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
No comments:
Post a Comment