Club notes.

By peter@webme.ie | March 16, 2015

The weather this weekend was the best we’ve had it in a long time and there were no excuses for not getting out on the bikes, well Mothers day being an exception of course. On Saturday morning there were six of our racing group out on the training spin. This week they decided to take on this years updated Visit Nenagh Classic A4 route. They tested their legs with some interval work and everyone very much enjoyed the sunny morning.

On Sunday morning the weather Gods were once again on our sides with delightful sunshine making sure everyone’s spirits were high. We had 19 riders out which is super to see and fair play to those who turned up in their greenery for the St Patrick’s day themed spin. Mr Caulfied we just loved the green hair, it suited you down to the ground 🙂

This week we had a nice route with a good mix of terrain with some good flat sections that you could get a good pace going, some nice drags to test the legs, some lovely countryside and of course great company. This weeks route was Nenagh, Borrisokane, Cloughjordan, Moneygall and back to Nenagh 57km. Setting off just after 9am the group headed out towards Borrisokane, on the way they had a good steady pace going with the group working well together. Once they hit Ardcroney the group split and the senior group went on their way, meanwhile the leisure/intermediate group followed on and even though there was a tough headwind the group stayed in a nice tight tidy bunch working well to shade the group. They turned right in Borrisokane and continued on to Cloughjordan while continuing to keep the pace steady all the way out to Moneygall. The senior group in the meantime did a extra loop where they went on from Cloughjordan heading towards Barna, Dunkerrin and back to Moyneygall where the groups joined up again for a well earned coffee break at the Obama plaza which went down a treat with everyone and gave us a chance to have a nice chat and even time for a quick photograph.

On the way home some of the leisure group were feeling energetic and turned left after Toomevara and headed out to Balinamona cross and came back in the Thurles road to Nenagh while the rest of the groups kept to the planned route. Overall it was a very enjoyable morning out and left everyone looking forward to next weeks planned university spin. Well done everyone for taking part and keep up the good work.

Meanwhile in the racing end of things we had representation from club member David Kyle who took part in his first A3 race in Blarney today after being promoted from A4 after his form of late. Here is Davids race report.

“A3 Race distance was 82.9km, two laps of a +40km course. The weather was fine, dry and overcast – good conditions for racing although chilly at 4-5 degrees Celsius, making gear choice tricky to get right. The course was much more vertical than last week’s virtually flat course in Caherconlish, with the first 20km of the lap always rising on average but not in the form of a steady climb, instead made up of a seemingly endless series of very short, leg-sapping drags and hills with similarly short downhills or flats in between. It was a strange feeling lining up at the start beside father and son amateur cycling celebrities, Martin and Michael O’Loughlin, and I knew at that point that we were in for a tough couple of hours racing.

It was no surprise, then, as Michael and a couple of other juniors jumped off the front as soon as the commissaire dropped the flag for racing to start after the 1km neutralised zone.

The rising but undulating nature of the first half of each lap meant the climbs weren’t long enough for the climbers to drop the sprinters to any great extent and they were often short enough for the powerful sprinters to put the climbers under pressure on the short, punchy sections. I stayed near the front as much as possible, following jumps when necessary, hoping to have a relatively clear road in front of me for the long descent back into Blarney. The descent was tight and twisty in several parts with some scary turns. It was even more twisty once it flattened out at the bottom and, like last week, it was difficult to stay near the front as people took risks coming up blindly on the wrong side of the road.

The second lap was much like the first on the way up to the top again, although there was a lot more aggressive attacking on the steep sections each time, but it always came back together each time the road levelled off or dipped before the next uphill dig. I got over the top at the front of the main bunch again in a good position for the descent. However, once again when it flattened off I found myself moving backwards at times as people moved up on the outside.

The pace rose steadily inside the last 10km as the jostling for position began for the bunch finish for the remaining 5 places. I managed to avoid 3 crashes in front of me in those last 10km, one just narrowly, but it was proving impossible to find a way through to the front on the winding road, having let my good position slip inside 7km.

I finished comfortably in the 2nd group on the road, with the 2 or 3 juniors having been out of sight for the day. Overall I was happy to finish around the top 25 in my first A3 race and satisfied with the training benefit from a hard day’s racing and with many new lessons learned for the next race.”

Very well done David on another great race!

We are going to have another of our club trips to BikePark Ireland, Fairymount farm this St Patrick’s Day(Tuesday), meeting at 9am in the park… The park caters for every ability and we can testify that it is great craic after our last outing there!! If you don’t have a mountain bike don’t worry you can hire one at the park as well as all protective equipment. They provide excellent facilities. There is an uplift service to take you up the hill, so you can relax and save your energy to enjoy the downhill sections even more. There are 2 options if you wish to use this service, you can book online on their website for €35 which covers your entry to the park and as many uplifts as you like between 10am and 4pm or you can pay the entry fee of €5 and buy uplift tokens at the reception area and hand in the token to the driver when there is space on the truck. Each uplift token is €2.50 per trip and if you have any tokens left over simply bring them back to reception and they will refund their value. Also there is a bike wash area and a cafe on site to have a bite to eat for lunch or a warm cuppa so bring a few extra euro on the day in case you want to avail of this. For more information please click on the link provided above to their site. Looking forward to seeing you there 🙂

The usual spins will continue next weekend so keep an eye out on the website and Facebook for updates during the week.

For any more information on club events or membership please contact our club chairperson Pat Bergin on 087 6744400.

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