News, Silver Pail Build-Up etc..

Hello, so to start things off I'd like to mention that this blog has become a twice weekly kind of thing, basically the build up a day a two before the race then a race report. How is everyone finding that? Opinions please? I find this method easiest, especially with school, and also it gives me a lot more to write about (Not saying I always have a lot to write about). So this week has been a really long one, didn't seem to go by as fast as most weeks do. Training-wise its been a good week. Got a chance to get out on the road today which is great, gets annoying sitting on the turbo all the time and also the weather has continued to be great which is a massive bonus! So not that much to report on this week. Let's hope next week is more exciting!

This weekend I'll be racing my home race, The Silver Pail GP. This is something I'm very excited about, always gives you a bit more motivation racing on home soil and on your training roads. Last year I was 2nd in the A3 category but this year I'll be racing in a different category, so that rules out the chance of going one place better. The A1&2 race is what I'll be doing and after my experience of it last weekend in Limerick, I'm quite looking forward to it! Before last year I never seemed to have any luck in this race, with a crash in the Youth Olympic Qualifier in 2009 and a few years before a brake calliper falling off, strange thing to happen? Yes! But it has happened on more than one occasion, very surprisingly! It also happened in the Corkman last year on the first stage. Anyways I'll talk about that another time, back to my story. So I hope to have good luck this Sunday as a result would be fantastic. Touch wood! According to Tommy Campbell, who writes his weekly round-up with Irishcycling.com I am one of the ones to watch, Thanks for that Tommy, was delighted to see the mention. Here it is :

"Word on the grapevine tells me if the bookies show up! Have an each way on Eoin McCarthy of the promoting club and David O'Connor of the Park Cycling Club in Dublin. Mind you, I said each way."


The rest of his round-up is in the link below, great read and all the race details for Sunday are mentioned if anyone is interested. Let's hope everything goes well!

http://www.irishcycling.com/publish/news/art_5466.shtml

2nd Place Last Year

So to finish this off, firstly I'd like to say thanks for reading. Quite a short update but it's harder to sit a write these damn things than a lot of people think. Sunday/Monday night I should have the race report up and hopefully I'll be pleased! Stay tuned!

Some Pictures from the Des Hanlon and Ras Luimni courtesy of Amy-Norah Farrell and Vincent "Puka" O'Connor.

Me(Left) and Shaun Rigley(Right) Lining out the Peleton in the
neutralized section of the Des Hanlon in Carlow! Ha 

At the start line at The Ras Luimni last weekend. 

Race Day No.5: Ras Luimni

Hello everyone, today I raced the Ras Luimni which was held in Caherconlish, Limerick. With the clocks going forward by an hour last night, the alarms for this morning were a bit confusing but everything was ok, thank god! Just thought I'd throw that in there.. Anyway this morning when I woke I was a bit disappointed not to see the clear blue skies like yesterday, it was dull and cold! Today was always going to be interesting as the underage season was kicking off for the boys. With Jack in the u12 event, Dion, Conor Healy, Suraj Theratile and Mad Mick O Hara all in the u14 and finally David and Corey Hayes in the u16 event the club had a good showing! We arrived early and the lads got ready for their races. The mood in the camper club was good, but you could feel some of the lads nerves as it was their first race. Understandable I suppose! Anyway in the end Jack finished his first ever race in style only coming in a minute or two down on the winner, Dion was 4th, and David and Corey were in the leading group of 16s but just outside the prizes! Good start to the season for the Underage.

Jack was in the mood!

Anyway enough about all them, this blog is about me isn't it? haha! My race, where to start. On the build up to the race I was looking forward to racing the normal but when I met the man himself Dan Curtin the plans for the day changed. He told me to race the A1/A2 race and to be honest I was very excited as I wanted to try one for a while now, I obviously knew it would be faster and harder but this made me even more excited and I couldn't wait! So after socializing a bit I got ready and lined up at the start.

Being with some big names in Irish Cycling was a bit nerve-wrecking but when we started the nerves quickly shook off! Straight away the pace was set very high and attacks were going inside the first few kilometers. It didn't take long before the main breakway of the day slipped away and with a riders from The Edge, Sport Active, Blarney and Carrick Wheelers all in the breakaway it was almost certain that they were going to stay away. Even though I wasn't on the break, I was in the main group, and believe me it was still very fast. Especially when you compare it to the other races I've done. Most of the time the race was lined out and it was great knowing I didn't need to worry about anyone being dangerous around me as I knew all the riders in the race were serious hard working riders and there was not one dodgy moment, even at the finish it was safe! In the end, there was 4 riders away, then another 3 and then there was the bunch. In the final kilometers I was being pushed around a bit and found it hard to stay around the front 10-20 riders. So when I eventually got to the outside I got a nice ride up towards the front on the Kanturk train (A whole 2 riders)! Like I always do, I started the sprint and held off until around 75-100m to go when 4 or 5 riders passed me, all top sprinters! (Daniel Clifford, Mick O'Reilly, Thomas Lavery and Brendan McLoughlin) and I finished up around 12th 13th-ish! I am very pleased with my result today and it was definitely a great experience, now I'm really looking forward to racing the 'A' race again in Fermoy. Paidi O'Brien of the Sport Active team took the win today in impressive fashion and I'm going to attach a link of the review on Irish Cycling if your interested on reading more.

http://www.irishcycling.com/publish/news/art_5455.shtml

Fooling Around Out Training!

Savage Weather Saturday!

So, thats just a quick update on how my race went today and now I'm really looking forward to next weeks race which is in Fermoy as I mentioned above! I'll have another blog update before the race I'm sure. So that's it for today, Stay Tuned!

Eoin

WattBike Testing and Other News..

Hello everyone, been very quiet as of late mainly because theres not much to talk about and I don't like writing pointless blogs, makes sense doesn't it? Anyway this week has been easy enough the training wasn't overly hard because of the Watt test at the end of the week, and of course I wanted to be in decent shape for it. So in the days leading up to it I tried to rest as much as I could, eat well etc etc.. I also had a physio session yesterday which was interesting. Found out the reason for my cramping in the last few km's of the Des Hanlon and were working to sort that out!

Now lets get on to the most interesting part of the week, the WattBike test I had this evening with Martin O'Loughlin in Clonmel. Of course I was early, as always. I find it better to get to places nice and early, gives you time to relax and get ready at a chilled out speed instead of rush! So I got time to watch Richard Hooton, who is part of the u23 squad, do his test and I definitely felt his pain. So after doing a minor warm up, Martin fitted my pedals on the bike and fixed the saddle height etc.. Then I continued my warm up before the first test which was the max. spin test. After that came the max. power test and finally the 3 minute power threshold test and obviously there was time gaps between them all. The 3 minute test really does look a lot easier than it is, and it was one of the longest 3 minutes of my life, and the last 30 seconds were a killer! Overall I'm really satisfied with my results and it was a good experience! Thanks again to Martin for taking the time out to do the test for us.

PAIN!

The plan for the weekend is pretty simple, training and relaxing tomorrow and racing on Sunday. This Sunday is the Ras Luimni is Caherconlish, Co. Limerick. For us the race is 75km but its hard to call on what way it will pan out. Breakaway or not? So the camper club will be on the road again. Dion, Jack, Lil' Davy and Myself will all be racing. Jacks first race ever and the lads first race of the season, so hopefully we'll have a good day!

Thats all for now sorry for the lack of exciting blogs. Believe me if I had something interesting to say I would say it, until next time - Stay tuned!

Eoin

Race Day No.4 : Des Hanlon Memorial Classic

Hi everyone, well today was my 4th race day of the season at as you can probably see it was the Des Hanlon Memorial Classic in Carlow. Watching the Milan-San Remo yesterday gave me a bit of inspiration, great entertainment and what a win by Matt Goss of HTC Colombia.

Ok onto today, I woke very early this morning 6.30ish I think it was. Did all the normal things people do I don't think I have to explain. We decided to take my car today and all the gear seems to fit perfectly and still leaves lots of space, which is extremely handy! We set off at roughly 7.45 but I wasn't driving, Mammy was - Awww! The reason being I'm only driving a week or so and needed to relax before the race etc etc.. We arrived in Carlow at 9.30 just in time for the opening of sign-on, and we were one of the first there which is always good. After having a good chat and catch up with some of the guys I got ready did a small warm up with some of the guys and the racing eventually got underway around 12. The first few kilometers through the town were neutralized and when we were left off everyone was racing and there was a few very optimistic guys attacking straight away. The first part of the race was the pretty much the same as Carrick the way it was always hard to stay towards the front. Few near misses and touching of wheels! Well I guess thats expected in a bunch of 140 guys.

Things got a bit better when we turned off the main road at Castlecomer and started climbing. Quickly enough it was lined out and splitting a bit. Surprisingly enough after the first lap over the hill or mountain should I say, the group was rather large and didn't seem to split much until we started the second loop. Here, I got a fright! When i went to change to the small ring the derailleur decided to stay where it was and the chain go a different way, causing the chain to completely lock up. I had to stop and fix this and luckily enough I caught back on very quickly. The rest of the race was very difficult and especially going over the climbs for the second time the legs were definitely hurting. There was a break-away at about 1.15 from pretty early in on in the race which nobody could pull back. Coming over the top of the last climb there was a group or around 30-odd and a group of 3 managed to creep off the front in the final kilometers. I stayed close to the front on the decents to try and keep out of trouble as much as possible. With roughly 6km to there was an oil spillage on some narrow bridges which we were warned about before and during the race. So that slowed things down a lot! In the final kilometers of the 108km race my legs were cramping, so I went to the very back and rested up as much as possible. Attacks started going with 1km to go and my legs came around enough to sprint and I managed to get 7th and pick up a few points. No prize this time but the points are more valuable to me, and considering I wasn't planning on sprinting I was delighted to win the bunch sprint.

Overall, a great and very hard day on the bike and I hope there'll be plenty more like today! Next on the schedule is the WattBike testing for the Irish Squad and the Ras Luimni at the weekend. The WattBike test consists of a 10 sec max rev test, 10 max power test and a 3 minute power threshold test. Sounds fun!

Ok thats it for today, stay tuned during the week for some more updates!

Eoin

Race Day No.3 : Carrick Cabs Cup

Hello everyone, been a over a week since I've updated last as I've been busy running around the place and haven't had the chance to sit down and type up one of these. So what has been happening?

Firstly, last weekend. The race in Newbridge, decided to give it a skip for a weekend and get some training in instead. From what I hear there was a massive field and it was madness, a bit like the race I did yesterday in Carrick-on-Suir which I'll explain more about in a while. So to end my story on this - If it was anything like yesterday I'm delighted I didn't go.

During the week I didn't get up to much and nothing really happened, just the normal. On Wednesday we had a half day and I went Paintballing with the boys in Kartworld, Watergrasshill for David's birthday (By the way, not such a great idea the day before a race). The paintballs themselves hurt enough, but after the games we sat down and I almost forgot that I can't run, I really can't! Whenever I do run usually my legs could be sore for days, impact on the muscles I'm guessing. So that wasn't too good considering I had a race the next day, but then again I'm still young and need to have fun every now and again! I'll leave ye a with a pic of some bruises one of the boys got, some serious stuff:

Finally onto the Carrick Cabs Cup race held on Paddy's Day. Have to say it was strange not seeing the parade, first year I've ever missed it! Woke up nice and early to get a good breakfast in and get organised and the legs were in bits. Walking down the stairs was even sore, and not only that but I felt a cold coming on. Had a stuffy nose and sore throat - so that had me worried before we even left. When we arrived at Carrick-on-Suir I signed on, got ready all the usual stuff and decided to try and forget about how I'm feeling and just race. The race got underway at 12 noon. The A3's and A4's were racing together under a handicap of 2 or 3 mins over a 68km race. So when we got going the speed was high enough from the start and was always a bit dodgy. There was guys dodging cats eye's and nearly running into other people etc.. It was scary enough at times let me tell you! After the first lap we caught the large group of A4's on probably the only climb of the day and that when it all started to get a bit chaotic, there was around 150 riders, cars, crashes, jamming on the breaks and so on.. The race just wasn't enjoyable at all probably one of the most un-enjoyable races I've ever been in. Every time you'd move up towards the front around 10 or 20 guys would follow and come around you and block you in and then your back to square one again, and believe me that p*ssed me off big time! To be honest even writing this is annoying me so I'm going to fast forward a bit. The finish, what a disaster! They had a car parked on the right-hand side of the road with about 500m to go which caused me to stop completely as nobody would leave me out! Believe me, I wasn't too happy. Also my team-mate Olan crashed in the final stages, it was just terrible. This kind of stuff would only happen in Ireland.

Next on the schedule is the Des Hanlon Memorial in Carlow on Sunday, tough circuit and I hope to god it splits up- A lot! I wont talk too much about it, because I'll have nothing to write about in my next blog then.
Some details : Sign on in Eire Og GAA clubhouse O’Brien Rd Carlow - open at 9.00 am. Showers and changing rooms available and refreshments afterwards. John O Brien 085-2497556 / carlowrcc@gmail.com 150k/100k/60k 11am-11.45am Eire Og GAA Club, Carlow 087-9170704

Anyway I have to hit the road, busy busy! Thanks for reading everyone, I know this probably isn't one of my best updates but there will be better. Promise! Stay Tuned!

Eoin

Driving.. Me Mad!

Hi everyone, just a quick update on the latest news etc. since Monday. Tuesday I came home to a very pleasant surprise. My first car parked in the drive! It's a Green Opel Astra Estate 1.4 16v and I'm delighted with it, will be great service wagon for racing and should be on the road soon. Here are some pictures :

After a pretty hectic weekend this week has been hard. Monday and Tuesday I felt drained and tired. Going to bed too late and waking up too early could be the cause. This tiredness was causing me to nearly fall asleep in school and study and put me in terrible moods! After having a relatively easy day on Tuesday, I started to come around Wednesday. Didn't feel as drained but I was definitely still tired, I did some work on the rollers and felt pretty good after it! Today, I took the day off school to freshen up a bit a get my head together and I feel a lot better already.

This weekend there is racing in Newbridge, Co.Kildare. The race itself is sponsored by The local credit union and with the Mick Cahill Mem. in Banteer been cancelled it looks likely that there will be a big turn out in Newbridge. Myself I am still undecided on whether to go or not but more than likely I'll be racing. Hopefully it will be good and hopefully if I race another result will come!
   
Race Details Newbridge CU GP: 
Leinster Sun 13-Mar RR A+/A1/A2/A3/A4 Newbridge Credit Union GP Newbridge GP. The racing is for separate races for A4, A3 and (A+/A1 -- A2 Subject to numbers) Start Times as follow:- * A4 = 11:10am Start ( 2 Laps) 17.5km * A+ / A1 = 12:40pm Start ( 7 Laps) 17.5km * A2 = 12:45pm Start ( 6 Laps) 17.5km * A3 = 12:50pm Start ( 3 Laps) 17.5km * Sign On Open at Newbridge Greyhound stadium from 9:30am.

The Pro scene, this has been something I've been looking to write about for a while. The Paris-Nice and Tirreno-Adriatico have been keeping me entertained the past few days with some exciting sprint finishes and lot's of people hitting the deck in the Paris-Nice. Not nice when it happens to you but when you see it happen on TV it's a lot more exiting! Personally I'm really happy that Contador had success at the Tour of Murcia, shows how good he really is after all that has happened to him in last few months. Delighted he could pull it off! 

Anyway I've done enough talking, typing (whatever you like to call it) for one day. Not my best of updates but should be another soon. What do ye think of the blog's new look? Stay Tuned!

Eoin

Race Day No.2: Cycling Pursuits Cup

Hello everyone. It's that time again, time to get typing! Just had a very busy weekend and to say the least I'm pretty tired today. In this post I intend to give a bit of information about everything that happened over the weekend at the latest news etc etc..

I'll start with Friday/Saturday, I spent my Friday night packing gear and getting things organised for the early trip on Saturday morning. The most exiting part of the night was taking the pedals from my winter bike, what a Friday night! The pedals always cause a stir even on the best of days! 

Saturday morning I had an early rising, think it was about 6 when the dreaded alarm went off. After getting prepared my Dad and I got going for Sundrive Road Velodrome. As I mentioned in my last blog update Cycling Ireland were holding a Squad day at the track to assess us on the track. We arrived in Dublin at 9.30ish and I got my 52cm track bike set up! Yes 52cm for a 6"1ish guy, crazy but thats all that was left, first come - first serve! I got on the track with the accreditation group as soon as possible and we went through the basic stuff. Didn't take long to adapt to the track thank god. Last time I was on the track must have been 3 years ago in Wales on the indoor velodrome. After the accreditation the Juniors had to re-sign on and we had a quick briefing on the coaching session that we had coming up in the afternoon. We then headed to the track to prepare for the coaching session and got briefed on some of the events we were going to be doing. They split us into 2 groups and I was in a group with some very experienced track riders and national champs which was pretty good to see how I was compared to them. First thing we did was the warm up which almost turned into a race towards the end which was surprising, I thought the warm up was going to be easy! Anyway after that we were taken off the track and the second group did their warm-up while Hugh Byrne and Terry Cromer briefed us on the flying 200. They explained that this was probably one of the most difficult events to get right and there was no pressure on the guys who hadn't done it before. They set us off in a way so that the more experienced riders went first so we could see what way to approach it. After doing the 200 I knew I could have went faster, but I guess that's always the case! I was using a 52cm Dolan but I was a tad worried about the handlebars because every time I put pressure on them I could hear them creaking. Wasn't risking anything and for that reason I feel I could have been way faster especially on the 300m TT. Other events we did we the flying 4 laps and a scratch race at the end. By the time the scratch race came along the legs were sore! All the starting and stopping was getting to my legs as it was freezing! After everything we thanked the coaches and left before the u23's hit the track. Big thanks again to all the coaches for making it such a great enjoyable day.

We left Dublin at 2.30ish and were heading in the direction of Killarney for "The Script" at the INEC. With a bit of a nap on the way down we arrived in Fermoy at 4.30 which was pretty good time and we got going again at 5 o clock after a quick fresh-up! It took nearly as long to get to Killarney as it did Dublin but we arrived at 6.30 which was the time the doors were opening, we were cutting it tight! Don't want to get into too much details on the concert but it was one of the best nights I've had in a long time, good laugh with the boys it was such a great concert!

So, Sunday morning I woke and decided I might as well race the Cycling Pursuits Cup in Broadford. So me and my Dad got prepared and went to Tesco for breakfast (Hmm.. Breakfast). Always love breakfast, definitely my favorite meal of the day! Anyway lets get back to my story, we headed for the race in a great mood but we were both very tired underneath it all. Wasn't too sure on how the race was going to go considering such a long day the day before but we got there early got prepared and I couldn't wait to get started! I warmed up with some of the guys and we went up the first part of the climb we had to do 4 times, looked like hard stuff! The race finally kicked off and I must admit it felt good to sit in a group for a little while, was different to last weekend!I kept myself in decent positions all day so that if any breaks or moves went I could quickly react. Hitting the climb 4 times in 2 hours was pretty hard on the legs. Every lap the group would split up more and more and I was always in the top 10 riders going over the top! The Blarney lads (Credit to them) controlled the race when their man Eoin Cummins (the eventual winner) got away. We tried a lot of different things but the gap was just too big to shut down! Coming to the finish I knew I had to position myself better than I did at the Lacey Cup because the finish was similar in there being a decent the whole way until the last 200-300 metres. Olan Barrett did his best to give me a lead out but guys were getting exited and started sprinting up the sides so I knew at that stage I had to be in either 2nd or 3rd going into the last corner which I was! In the sprint I got pushed over towards the curb which I wasn't too happy about but I guess that's racing, these things happen! I was 4th in the end which I was pretty happy with considering all that happened the day before. Great circuit, great organisation and great turnout. Overall I really enjoyed the day and really glad I did it.

So to wrap things up I'd like to thank for you for taking the time to read this update. Stay tuned!

Eoin

Busy Weekend Ahead!

Hello, how is everyone doing? Wow, this is hard. What to write and say, hard work these blogs! So lets get started. Since Monday I've been recovering, training, physio etc.. the usual really! School has been depressing this week as I've seen one of my fellow squad members after moving to Belgium and I'm stuck in St.Colman's. Oh how I'd love to be finished! This week I've been thinking a lot about my performance at the Lacey Cup also and in reflection I'm pretty happy with it. Have to take into consideration who I was riding against and how challenging the race was being up the road from the start, but enough about that, lets move on...

This weekend is going to be a real busy one for me. On Saturday Cycling Ireland are holding an Elite & Development track day at Sundrive road Velodrome, Dublin. This is something I'm looking forward to as the Juniors will be coming together as a squad for the first time apart from a few that cannot make it, obviously. So I have to be in Dublin on Saturday morning at 9.30 to get a track bike set up for me and so I can be accredited on the track itself. Must be 3 or 4 years since the last time I was on the track so I'm excited to get back on it and do something different!
When the track session is finished I'll be making my way to Killarney for "The Script" live at the INEC. This is something I've been looking forward to for a long time as they are probably my favorite band and that will be a chill-out night for me and hopefully a good night with everyone.

The plan for Sunday then is to race the Cycling Pursuits Cup in Broadford, dependent on how I'm feeling after all the travelling the day before etc.. From what I've heard its a tough course with a lot of climbing and I suppose thats good as it splits the field up a lot more, but it certainly won't be easy to be there in the end! Again Tommy Campbell has written a great piece on Irish Cycling on the race: http://www.irishcycling.com/publish/news/art_5415.shtml

Course Profile

Course Map

I'm excited about racing again and this time the race isn't tun on the handicap basis so there will be 3 separate races. We'll see what happens, I might not be racing at all!

So this was just a quick update on everything really, I know, I know it was useless but what can I do! Better than nothing eh? Ok so stay tuned for more updates soon. Thanks for reading.

Eoin