Club Notes/This weeks spins

By peter@webme.ie | March 21, 2016

Hi everyone, hopefully you’re all enjoying this lovely spell of weather! It’s been a fantastic week for the club!!

We had around 20 cyclists out on the road on Thursday morning St.Patricks day. They had an early 8am start which meant that they would be home in plenty of time for the St. Patricks day parade in the town. They had a go at this years new Visit Nenagh Classic challenging A3 route covering a distance of 119km. Well done to everyone who was out on the morning.

There was a good crew out for the Saturday spin where this week and they cycled to the Ragg, Rearcross, Newport, Birdhill and back in the old N7 to Nenagh. They set a fair pace on the morning with a few digs thrown in along the way making it a great training session and a very enjoyable morning was had by everyone.

We had a super turnout on Sunday morning for our club spin. Weather wise we couldn’t have asked for a nicer morning to be out on the road. It is brilliant to see that everyone is making a comeback to the bikes after the winter and please God this fine weather will continue. Everyone cycled at a nice pace out to Ardcroney and the group split in two from there with 20 riders going with the senior group and the remainder of the members in the second group. There was a contrasting finish to the morning activities as a brief coffee stop was enjoyed by a few of the members on the way home in the Obama plaza followed by a gentle return spin while the others decided they wanted a less sedate finish and took off from Moneygall working together and setting a great strong pace on the final leg of the spin back to Nenagh. Well done to everyone who was out and we hope to see you all out next week again.

Open racing

Thursday, St Patricks Day, club member David Kyle travelled to Carrick on Suir to take part in the Tommy Sheehan Memorial race. David has started his season with a bang and his hard work over the past winter is certainly paying off for him now! He took part in the A3/Junior race which was 2 laps of a very draggy, undulating course for a total of 83km. There was plenty of early attacks but the eager bunch contained them all until about 20km when a small group was allowed to get away. David kept his powder dry as a lot of the on form lads were staying put in the bunch. About a third of the way into the race after going under the viaduct at Kilmacthomas, a Carrick junior made his move to attack and David went after him along with one Kanturk junior following. They quickly started working together to extend the gap and pushed it on over the top and down the descent in pursuit of the group ahead. They were soon joined by 4 more riders, and the group of 7 immediately gelled and continued to drive it across to the lead group.

The break would then be getting a little on the large side so David’s group tried to keep the pace on as they caught the earlier break and ride through them to see if it would thin out a bit but not everyone stayed contributing so the groups merged and remained intact as they went through the finish line for the first time. With some now looking for a free ride to the finish some words of encouragement were required to get everyone working together or they would all end up back in the bunch in no time, but after a few minutes everyone pulled together and started riding up and over for the next 30km before they we were eventually joined by 3 juniors from the Cork-Giant team who had made it across from the main bunch. This now upset the work ethic in the group and the time gap started to tumble a bit but enough people did enough work to hold a gap into the 6km to go point that the group knew it was between them to the line. The attacks started before the final drag but David stayed in the wheels and watched with the juniors as they died in the wind and came back each time. Sure enough, as the road started to rise the 7 juniors started to attack, and with 3 from Cork-Giant they had a serious advantage. David was still in the hunt with 1km left to the top and only 8 riders left when the Cork-Giant team attacked hard together. This was followed by Oran Pierse from Tralee and 1 other rider along with David. For a moment, it was down to 6 at about 500m from the end of the drag when disaster struck as something happened to Oran’s bike and he suddenly crashed over his bars, taking down the other rider behind him also. David had to take evasive action to avoid them which created a 20m gap to the 3 Cork-Giant riders and allowed a few riders back onto his wheel but he just gave it everything again from there and pulled out a gap again from the riders behind and held this to the line crossing it on his own with some of his family from Carrick watching. He was delighted to finish so strong for a fine forth position but slightly disappointed not to have the chance of scrapping for the win on the day but that’s racing unfortunately and it is nowhere near as disappointing as it was for Oran who unfortunately broke his arm in the crash(We wish him a speedy recovery!).

With this fourth place finish David has now gained enough points to be upgraded to A2. We want to send big congratulations to David as this is an incredible achievement and we wish you all the very best of luck in A2! 🙂

Sunday we had two members racing in Carlow in the ever tough Des Hanlon Memorial race. This is the first big classic race of the season which always draws out the toughest of lineups! Eoin Woods was in the A3 race and David Kyle was in his first A2 race since his upgrade. Eoin said it was a very tough route and it was good training for him. David chose a conservative approach to the race as it was a very tough race and a new experience to try and manage his provisions to get through the extra distance and didn’t feature in the final gallop to the line but, like Eoin, was happy to take away some valuable experience from such a tough race.

Well done to you both on taking part and keeping the club colours flying high and we look forward to the next installment…

Visit Nenagh Classic 2016

We have had a good few people get back to us about volunteering to help marshal the Visit Nenagh Classic’s main races and the family fun cycle on Sunday April 17th but we still need more people on the day and if you can help it would be very much appreciated. Please contact Pat Bergin 087 6744400 or Selina Hynes 087 9177355 if you are available. Thanks all.

This week’s Club Training spins are as follows:

Tuesday: Club Turbo training session in Stereame from 7pm -8.30pm.

Wednesday: Club evening spin leaving from Moynans at 7pm.

Thursday: Club Turbo training session in Stereame from 7pm -8.30pm.

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.

Normal club 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.

Sunday: Usual spin leaving from Moynans bike shop at 9am. As requested by a few members, this weekend’s route will be the upcoming Kildangan GAA spin with plenty of places to go back to Nenagh if you are under pressure. There will be a coffee break in Ballycommon at the shop at the half way point so bring a few Euros with you on the morning.

We will be returning to our club training spins on Tuesday evenings when the clocks go forward and they will leave from Moynans shop at 6pm, but if the weather is unfavourable we will have the option to do turbo sessions instead.

Keep an eye on our WhatsApp group chats for any updates or changes. If you want to be added to the NTW leisure/ intermediate or Race Training WhatsApp groups just download the app and let us know to add you. Contact us on northtippwheelers.com

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