Club Notes / This weeks spins

We hope you all had a great week and weekend.

The winter has its full grip on us now and the weather has been against us for a few weeks so it was great to see it change in our favour and we had a nice, albeit cold, couple of days this weekend to get out on the bikes.

Tuesday night: Despite storm Barney, we had nine brave souls who ventured out to the club turbo training session that took place in Stereame. Fair play on your dedication lads(and lady)!! 🙂

Wednesday night: No night spin this week due to the very poor conditions.

Thursday night: we had the second instalment of turbo training which is proving very popular. There was some great teamwork in getting one of the club turbos setup at the start of the evening… 🙂 Everyone is welcome to give these classes a try and we have 3 club turbo trainers there for members to try out the classes.

Saturday: With a few of the regulars away this weekend the numbers were down a bit but there was still a great training session had by the lads with some nice weather finally making a return and, for the most part, it was a bright morning but there was a bitter sting in the wind… The constant no letup pace of the specific training the lads are doing at the moment meant the tanks were getting low and there was an emergency pit stop required in Borrisokane where a few Mars bars were gratefully devoured! 🙂 There was one puncture on the way home after hitting a pothole and with the very cold morning all the lads were very pleased with the use of a Co2 cartridge getting the group back on the road in no time!

Sunday: There was a great turnout and finally we got in the planned Sunday spin. Third time did turn out to be lucky! It was a lovely sunny morning which started out cold but once the sun took hold it turned into a lovely day and the lads enjoyed 13 degrees for the return leg of the spin. The two groups split in Kilkeary and it stayed that way all the way around. Everyone communicated well on the spin but poor Rob unluckily got 2 punctures so the group got a puncture repair masterclass on the roadside!! 🙂 There was a lovely coffee stop and chat enjoyed in the Obama Plaza before everyone headed back to Nenagh. Overall a great morning on the bikes!

You may remember a few weeks ago club member Eva Moynan travelled to Amsterdam for the weekend as part of a select group of four ladies who were chosen to represent Munster at the indoor velodrome training camp in Alkemaar, Holland! Eva is very passionate about cycling and is an up and coming talent in the club so this was without question an opportunity to be grabbed with both hands. We asked Eva to give us a little summary of her weekend away and it is a great read.

 

 

“Holland: a weekend of intense training sessions, fantastic Halloween make-up and airport delays. An experience of a lifetime.

Friday began with an early start. We arrived in Amsterdam at 11am. 20 of us in total. 16 excited riders and 4 great helpers. Our first training session began at 6 pm with exercises and we began on the boards at 7. As it was my first time at an indoor velodrome I was a little apprehensive at first because of the 43° slope. By the time two hours had passed I was pretty comfortable whizzing around, even after seeing some nasty falls, one in which a girl cracked her new helmet! After the session we waited for the bus but because he decided to skip our stop we had a lovely cool down of a 40 minute walk back to the accommodation.

 

Saturday training began at 11am. We learnt different techniques, such as riding on the black line is the best for speed and pedalling fast into the corner gives you an advantage. We tried team pursuits and also individual 250 meter sprints and some fun races! Herman, our fantastic coach took out the derny for some fun too. To my amazement I actually won a fun race! Chuffed with ourselves and very hungry after the 4hrs we headed to the velodrome canteen for lunch. Afterwards we returned to the accommodation and begun our transformation using special effects wax. We all thought it would be hilarious to send pictures to our parents and break the news to them that we had had awful crashes that day. When I rang my poor mum, who is way too gullible, she was just about to break into tears, when I burst out laughing! She’ll never believe me about anything ever again! We spent Halloween night running around Alkmaar, a very typical Dutch town with fantastic shopping, scaring the locals! Great fun, for us anyway. We got lost on our way home and arrived back at about midnight!

 

Sunday morning was a drag to get out of bed at 7am to pack and be ready for racing. When we arrived at the velodrome the Dutch athletes were all warming up on their rollers! I’ve never seen such amazing bikes in my life. Perhaps dad will take the hint as Christmas is approaching! We were each placed into certain races depending on our ages. Unfortunately there were no juniors so all U16’s were moved up to Women’s U23’s! They were like animals! We raced 4 races, the leaders race, the points race, the scratch race and the Devils race. My favourite was the Devils race. The last person in the bunch is dropped every lap. I managed to be the 2nd last Irish cyclist out! I surprised myself realising I might not be so bad after all! Unfortunately no Irish competitor won overall but we were given certs and some got flowers!

 

After a very tough morning we decided to head to the very healthy McDonalds for some lunch! After that we made our way to the airport where, when we heard our flight was delayed by 1h30, a few of us made a bed out of our jackets and fell asleep. As you can imagine the others got some very flattering photos of us! Arriving in Dublin and leaving the fantastic friends behind was even harder than the international racing! What a wonderful, action packed weekend I had and hopefully I’ll get back there in the future! A great club weekend away, I think…”

Thanks very much Eva and very well done on a great account of your weekend.

 

Next week’s Club Training spins are as follows:

Tuesday: Club Turbo training session across from Nenagh Taekwondo in Streame from 7pm -8.30pm. The club has three spare turbo trainers if you would like to give the class a go. This will be a structured training session and please contact Liam on 087 6322618 for more details.

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

Thursday: Club Turbo training session across from Nenagh Taekwondo in Streame from 7pm -8.30pm. The club has three spare turbo trainers if you would like to give this class a go. This will be a structured training session and please contact Liam on 087 6322618 for more details.

Saturday:

A few club members take part in an intermediate cycle 40/50km in distance, averaging 25kph on a Saturday morning 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.

Race training group will leave from Woodies carpark, Stereame at 9am. This week’s route: Dolla – Templederry – Borrisoleigh – Templemore – Dunkerrin – Moneygall – Toomevara – Dolla – Silvermines – Old N7 – Nenagh. There are rumours after last week’s Mars bars being so good that a coffee stop might even start to appear in the race training spins (at least at this time of the year) in which case the Obama Plaza is pretty much on the halfway mark at about 56km in… 😉

Sunday: Usual 9am spin leaving from Moynans. This weeks route: Moynans – Dolla – Bolingbroke – Rearcross – Newport – Birdhill – Nenagh. There is a long climb this week but if the groups can’t stay together they’ll regroup at the top of the Bolingbroke climb in the carpark. We’ll stop off in Newport for a quick warming coffee before returning back to Nenagh via Birdhill. If anyone wishes they can extend the loop to Castleconnell by not taking the turn off to Birdhill, just outside Newport, which will make it 89km.

 

Have a good week everyone…