Club Notes / This weeks spins

Hi all, we hope you had a good week.

Tuesday and Thursday evening we had our usual winter turbo training sessions take place and they are going very well with members getting in some very good base training.

Saturday spin

December has arrived and with the Christmas season upon us, the most organised of our members were out in force Christmas shopping, studying for the upcoming exams and visiting Santa Claus in the hope of getting that new bike at the top of their wishlist. Unfortunately they all missed out on a beautiful morning for a club training spin! Noel and I were left to fly the Wheelers flag on an out and back route from Nenagh with only a slight headwind to contend with as we headed in the direction of Roscrea. Once turned for home we were rewarded for our earlier efforts with a tailwind that pushed us home, leaving us with a total of 70kms in the legs.

Thanks to Anita for the report.

Sunday Spins

We had great numbers out again for our club spin and on the morning they had enough numbers to split into 2 groups, an Orange group and a Red group. Below are two reports one from the Red group and one from the Orange group.

Red Group report

A cold morning saw the red group start make tracks along the flat route of the R445 to Moneygall. The group, 12 strong set a brisk pace into a slight headwind. The pace proved too fast for a couple of members, but due to the current structure both were able to fall back into the succeeding orange group. More cyclists are encouraged to give the red group a try and with each effort it will not be long before you will be able to keep pace. Testament to this is the progress Anita Egan has made and is now a regular in this group – Kudos Anita.  The group decided to deviate slightly from the planned route and continue on to Roscrea as we  all felt that it was too early to stop for coffee. The group worked hard to maintain a good average on the outward leg and particular praise must be afforded to Eva Moynan who’s work on the front is becoming a common feature of our red group spins. The group turned in Roscrea and enjoyed a tailwind back to Obama Plaza. Some wattage bazooka intervals thrown in by Rob ensured all earned the coffee stop while Peter and Eva decided to head straight back. The post coffee speed ramped up another notch on the way home which saw John Spillane, NTW’s answer to Dorian Gray take a “local” inside line on the sprint into town. This was spotted and covered by both Rob and Noel but with legs feeling recent efforts the sprint petered out to nothing more than a chat 😀 Talks of the second leg over Portroe were abandoned when both Noel and Rob had to take evasive action and turn into Tesco carpark to avoid coming down on a very slippery road surface over Summerhill.  The group regathered at the Borrisokane roundabout and put in one last hard effort along the bypass to end an enjoyable morning on the bike. Well done to everyone 😀

Many thanks Rob for a great report. Maybe next week the red group might feel up to doing as much as the more hardcore orange group! 😉

Orange Group report

The Orange Group, 7 strong and with John Foote as Mentor, led out on the day towards Obama Plaza.  Conditions for the morning were bloody freezing, with a greasy road and a stiff enough easterly breeze. The opening 5k were at a very slow pace, as muscles slowly heated up. Thereafter the pace picked up and we came into Obama Plaza hot on the tails of Owen and Selina who we could see but didn’t manage to catch and who’d battled the easterly headwind on their own. We met up with the lads for tea and coffee, but we made a much delayed exit as some of the lads really, really, really wanted to be in Selina’s last selfie. We’d to drag them away!

Owen punctured just before Toomevara, and he told us to head on without stopping, and we did just that. We felt no guilt, as the always capable Selina stayed back to help Owen, so we knew he would be safe. We picked up the pace considerably after that, and, aided by a strong tailwind, we fairly moved it back into Nenagh. Just past the Lidl entrance, we almost, literally bumped into an utterly clueless driver. The driver’s opening position was being stopped on our side of the road, but towards the middle. The driver then proceeded to slowly reverse on the main road, swinging further into our side, all the time signaling with the wrong indicator. (And before you ask, it wasn’t a woman). We came very near piling into the back of his car, not helped by the greasy road. We just about safely squeezed around him, while treating him to some yuletide expressions of brotherly love. Honestly, the people you meet on the road. The previous week’s accident had seen us meet competent and kind people, where as this week we meet Mr. Death on wheels.

We were still travelling through Nenagh when John hit a greasy patch on the Tesco Roundabout and came down in a near perfect fall. You sometimes come across a really show-off type of fall, with double flip somersaults by both bike and rider. This wasn’t one of these. It was a plain vanilla fall, with no drama. No car coming, no injuries, none of the other riders knocked down thankfully and no damage to the bike. John just bounced straight back with nare a word, and back on the bike again. A tough, capable and no-fuss response.

We headed on to Portroe and Ballina, two peeling off in Nenagh and another two on the by-pass, leaving a four strong group. Now the (increasing) difficulty of the Portroe climb is a fairly accurate indicator of one’s (decreasing) fitness levels, and this was definitely one of the tougher climbs. We all managed it in a reasonable time, and pushed on to Ballina, and then home to Nenagh via the Four Sisters. The last stage of the spin was uneventful, as we safely and tiredly wrapped up our 85k spin.

Thanks for your great report Gerry and Kudos to you all on completing the full spin! 😉 Thanks Selina for the photographs. Also we’re delighted to report Harry is on the road to recovery and hopefully will make a return to the group in the very near future.

Club Christmas Night Out!

Another date to be put in your diaries folks!! Since we no longer have our awards night in December, we are going to have one or two sociables near Christmas on Wednesday the 14th December in Rohans pub, Nenagh for one of their trad night sessions and we’ll be meeting at 8:30pm. We hope to see ye all there for what is guaranteed to be a fun night!

 

This week’s Club Training spins are as follows:

If any of you are heading out for a winter spin put up a message on WhatsApp and you may get a bit of company.

Tuesday: Club turbo training session from 7pm to 8.30pm in Stereame. Contact Pat on 087 6744400 for details and directions. 

Thursday: Club turbo training session from 7pm to 8.30pm in Stereame. Contact Pat on 087 6744400 for details and directions.

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.

Saturday: Winter training spin leaving 9am from Woodies carpark. Route is decided on the morning by those present. If anyone wants to change the time for this put up a message on the Whatsapp group and see if it suits everyone.

Sunday: Leaving at 9am from carpark at Moynans. (This weeks mentor is Noel Kennedy)

Depending on numbers, we’re going to split into three groups with defined speeds to try and help people get back out and make progress in both technique and fitness.

The 3 groups are;

1. Firstly a “Green” group that will be for beginners/leisure and that group will be held at 20-24kph average. This group will have a senior rider mentoring and controlling the pace to ensure it stays low enough for any beginners. If we don’t have anyone who wishes to ride this slow then the mentor will go with the Orange group.
2. The next group will be the “Orange” group which is an intermediate group and will be controlled at 25-27kph average. We have plenty of intermediates that are fit enough to control this group but for the next few weeks if we could get another senior rider to volunteer to go with them to help fine tune the groups riding etiquette and control the pace so the group works well together and doesn’t split, the same way the senior group works, it would be much appreciated.
3. Finally we’ll have a “Red” group which will do in the region of 28-32kph average depending on who is out.

For this week’s route we’re going to try to iron out some of the issues of the last few weeks, be patient, we’re making progress I think you’ll all agree!! 🙂 We’ll still split into the different groups in the carpark, with Red leaving first, then Orange and finally Green, as we have been but while the routes will be similar with the same start, middle(coffee stop/change groups) and end, were going to have some slight differences. The aim is to try to have the groups converge on the coffee stops at similar times and also to push out the coffee stops for the lads and ladies completing the longer routes as they were too early in the spins for them. There will still be a green group spin that should only take about the 2 hours cycling so no change there. For anyone reading this and sitting on the fence about whether to come out and give it a go, come on out and try it. You’ll be well looked after, just come in and be ready to leave on your bike at 9am from Moynans. Ask one of the lads to point out that weeks mentor to you and introduce yourself to them so they’ll know if they have any newcomers.

The orange and red groups will cover the same route but we’ll stay away from Nenagh as it seems to be putting a stop to the Red group getting in their prescribed mileage as they can’t seem to keep going after they get the smell of the dinner on the way through to the second half of the spin! 😉 Still by all means don’t be afraid to have a go at moving to a faster group than normal as there will still be plenty of chances to cut it short or change groups at the halfway point.

So, for this week’s Green route, it’s: Moynans – Old N7 to Birdhill – Up ramp to Applegreen for Coffee – Back to Nenagh for 43km total.

And for the Orange & Red route seeing as the forecast is looking mild enough, it’s: Moynans – Old N7 – Four Sisters – Killaloe – O’Briensbridge – Birdhill – Up ramp to Applegreen for Coffee @about 38km – Ballina – Portroe – Left after Newtown – Ballycommon – Ballyartella – Knigh Cross – over to Borrisokane rd – Back to Nenagh for 77km.

Give it a go next week and see how it goes. If there is any chance of icy roads then make sure that you deviate from any planned routes taking in side roads or hills and only stick to the main roads for everyone’s safety. Any ideas on further tweaks to this spin to make it better for everyone are most welcome. Have a great week out there folks!!