Club Notes / This week’s spins
Hi Folks, What a busy week it’s been for the club!!! Between the National Championship races and charity work there was a lot of mileage covered, well done everyone on doing the club and yourselves very proud!!
Thursday: Despite a good few of our members being off rubbing shoulders with the pros in Kilcullen we had a great turnout for our weekly race. We had 3 groups on the evening with a minute and a half separating each. By Moneygall the first and second groups had merged and were working very well to hold off the third group who were still chasing hard. The newly merged large group stayed together until the testing drags around Cloughjordan took their toll and caused the group to splinter. The large group proved too much of a challenge for the small chasing third group to catch before the line and a group of 5 contested the sprint to the line with “Auld” Joey Donnelly 😉 proving he’s still got it and took a fine win on the evening with Eoin Ryan managing to hold off the young gun Joseph jnr for second place. Special mention goes to Cathal and Roger who have made great leaps in form and put in very strong rides to take fine fourth and fifth places respectively! Really well done to everyone who raced on the evening! Thanks as usual to Jan for timekeeping, Conor for Marshalling, and to Selina for the great photos on the night which you can see here.
Saturday we had a few members take on the suggested route out to the Slieve Blooms and what a fantastic spin it turned out to be! There was ups and downs (literally!) but everyone really enjoyed it!! It started poorly with a miserable constant drizzle but thankfully it cleared up after a while and held up ok for the remainder of the spin. The two climbs were long and tough but everyone really enjoyed the fresh tarmac and the road surface for most of this route was very nice indeed. Roger decided that the Glendine climb was too long so he tried to take a little shortcut on one of the hairpins but it didn’t end well! 😀 With long climbs you get some nice long descents to enjoy but unfortunately that early drizzle made the roads treacherous so everyone was taking it very easy but even at that the roads were so steep that Harry’s brakes on full weren’t sufficient to slow him down enough to take one corner! Thankfully neither was anything major and both lads were grand. We also had a couple of mechanicals with John suffering a puncture and Rogers run of luck continuing with his saddle turning itself into a spike after the clamp slipped! They all decided to pull in for a very welcomed warming coffee and some sustenance in Birr before returning back to Nenagh. All in all an eventful, very tough spin but all the lads said they wanted to do it again on a nice day so they could enjoy those descents properly! Always a good sign 🙂
Sunday despite such a tough route on the Saturday a few of the lads turned up for more punishment on what was another tough route taking in the Co.Clare countryside. Despite not having the long steep climbs of the day before it certainly wasn’t an easy route with lots of rolling roads that keep on giving and the lads had a very good pace so fair play to ye all, really well done!! Having our Mizen to Malin trip looming is proving quite the inspiration… 😉
Also on Friday and Saturday we had a few of our members and some friends take part in a great event to raise money for The Capuchin Day Centre for Homeless in Dublin City Centre by cycling from Dublin to Belmullet, that’s 350km in 2 days! John & Ger Spillane, Patricia & Sinead Finn, Rita Quinn, Cathy McLoughlin, Noilin Ryan, Maura Ryan and Ena Butler all completed this tough event. They were delighted to be able to help such a worthy cause. They said people sometimes forget how lucky they are to have a bed to go home to at night and even though some in Dublin don’t, at least they will have hot breakfasts and dinners thanks to people’s generosity and Brother Kevin in the Capuchin centre… Very well done everyone!
Open Racing – National Championships, Kilcullen, Co. Kildare.
Thursday we had Eoin Woods taking part in the Elite National Time Trial championship race and finished 23rd in the country behind some kinda famous names… In the Nationals there are no categories as per normal races so unless you fall into one of the age based categories you are racing against everyone else, and that includes world tour riders!! He was a shade over six and a half minutes behind Team Sky’s Nicholas Roche who won, covering the near 40km course in 53’54″(Thats an average of nearly 43kph)!!! See event pics here.
Saturday we had two members, Pat Bergin and John Foote take part in the M50 National Road Race. Pat had a lucky escape and left a fair chunk of his rear tyre on the road having to make a sudden stop mid race but was very lucky his tyre was the only concern afterwards. Both did well finishing out this tough race so very well done to you both.
Sunday we had representation by member David Kyle at the Elite National Road Race. He said ” It was a privilege to take part in it…brutal conditions, brutal race but, yes, a great experience. Pity I didn’t finish it but I survived for 4 laps with the cream of Irish cycling and only 50 out of 155 left in it when I finally lost contact the 4th time up the climb after 120km. I’m happy to have gotten further than the majority given the calibre of names on the start list.” A huge accomplishment David so very well done indeed.
To all the lads, a huge well done to you all for taking part in such tough races and flying the club colours at such prestigious events. It was fantastic(and slightly unbelievable) to see our club jersey in the same race with some world tour riders! It must have been an incredible experience…
Please note change of date of the final Mizen to Malin meeting.
This will now take place a few days earlier than originally planned on Wed 13th July in the Dapp Inn at 8pm. If you are taking part please make every effort to attend…
This week’s Club Training spins are as follows:
Tuesday: Club training spin leaving from Moynans bike shop, Nenagh at 6.30pm sharp. Route decided by the group.
Tuesday: Club spin 2 leaving at 7pm from Moynans where the avg speed will be in and around 25kph mark. Short distances of 40 to 50km will be covered on the evening. Everyone is very welcome to give this spin a go.
Thursday: J Moynan Time Trial 4: It’s a 16km Time Trial on the old N7 starting at the Roundhill Pub and the route being the Roundhill pub – Fivealley roundabout – Yellowbridge. Sign on will be at Moynans bike shop, Nenagh at 6.15pm and start time is 7pm sharp at the Roundhill and entry is €5.
Thursday Club spin for our leisure / intermediate riders leaving at 7pm from Moynans, the avg speed will be in and around 25kph mark. Short distances of 40 to 50km will be covered on the evening. Everyone is very welcome to give this spin a go.
Saturday: Intermediate cycle 40/50km in distance, leaving Woodies at 7.30am. Anyone who wants to is very welcome to join in on this spin. You can contact William on 086 2447888 for more details.
Mizen to Malin training spin will be leaving from Woodies car park at 9am. The route will be decided on the morning by the group. Keep an eye on WhatsApp for details closer to the time. With the event really starting to creep up now it’s getting more and more important to get used to the back to back spins on the Saturdays and Sundays or whenever you can fit them in.
Sunday: Route is Moynans – Portroe – Ballina – Four Sisters – Silvermines – Dolla – Toomevara – Moneygall – Cloughjordan – Borrisokane – Nenagh, 98km. For our leisure riders the beauty of this route is you are never far from Nenagh and can turn back at several points along the route depending on how far you want to cover.
Have a good week everyone…