Taking It Easy.. For Now!

Hello everyone, since I'm not racing this weekend I suppose I better write a blog to let people know what I'm at etc.. In case your wondering, the reason I'm not racing this weekend is because the next three weeks I'll be racing a Stage Race each weekend. First the An Post Gorey 3-day, then the Kanturk 3-day and finally I'll be racing in the UK. Not sure on the details of this yet but when I am I'll write it down for ye!

Since last Sunday, I've been doing all my regular things. School, training, sleeping and eating. My recovery has been a bit better in comparison to the week after the Silver Pail, thankfully!

Thursday night I raced the St. Finbarrs Summer League which is held on the Monaghan Road circuit in Cork City. I cycled up to the race which took me about an hour and a quarter then raced with the A1's which had a 2 minute handicap on the A3's and 4's. I knew this would be hard and there'd be no messing around as there was only around 10-15 in the group and around 30 riders in the main group. Straight from the off we started to ride flat out in pursuit of the group and riding to the front was not easy. With some of the big names in Irish cycling there like Timmy Barry and Paidi O'Brien it was extremely fast! Didn't have a speedo set up so no figures but the average speed of the main group was 42km/h so I can only imagine what ours must have been! After roughly 40 mins of racing I pulled in as my session was over. Going off with the A's was tough enough if I hadn't cycled up! Overall I think it was a good session and I'm pleased enough with it.

Soo.. at the moment I'm taking it a bit easier, Friday and Saturday I took it easy with nothing on Friday and a light roller session on Saturday. Yesterday I went out on the road after watching the Amstel Gold Race, I think it gave me the inspiration! But what a race it was Philippe Gilbert just proved again how strong he is and he's definitely putting his name in the history books as one of the greatest classics riders in the modern day! And.. as if he wasn't lucky enough, have you seen his wife? One word.. mint!

For the rest of the week I'll be preparing for the Gorey 3-day which starts on Saturday, really looking forward to it! I'll have another update during the week before the event. Stay tuned!

Eoin