Club Notes and weekly spin schedule

The race season is nearly at an end now and our scheduled championship road race had to be postponed until this week due to part of the Puckane road being resurfaced so instead we held the Hill Climb Championship race instead on Thursday evening and it didn’t disappoint. We had 12 members out on the night and it was by no means an easy race. John Foote proved our victor on the evening taking the title. Congratulations on a fine win and well done to everyone who raced on the night.  You can read the full race report here

On Sunday as well as our normal club spins, it was fantastic to see such a great turnout from the club for the Portumna Cycling Club hosted Olive Aughty charity cycle.  A total of 15 members from the club took part spread evenly between the 50km and the 110km.  Hats off to Portumna CC who did a superb job in organising this, their first sportive which saw in excess of 300 cyclists take to the roads of south east Galway and the Slieve Aughty mountains. Well done to all members who were out on the morning and they all really enjoyed the event.

 

Open Racing 

We had one club member open racing on Sunday in the Dan O’Donovan Memorial race in Co.Cork, David Kyle. You can read David’s report in full below. Well done for keeping the club colours flying high and for taking part. Thanks to Sean Rowe for the super pictures as always.

 

Dan O’Donovan Memorial race was 8 laps of a 9km course outside Fermoy on Sunday for the A3 category. Fine sunny weather greeted us for sign-on and stayed for most of the race.

The course was mostly flat but deceptive with a few good, energy-sapping drags that start to bite as the laps go by. Between injury and holidays it had been 8 weeks since my last race, so the aim was to race aggressively all the way to get in any potentially decisive break and get a good race workout before next weekend’s hilly A3 National Championships in Connemara. I followed or jumped across to practically all the dangerous moves and on one occasion it really looked like 5 of us were away as we were disappearing from sight through the bends, but as so often happens in A3, the understanding that each man has to bury himself for the first 10-15 minutes to get completely out of sight wasn’t there and all of a sudden the bunch was on us again​.

​After 6 laps of relentless attacking at the front of the bunch by the same 5 or 6 juniors and similar number of us seniors, none of us had gotten away for long. The first time I hesitated to follow a move by a couple of riders was on lap 7​, getting boxed in at the same time, and before I knew it a group of 8-10 bikes had come together and started moving away.  I was kicking myself thinking I had missed the winning move and we were on a part of the course where I could not move up.  However, by the time I got back up half a lap later that move had also been pulled back and starting the last lap it was obviously going to come down to a bunch gallop. I normally don’t tend to risk the sprint finishes but, although I was far from fresh after an active day, in this case the course finish was safer than usual, being slightly uphill on a nice wide road with hard shoulders and a good surface. So with half a lap to go and in a reasonable position near the front I decided to stay in and give this one a go when all of a sudden a rider pushed passed me from nowhere into a gap that wasn’t there, hitting my bars and sending my front wheel swerving violently to the left. I was sure I was going down but somehow just managed to stay upright. But that close call put me to the back of the group and out of contention for the finish. Not being a sprinter it is doubtful I would have featured… but I would like to have tried on the uphill finish. Despite that scare, I came away very happy with the performance and looking forward to the hillier parcours in the coming weekends.

 

Next weeks Club Training rides are as follows:

Tuesday: Club training spin leaving from Moynans at 6.30pm. Avg speed on the evening between 28/30kph.

Wednesday: Club intermediate spin leaving from Moynans at 7pm. Avg speed between 25/27kph.

Thursday: We will be holding the third of our championship races, the Championship Road Race. We have had to shorten the planned championship route which was due to start outside Borrisokane due to the light starting to fade quickly in the evenings so we will be using the same route as we did a few weeks ago on race RR9. Route: Carraigahorig, Puckane, Nenagh 28km.   You can sign on at 6.15pm at Moynans bike shop or at the start line. Group departs to the start at 6.30pm and race starts at approx 7 pm. Entry is €5

Sunday:  We have the normal club spin leaving from Moynans at 9am.

This weeks senior route is Nenagh, Borrisoleigh, Templemore, Roscrea, Dunkerrin, Moneygall, return to Nenagh 82km.

This weeks route for the leisure/intermediate group is Nenagh, Borrisoleigh, Templemore, Dunkerrin, Moneygall, return to Nenagh 70km.

There will be a few members also travelling to Thurles for the annual Trip to Tipp charity cycle. Over the years we have had good representation from the club at this spin and its always a very enjoyable day out.

 

We hope that you all enjoy a great week.

 

For further information on any club events or if interested in joining the club, please contact Pat Bergin 087 6744400