This weeks focus was the penultimate open race of the season, the much anticipated Charleville 2 day. This race concludes most people’s seasons but there is another in Wicklow next Sunday that we may have representation at but that’s for next weeks notes.

We had 3 members representing the club in Charleville Dan Hogan, Eoin Woods and Liam Callaghan all taking part in the A2/3 category which had 129 racers contesting. Stage 1 went off at a brutal pace and everyone felt the pressure but this was to be expected with the field being so strong… Eoin was taking part in his first A3 race and got a baptism of fire with the A2s and Juniors adding pace to what would already be a longer race and faster pace than he had previously experienced. He, Liam and Dan did us very proud though and all 3 finished in the main bunch on the same time being given 36th, 37th and 60th place respectively after stage 1. This was unbelievable going with the tough 85km route being covered at nearly 42kph avg and all the lads finishing only a little over 3 mins off the winner. Chapeau!!

Stage 2 was a 6.1km Time Trial and Eoin showing his current seriously good form had a fantastic time only 17 seconds off the winner and finished in 10th place!! Liam finished 37 seconds down in 25th place and Dan came home 1 min 7 seconds down in 56th place. On GC this left Eoin in 16th position, Liam in 27th and Dan in 50th going into the final stage.

Stage 3 was a very tough, hilly 91km course. Unfortunately we’ll remember it for the wrong reasons this year as Dan’s race came to an abrupt end when his handlebars got tangled with another riders and he came down hard as the race was about 2 thirds of the way through, on a descent where the lads were touching nearly 70kph! Dan we’re happy to report is doing ok and has no broken bones but did hit his head very hard and got knocked out for a few minutes and also has quite a lot of road rash. Liam was nearby when the accident happened and seen Dan come down so immediately stopped up to offer assistance and got an awful fright when he came back to find Dan unconscious. Thankfully Dan came around after a couple of minutes and there were two very nice guys, Gerry & Kevin, from the Order of Malta there to assist. Dan was taken to hospital in Cork for observation overnight due to getting such a knock to the head but hopefully he’ll be home soon. We wish you a speedy recovery Dan and hope to see you back out soon. This really goes to show the importance of helmets and not only when racing. Any of us could be unlucky and come off the bike coming down a hill so this really brings it home… Eoin didn’t know Dan was involved in the accident and went on to finish 69th in the stage after getting held up behind another rider falling off his bike so lost touch with his group and couldn’t manage to get back up to them. He finished 59th overall in the GC so well done Eoin on what was a tough start to your A3 career!

Meanwhile we had 18 out, including a few new faces, for our Sunday club spin and a great morning spin was enjoyed by all. It was great to see a few more of the intermediates branching over to the senior group to give it a try. The seniors took on the ramp to the Applegreen SS from Birdhill and then caught back up to the intermediates just before Newport, where the groups had a short stop and a quick chat before getting back on the road to be back to watch the All Ireland! 🙂

Next week’s Club Training spins are as follows: