but one series I always make time for are the Hove Park Crits put on superbly by Brighton Mitre. Crits appeal to me a lot. Short and fast, they condense the essence of road racing into just under an hour and you still have time for those Friday evening drinks afterwards. Riding and drinking with friends. What’s not to like?

“Hove Park is a cracker of a course with a lovely couple of sweeping corners, one rather lively 90 degree bend at the bottom of the hill and enough of a climb to make the legs hurt each time. They also attract a diverse range of riders and increasingly some very fast and handy riders to boot, in all categories. As such the racing is never complacent. Lining up for the 2/3 Cat race I questioned many things. Should I have gone quite so fast on an MTB ride this morning with fellow Kinesis Morvélo Project rider Frazer? Should I have had those two cans of ‘decorating lager’ during the afternoon’s refurbishment of the new Morvélo office? What the hell is that creak coming from my back wheel? Will the MuVi camera stay fixed to my seatpost?

All this faded as the race sprung into life within the first four laps as Will Kemp (Onelife) and Euan Adams (Red Kite) lit the torch paper with a massive attack creating a five man breakaway. There was a large contingent of Dulwich Paragon and Brighton Mitre riders all driving the pace, so I was happy (if I could use such a word to describe breathing out of my backside) in the main pack. As usual the 90 degree corner is where much of the action happened with everyone diving into it and sprinting out like it was The British Touring Car Series. If you’re near the back then you can kiss goodbye to entering this corner with any speed whatsoever although you can say hello to a thigh burning sprint to keep hold of the wheel in front as you exit.

I love this corner as I feel that my MTB and cyclocross skills give me loads of confidence to lay off the brakes and lean right in, granting me a nice little gap each time on the exit. So, taking to the front, I barreled into the corner thinking “Pay attention boys, this is how it’s supposed to be done.” Now, I feel it’s important to point out that there is a traffic cone on the apex of the corner covering a drain, and it was this that I unceremoniously “punched” as I completely cocked up my line, swinging in far to early, not only resulting in the cone flying into the air but the impact spitting me off over the grass to monster truck my way out. So, lesson learned and a tad embarrassed I retreated to the middle of the pack once more. “As you were, lads.”

The Dulwich and Mitre guys brought back the break and lap after lap there were attacks up the climb stringing out the field, whilst the super strong Adams powered away for an awesome solo ride and eventual victory. The tempo never eased off, even on the descent, which almost made me feel like I could have been riding fixed with the amount of non-stop pedaling I was doing! One by one riders were shelled out the back until, half way through the race, I chanced a glance back and realised I was the last man in the remnants of the bunch. It was like looking over a cliff edge realising there was nothing to save me from the drop. Such was the quality of the riding though, that despite me being almost last wheel into the 90 degree bend each time, none of the riders where dropping wheels so the train kept on its high speed course. Exciting, exhilarating and I was nicely surprised to see myself still in there and recovering and climbing well.

Just as I was thinking we were all locked into a never ending circuit of sprints (I dare not look at my watch) the bell sounded and the mad dash for ‘The Bend’ began. Everyone jostling for position like it was a 4X race. Needless to say after my earlier cone incident I was hustled off the wheel of the rider in front and tip-toed around at the back of the remaining bunch. Opening my sprint a touch early (well I had to catch the wheel of the rider in front after ‘The Bend’) I raced past 8 or so riders up the climb and gaining on the ninth. This was looking good! However many riders hadn’t even started their sprint yet, so when they leapt I had no response and hung on as a couple of riders fought their way past me. Finishing 9th out of 22 and in the final bunch I was happy with my efforts. I know my limits in these races, especially in the company of fast 2nd Cat riders, but no matter what the final position, I always finish with a smile. Well, after the grimace has eased away that is.

Thanks to www.kinesismorvelo.com for the blog. More at twitter.com/kinesis_morvelo and http://bit.ly/kinesis_morvelo