National Championships

Last weekend the 10th & 11th I travelled to Castlebar to take part in both the TT & Road National Championships. Only a few days prior to going I decided to ride the TT and now, I can say it was definitely worth it.

The TT did turn out to be a lot different than I expected. I was expecting a 10 maybe 15km route, but no, 30km! Which is the longest TT I have ever rode. The conditions were very challenging. Wind, rain and very open main roads with long draggy sections. I was the second last rider to take to the start and the winner Ryan Mullen of Planet X was the last. Over the 30km I caught my minute man, 2nd minute man along with the 3rd and 4th. When crossing the line at the finish, I was very confident that I had got 2nd, not 1st as Ryan had caught me after 7-8km and passed everyone after he had passed me.

I am very happy with my silver in the event as I wouldn't consider myself a "TT specialist" at all and only rode a handful or so TT's this year (Mostly TT's which were part of stage races). 

Now onto the Road Race. The weather worsened overnight and the rain got harder, along with the 12 degrees temperature it wasn't the most pleasurable way to start the rugged 105km race. Inside the first 5km, according to PlanetXIreland.com "The usual suspects" made their move, these include: Ryan Mullen (Planet X), Javan Nulty (Dectek), Jack Wilson (Crabbe-Performance), Darragh Zaidan (Stevens Cyclogical) and myself. We found ourselves getting a very big gap very quickly which was perfect for me as I was worried about missing some kind of split or move, and when, arguably the 5 strongest riders in the race, were in the move and I thought that was it for the day.

But I couldn't have been more wrong! After 15km or so it started to break down even further. The reigning champ Jack Wilson got distanced from the break when Ryan Mullen made his race winning move, which was a shock to everyone I think, as Jack hadn't lost a national championship since he was 13. Javan Nulty, Darragh Zaidan and myself rode the next 70 odd kilometres together to be caught by Wilson and Conor Brennan (Errigal) with roughly 25km to go.

Shortly after they got across, I punctured and it's safe to say that it wasn't the quickest of wheel changes. I must have lost 2-3mins alone just in getting the wheel changed and with the difficult conditions I knew I'd never ride back on by myself.

Chasing Alone for the final 20km

As I said, Mullen went on to win solo 2mins 40secs ahead of Nulty and Wilson. I ended up a credible enough 7th place roughly 3mins down on the group I was in, after my unfortunate turn of events. It was very disappointing as I was having such a good ride and I definitely felt that I could have done something in the finale.

Cheers to that!

So another season has now come to an end, and I can say a lot of positives have come from the past month's. At the start of last year I would have never thought I'd have achieved so much and I'm now looking forward to having a break. Another blog update will be due in a few weeks when I arrange and think about my plans with my coach for next season. Thanks to everyone who takes the time to read my blog, really appreciate it!

Eoin

The Belgian/Dutch Aftermath..

Hello everyone, so my time in Belgium has come to an end and I am home in Fermoy, since my last update I've raced 3 Kermesses and 1 Stage Race ( 3 road stages & an Individual TT) so I've been pretty busy!

The first being in Kruishoutem only 12.5km from Oudenaarde which was very practical as I could get a decent warm up done while riding there. The course was good it was quite enjoyable, only 5 real corners and the rest were swooping. In saying that - "enjoyable" I'm not sure if I did enjoy some parts as there was some real fast parts of the course and there was downhill tailwind on the finishing straight where we'd be hitting 70km/h every time! Well I'm not going to describe everything but by the last lap the break was brought back and there was about 60 of us coming in for the gallop. I must have rode about a kilometre of my race in the grass as I got pushed out when it got narrow so coming in for the gallop I wasn't too well positioned maybe 30 back. Luckily enough for me I avoided the mass pile up which happened about 100 metres to go. It reminded me of Cavendish and Hausslers crash and Tour De Suisse but this was in the middle of the bunch! After that I sat up completely as I nearly sh*t myself and ended up around 35th! Excuse my language..

Over Ruben Van Der Haeghen's shoulder the winner at Oosterzele

The day after I had another race in Oosterzele, which went really well. The course was pretty hilly for a race in Belgium which suited me a bit more than some of the other's. I rode well all day and felt good, I was really happy and it was definitely one of the more enjoyable races. The result wasn't anything special as I sat up with 500 to go to avoid a crash like the day before and guess what? There was one! Wasn't I a lucky boy I trusted my instinct!

After a tough weekend and 250km in the legs (180 of that racing) it's fair to say I was pretty tired so the day after I had a short recovery ride and a few days off the bike to try and recover incase I was selected for the stage race in Holland at the end of the month. 

The next time I raced was at Wortegem-Petegem (Ooike) 5 days after Oosterzele, and honestly it was a dreadful race! Almost everyone I know who raced didn't enjoy it, probably because of the very difficult course. It consisted of some cobbles, narrow twisty roads, decents and a long ascent (well, it was long for a Kermesse!) I heard people say it was the hardest Kermesse course they ever did, and the 20 odd finishers reflected that statement perfectly.

My race went badly. After 200m there was a crash and that set me back a bit and I had to chase pretty hard to get back on. When I got there it was real hard to get to the front as the roads were so twisty and narrow so the only way I could move up was on the hill. There was just something about this race, I was suffering from the start but after about 4 laps the legs started to come round a bit, but unfortunately for me (again) - after about 6 laps of the 12. I was hurting a lot and lost a bit of concentration, took a corner too fast on the outside of some guys to try and gain some places and I ended up in a field! So that was that. Game over. I was very disappointed afterwards as all the lads came out to watch. But that's racing I got over it and moved on, I was thinking on the next race - Westbrabanste Pijl!

The Westbrabanste Pijl is a stage race for Juniors based in Steenbergen, Holland. Since I left for home the first time, Luc (the Manager of ASFRA) had been mentioning this race to me time and time again and was eager for me to ride it! It was only until a few days before it the team was published on the web and Pieter VDK (Junior Manager) got in contact. I was very excited about doing the race and mainly proving to Pieter that I'm a good rider. The 2 races he went to I crashed in both so before this he probably thought I couldn't handle my bike! 

The race consisted of 3 road stages and 1 Individual TT. The first stage was 97km and was on the Friday evening we arrived, and believe me it was a shock to the system! It was complete madness, crashes everywhere as people were riding so close together. And the winds, never seen anything like it! I finished in some sort of a group that day, possibly the 2nd but not sure as I didn't see the results I was just worried about getting around and was too tired to even ask! 

After a tough first stage I decided to ride the TT easy before the 95km stage in the evening. It was 9km of cross winds and headwinds. It's fair to say I didn't end up too well in this, but that was predicted. I mean look what I'm wearing:

The third stage was epic! After 20km we hit the same 15km bridge as the Giro d'Italia went over in 2010 and it ripped the race to shreds. There was very strong crosswinds and there was about 5 groups echeloned across the road at the 21km mark! Madness! Here is a video to show you some of our route, it's incredible looking at this and remembering the painful memories:

After the bridge we then turned onto some cobbles for 3km and then a hill a few km's after that, so it's fair to say it was a tough route. I found myself in the second group of about 30-40 most of the day which I was delighted with as there was some Vacansoleil and Rabobank Devo. riders in this group too. I ended up 60th on the stage out of 150.

The Queen stage was on the Sunday afternoon. 138km. That says it all! After the first lap I was too tired to continue, was completely fatigued! Now, I know what you are thinking - "One lap? How?" well, one lap is 46km long! 

So thats a very quick synopsis on the Westbrabanste Pijl and the 3 Kermesses that finished off my time in abroad. I was a fantastic experience and I can't even explain on here how good it was. What a way to spend my summer "holidays". Yaa "quick"?

I'd just like to thank everyone who made this possible. My parents, Family, everyone involved at ASFRA and to all my sponsors I have a lot to thank ye for. I will take lifelong memories and experiences from my summer in 2011 and hopefully some lifelong friends also. Oudenaarde, I've been home for 3 days and I miss you already. Until next year..

Eoin