After a long year of racing at home and abroad its finally time to leave 2011 behind and move into 2012 with positivity and good legs...I hope. Looking back on 2011, its safe to say it was one of the best years of my life. So many new friends made, so much learnt and experiences gained and most of all a big step forward in my cycling "career" if you like.
Since my last update not a lot has been going on really. It is winter after all! I have been to another Cycling Ireland u23 Development Camp in Blessington, Co Wicklow on the 5th & 6th of December. The camp was run by Paddy Doran and Frank O'Leary and I did find it very beneficial. It consisted of a short run and gym session in Winning Solutions on the Saturday morning followed up by some nutrition talks and a short bike ride to the Avon Ri, in Blessington where we were staying, in the afternoon. That night after some very nicely prepared food from Mick Lawless we sat infront of Paddy Moriarty (Ex-Irish International) and Neil Martin (Father of Dan Martin) for some presentations and talks about their experiences in cycling which was interesting to hear. On the Sunday we hit the road early in harsh conditions for 3 hours. All in all, a great weekend! Thanks to all involved.
In the past few weeks I've also had a feature in the local newspaper in which I am happy about: not much to say about this but here's a picture!
As for 2012 I can now say, I will continue riding for ASFRA Racing Team (Flanders). I'll be definitely going back to Belgium sometime in the months of June\July after I finish my exams to torture myself some more and chase after my dream. Super excited! I am under no illusions for next year and I am sure there will be plenty of blood, sweat and tears shed. So, now its time to go looking for sponsorship to help fund me while I am in Belgium. All help is appreciated and if anyone is interested in helping me out all you gotta do I give me a shout. You will find my contact details on this blog.
That is it, I'll stop typing. Really wish I had more to talk about but unfortunately I don't for now. But 2012 is going to be big, so stay tuned for more news and fun!
A nice memory from 2011
Have a great Christmas and a Happy New Year! See you all on the other side!
Hello, said I'd do a quick blog update just to keep anyone interested up to date on what I'm doing at the moment.
Preparations are underway for next season and I'm really motivated and enjoying being back on my bike. I'm trying to use my time the best I can and have some goals that I want to achieve during the winter. But there a no medals won in December so its not racing-related goals. I love this time of year, where it's all ahead and setting your goals for the coming season is exciting. I have set some definite long term goals for myself but yet to go into detailed short term ones. Need to have a good think!
It can be seen as unfortunate that I'm doing my leaving certificate while going into my first year u23, but actually it's not a bad thing at all. Your first year as an espoir, beloften, senior whatever you want to call it, usually turns out a transition year (unless you are Peter Sagan) for most cyclists. So doing the leaving will in fact leave me with fresh legs for the latter half of the season which I will spend racing on the continent.
Awards Dinner
On Saturday the 12th November I went to the Cycling Ireland Awards Dinner in the Radisson Blu Royal Hotel in Dublin to collect my national championship medal. The evening was nice and I enjoyed meeting with everyone, dinner wasn't too bad either!
Stephen Clancy and I (Stephen got the "Male rider of the year" award. Great friend of mine!
Not too much more to ramble on about at the moment. Next up for me is a u23 Development camp in Dublin on the 3rd and 4th of December. Season 2012, cant wait!
Another season down, more experience soaked up and it's very safe to say that 2011 was good to me. I felt as strong and confident as I ever have before, now ride for a Belgian team and rode on the National Team on two occasions (One being the Junior Tour of Ireland). With this alone I'd be happy, but I also picked up a silver medal in the National TT Champs and in my opinion I felt I put in a very convincing performance in the Road Race but only to run into yet another "hole" of bad luck. Although things went great, I definitely feel that they could have gone better and there is definitely room for improvement. The story of my season was running into these "holes" and luck wasn't always with me. I had many crashes, punctures, mechanicals etc.. but that's bike racing. You live and you learn! Again I just want to thank everyone who helped me throughout 2011, especially my parents and sponsors without ye nothing would have happened.
So now I guess it's that time where I start writing again. As well as having time off the bike, I felt that leaving the blog for a while was a good idea also. Gather my thoughts for the upcoming season! For the last month or so I've just been recharging the batteries to the best of my ability in aim that by the time I get back on the bike I'll be fresh. Getting hit by a jeep during the local Sportif didn't help with this though, as I was meant to have a few more rides after it to wind down, I was unable due to injuries. Since the incident I've been having a lot of trouble with my shoulder especially, I'm having to be really careful with what I carry and what I do throughout my normal day as the smallest thing may have a big effect on how it recovers. I have been and still am attending quite a bit of Physiotherapy and Massage at "The Fermoy Physiotherapy & Sports Injuries Clinic" which has really been helping me. So I really hope that everything recovers properly and that there is no ongoing problem. P.S. My Lazer Helium arguably saved my life!
As for next season, I am very happy and proud to say I have a new coach. I am now working with Martin O'Loughlin and he, Im sure, will be one of, if not the biggest factor in preparing me for next season, and hopefully the years ahead! I will be returning to Belgium after my exams, and the plan thus far is to finish my season out in the heartland. A lot is yet to be decided on what my calendar will be etc. but I'm very excited and anxious to be getting back on my bike!
On Saturday the 22nd of October I tarvelled to Dublin for a cycling Ireland training camp. This session was organised by the Head Development Coach Paddy Doran. The aims of the session was to educate riders in regard to off bike training activities and increase riders overall fitness for next season and beyond. Saturday was U23 and junior development squad riders.
There was a great attendance at a great venue the Winning Solutions Cycling Centre in Dublin,with a dedicated Group of riders and Development Coaches present. The sessions were lead by Scott Mc Donald owner of winning solutions. The riders had demonstrations and sessions of circuit training, Jogging, some had watt-bike sprint test. There were presented with training guidance, bike set up information, nutrition and circuit training exercises. Another session is scheduled for early December.
Soon, I also plan on doing some reviews on my Lazer Helmets. Lazer have been very kind and I'm very lucky to be working with them. I need to start taking some notes and looking deep into how I've enjoyed my time using them.
So that is it! The first update of my 2011/2012 training/racing season. Many more to follow! Stay tuned
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!
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..
It's been a while since I last updated this so I thought it might be a good idea now I have some time on my hands. As said, time hasn't been to my advantage lately. I'm finding it quite hard to get some time to just sit down and relax. I'm always out and about on my bike, getting food into me, doing the laundry etc.. Living is very time consuming!
Since my last update I have ridden 4 races, and gave 2 a skip due to a bit of fatigue and illness which I have now managed to shake, I hope! I am not going to go through every detail as it would take days but I'll go over them. They have all been going relatively well, some good some bad. Bambrugge was not a good day at all, I rode to the race which was 30 odd kilometres away and when I arrived I was like a grape turned to a raisin. I was feeling really bad on the way there and in the race I was feeling even worse. When I started to feel dizzy and weak it was time to pack as I might not get back to Oudenaarde! While watching the race afterwards I noticed my back brake had been rubbing, so that was the reason I found it so hard to move up! So that was a day not to remember, but I guess everyone can have a bad day.
After Bambrugge, I had a few days off to try and get back around to normality and my next race was in Denderwindeke. I travelled with my team-mate and friend Indy Waelbroeck. The race went well, was feeling much better but I did notice that, unconsciously I was still nervous from my crash at Reningelst. But, as the race went on the twisty roads were becoming a lot easier and all nervousness went. The road surfaces were not great and it was a hard finish - a hill of 4-5% for nearly a kilometre, doesn't sound much but when you are going full gas it is much! I did come home with some money though, all 5 euros of it! So it wasn't the worst of days..
I raced again the next day in St. Maria Lierde. Again I went with Indy, but this time we rode there for a warm up as it was only 18km away from Oudenaarde. I heard the day before that it was a hard course and it was. It consisted of a hill to the finish like the day before but this time it dragged on for a good bit after the finish, then we had another hill roughly a kilometre or so later. This one had a cobbled corner and was a bit steeper, but once you got over it, it was recovery time - if you want to call it that as we were still hitting 60km/h on some parts. It was slightly downhill with some rough roads and swooping corners so the speed was consistently held.
The race went really well for me, I rode well staying in the top 10-20 riders most of the time. I also moved up a lot each time up the hills and especially on the cobbled section. I gave a few digs and got into a few moves but a break had got away early and was going to stay away.
Aero Tuck ;)
I was feeling pretty good the last few laps and gave a dig at around 1 or 2km to go, but got caught with about 500 to go and the bunch just breezed past me and I finished at the back of the peleton but was really happy with how my legs felt and how the race went.
Next up was Kortrijk Doorniksewijk which was an amazing circuit around the streets of Kortrijk. The race had some pretty big riders there and was multi-national. We had the Belgian Champion in attendance, Garmin-Cervelo, the Russian National Team, Japanese, Brits and of course Irish! The race was crazy fast, we did a 7km lap in roughly 8 minutes which is around 50km/h average speed. Had some bad luck unfortunately. I punctured with 3 or 4 laps to go, not sure as there was no lap signs, but there wasn't much longer left in the race. Was disappointing but thats all part of bike racing, these things happen and you move on.
So that's a very quick round up of how my racing has been going in the last few weeks. I am loving life here at the moment and meeting so many new people who I would have never met sitting at home in Fermoy! Look out for another update soon, I hope my luck changes and I start to get some nice results soon. I think I deserve some. Right?
So here I am, sitting in Oudenaarde writing another one of these blog's. Just before I start blabbing, I'd like to thank all the kind and generous people who have kindly sponsored me and helped fund this trip, really appreciate every bit I get. Thanks guys! After a long days travelling last Thursday I finally arrived, with a broken back! Trying to haul around a bike box and massive bag on your back while jumping in and out of trains and up and down stairs is not fun, not fun at all!
So Ive been getting everything organized for the next month or so of my life that I will be spending here. At the moment I am staying at a very nice B&B but its not ideal. I can't cook and have no where to store food, wash clothes etc.. Which is definitely needed as a cyclist!
Tielt (Kanegem) 1.14.3 Juniores - Sunday 24 July:
First race back in Belgium after roughly a month, and oh did I forget how fast these guys can go! With the race in Tielt the closest one to me at 35km I got a taxi to bring me there so I wouldn't be wasting any energy which I'd need for the race.
Unfortunately the race turned out a bit rough for me. It started very quickly and never really slowed down. It was very sketchy and I could hear people cash behind me but didn't want to look back it was too hectic! The course was 6.8km and we had 12 ronde. The course was difficult, with 14 corners(1 U-turn), road furniture, rough surface and a drag along with 70-80 odd juniores flying around it! Hectic is the perfect word to describe it.
I was going well, staying about mid-way most of the time (it was pretty difficult to move up!). Until about 8 laps in, some guys started to give me weird looks and sprint off. At first I thought nothing of it just thought it was typical in Belgium, but when a few guys started to scream and shout along with pointing at my front wheel I noticed what they were all cringing and moaning at. My skewer on my front wheel had come undone! Of course I had to stop and tighten it up, I'm not an idiot! Unfortunately I could't manage to get back on, got close on some corners but the acceleration from the front was too much!
Disappointing yes, but after I got everything sorted I got going for Oudenaarde and pedalled my way back. You can't change what happens you just got to move on and think to the next race which was..
Pieter Vande Kerckhove the Junior manger/coach had told me a few days previous to Reningelst that he had lined me up so I was very keen and excited to see what an inter-club had to offer. I met the soigneur Patrick at the shop at 12 and Gilles Merchiers and me travelled with him in the team car to Reningelst. When we arrived, it was bucketing down which wasn't too nice, and trying to get organized in a little team car wasn't ideal either but it worked out. We signed on, got numbers ready, massage, race food, small warm up and we were ready to go.
The course suited me perfectly, a hill after 50metres, continued for maybe 600-700 then did a massive left hander onto tiny roads. The rest of the course was pretty lumpy and had a small stretch of cobbles. Savage stuff! The start line was filled with nerves, people were jumping into every little space there was it was madness. I started close to the back unfortunately and the race took off amazingly fast and there was splits with poeple dropped in the first 2km, fortunately this time I was on the right side.
My legs were feeling good and every time up the hill more and more people were getting dropped. A rather large break got up the road and on the 4th lap or so I attacked and tried to ride across. This was when disaster struck, I was on my own so I thought I could gain some time on the corners as I could take my line perfectly. Sadly the roads were wet and I was going a little too fast then my front wheel washed out, leaving me sliding for about 50 metres into some grass! The impact immediately hurt my elbow and hip and I got a nice bit of road rash to match.
It was something like this! but more like the video below..
I was nearly as bad as Menchov!!!
When I stood up, I was in a bad state and the chain was wrapped around the bottlecages so I didn't continue. I was put into the ambulance and checked thoroughly. I was very disappointed as I had great legs and watching the rest of the race was a bit depressing! But at the end of the day, I am lucky I didn't hurt myself too badly. There are plenty more bike races!
So thats a quick update of how things are going so far. I am sure I'll have another blog soon - stay tuned!
