Race Day No.9 & 10: An Post Gorey 3-day, Stage 2,3 & 4

Hello folks, I know this is becoming regular but again I am late in updating. Must say after Saturday I was a tad fresher and had more time to write up my blog but not Sunday and Monday, Since the racing was on for longer Sunday and I had the journey home Monday! Anyway I better start writing.

Go to 3.06-3.07

Trying to get away on stage 1

Bunch Sprint on Stage 1

Stage 2, 6.4km TT:

This event is vital in stage races, it basically decides the GC if no breakways get away or no splits occur. So I tried my best to get my head in the right place. We arrived at the start of the TT a good hour and a half before my start time of 11.09. Good to get there nice and early in order to get everything together at your leisure and get a good warm up in! I started my warm up roughly 25 mins before my start and the "Foo Fighters" new album "Wasting Light" was playing to try and get me in the mood. Savage stuff! The course wasn't too bad a slight headwind and 2 small drags. The second one really killed! So I went pretty much flat out and got in at a time of around 7.46.. which is around 46/47 km/h average speed. I ended up 24th which I was pretty happy with considering I was on the road bike. Although I did have clip-ons! I've attached a video, go to around 19.30 on it, I'm the very last rider.

Stage 3:

Stage 3 was a 4 lap race of 25km circuit around Gorey. The course is pretty much flat with one KOH every lap and a few drags on the main road each lap also. The race started off pretty quick and a few attacks were flying as usual! A few riders had gone clear early on but they didn't last too long before getting swallowed up. Close enough to the half-way mark 6 riders went clear but roughly 10-20km later they were caught again, but as they were caught a group slipped away, and further into the lap another few riders had joined up with them. throughout the day I had been following a lot or attacks but had no luck getting away. At the finish, it was the same as stage 1 - Madness! I nearly got pushed it the gutter a few times and it was too fast for me to move up with my junior block, never mind sprint! I finished 27th on the stage on the same time as 5th. 4 riders had stayed away and had a 30 second gap.

Rollout on Stage 3

Stage 4:

Stage 4 was a 91.5km road race back up to Blessington, well to be exact 5km on the other side of Blessington. The race itself was fast but didn't start to split up any bit until the 40km after Tullow. 4 riders got clear and got a gap of 50 seconds to a minute. Through Rathville, Conor McIlwaine (2nd place overall) made a move to try and bridge the gap and myself along with 2 others tried also but we didn't last too long. We got over halfway up to the leaders we just couldn't close that last bit! The leaders were finally caught about 10km from the finish on the long open roads to Blessington. On the road into the finish a lot of people were trying to escape but everything got brought back and it was going to be a sprint finish! Staying near the front was getting very dangerous, I was nearly involved in 2 crashes which was quite frustrating as you get moved back the bunch a lot. After all my work staying near the front, some stupid lad crossed over infront of me about 500m to go and sat up completely almost bringing me right to the back of the bunch. I ended up having a very strong verbal argument with him and believe me I was not a happy camper after the stage, thankfully I didn't meet him as it might not have gone down well! Worst thing of all, I had good legs! Brendan Whelan of Lucan went on to take the stage.

Through Rathville, right before I attacked. Video to follow:

In the general classification I was 25th and I was pretty happy with this, it's an improvement from last year's 67th! So, thats my very quick run down on Gorey and I've finally finished this blog post. Have to run now! Got stuff to do!If your looking for GC sheets and result sheets, more pics etc.. have a look at:

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

Stay Tuned

Eoin

Race Day No.8: An Post Gorey 3-day, Stage 1

Hello everyone, finished stage 1 of the "An Post" Gorey 3-day today. Was up bright and early this morning to get on the road to Blessington where the Sign-on and start of the stage was. Todays stage was 101km in length with 3 KOH's (King Of the Hills). I knew the race was going to be a bit hectic. Almost straight away, on the rollout through Blessington I was cut up a few times and there was a lot of touching. When they let down the flag people started get very excited and started to attack. As soon as I got the chance I moved into the top 20 where I knew I'd be safe and if any decisive moves got away I could follow! Yet again whenever you move up someone would come around the outside and you'd be stuck in the middle. Exactly the place that you dont want to be! Soon after the start a breakaway of 6 riders got away, very suprisingly they pulled out a 2 minute gap and thats as big as it got I'm sure. This was THE decisive move for today and I missed it! But tomorrow is another day, lets hope I have good legs! The first KOH came after 45km, not having a clock on my bike to measure distance I was lucky enough to have a team-mate to tell me. Thanks John! I was in the top 5 riders going up the KOH and it split up quite a bit from what I hear. After all, it came back together but there was people going backwards all day. Also there was quite a few crashes. I didn't see them all but certainly heard them all.

The finish was pretty chaotic to say the least! In the last kilometer I had a a hard time trying to move up, I got cut-off so much it was almost scary! With roughly 700 metres to  go there was a roundabout so I decided to take the opposite side around that and it was a good decision. I moved up by around 10 places, but I was too close to the front with a long enough way still to go! I opened up the sprint early and with around 100 metres to go got passed by the Manx-Man Tom Mazzonne. After him and few others passed me I sat up to conserve some energy!

Overall, a good day for me. Didn't loose any time apart from the 6 riders @ 45secs. Not one of my best blog updates but I think thats all I can add for now. Bring on tomorrow!

Stay Tuned!

Eoin

Keen for Gorey!

Hello everyone, quick update today before the "An Post" Gorey 3-day which starts in the morning.
The last few days have been fun, I've had lie-ins everyday and relaxing quite a bit. I had my first puncture since around January yesterday, couldn't believe it! On inspection it was a small piece of glass on a very rough road, probably the closest thing we have to cobbles around. But I guess better out training than when I'm racing. Touch wood!

So Gorey is starting tomorrow, my first stage race of the season. Also my first of 3 coming up in the next 3 weeks. Tomorrow morning can't come fast enough, very excited. After each stage I plan to give an update so Stay Tuned!


AN POST GOREY 3 ROUTE STAGE 1

Sign on St. Kevin's Community Centre, Blessington. Start 12.00 noon.

0.0 kms Blessington
2.0kms Roundabout straight leaving Blessington N81
31.0kms Baltinglass left direction Hacketstown
40.0kms Kiltegan veer right direction Arklow
45.0kms Start KOH at bridge climb through village
45.5kms Hacketstown
46.5kms K.O.H. at 80km sign
57.0kms Tinahealy left at monument and left again at BOI over bridge turn right direction Gorey
60.1kms T Junction right direction Carnew
66.0kms Start KOH
67.6kms KOH at Cross Roads
71.0kms Carnew T Junction Left direction Gorey
80.0kms Right into Cranford start KOH
80.6kms KOH at 80kms sign Cranford
87.6kms Camolin Left
88.3kms Right off Main Road direction Ballycanew
96.3kms T Junction Left
100.2kms Roundabout straight
101.0kms Finish.

Stage 1, 2010

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

Race Day No.7: The Edge Classic, Minane Bridge

Hello everyone, hope all is well. Last week was a bit crazy, now since I can get out on the road in the evenings. Don't get me wrong  it's great I love it - it's just time consuming. But that's what cycling is! Anyway since I was busy I had hardly any time to update this, sorry to all my hardcore fans out there. I'll try not to let ye all down again! ha..

During last week I managed to get out on the road a few times as I mentioned above. Thankfully the weather was good every time so I made as much use of it as possible! I had a very interesting session Thursday which I quite enjoyed, maybe not so much at the time but afterwards I felt so good! I spent the night around the hills of Ballyhooly and Glenville in a place that we like to call "Cappacross". This session was great preparation for "The Edge Classic" which I raced yesterday. I never managed to fit in an update before the race so this is meant to be it. Not much detail, I know!

So let's get talking about the race yesterday. The scene was set in the beautiful village of Minane Bridge, roughly 4-5 miles from Carrigaline in Cork. We got there just in time for sign-on to open and had plenty time to get ready and relax. When it started to get closer to the starting time of 1 o'clock I realised that there wasn't as many people as there usually is at the races. I gathered a lot of people got turned off by the hilly course, there was still quite a lot of people in the race just not 120ish which you could usually have. This is something I was happy about as I knew I wouldn't have to fight for positions as much.

Fooling around at the start line, not sure what I'm doing!

The race started off pretty easy, we just rolled out the road to the first climb which was only a few kilometers in. When we hit the climb nobody wanted to commit themselves so early on but I decided to make a few tiny efforts to test the legs. The rest of the lap was all up and down, hardly any flat and the last climb which comes 4.5 kilometers from the finish line is the real tester, everyone knew that this climb was going to decide the race!

2nd or 3rd time round, not quite sure!

Throughout the day the group kept getting smaller and smaller as people were attacking a lot and almost every break that went I was on it. To be honest on the 3rd lap I wasn't feeling the best. I was pretty tired going onto the last lap and just hoped I'd have good legs for the sprint. On the last lap, on the decisive hill the Belgian mountain biker Simon Hupperetz who was riding for Limerick CC got clear and had around a 20 second advantage. Before the race everyone knew that if someone had a small advantage going over the top of the climb you were going to win the race, unless you are the worlds worst descender! Unfortunately coming onto the last climb I was positioned pretty badly and didn't even see the attack. Going over the top I fought my way to front because that's where I needed to be if I wanted any result. As I was completely spun out at 75km/h coming down the descent there was no way I could move anywhere, hence why I had to get to the front over the top! Coming into the finish I was 2nd in line behind Stephen Clancy of Limerick CC and a group of around 15-16 behind us. I started the sprint and just in the last 20 meters got passed for 2nd place. I ended up 3rd which I was happy with. 4 more points added and a result on the web. Hopefully that's a good thing as this race was one the Juniors were asked to go to to be assessed by the coaches etc..

Sprint for 2nd place, Comeragh CC never knew Simon was ahead!

Simon Hupperetz, Stephen Clancy, Myself and Simon Ryan
chatting about the race outside Butler's Bar in Minane Bridge

So thats my update on the race yesterday. Hat's off to Timmy Barry for organising the race, the officials, marshalls, everyone who gave up there time for helping the running of such a great race. If ye want a small bit more Tommy Campbell does have a quick round-up on results of races over the weekend etc..

Link is here:
Tommy Campbell's WEEKEND RACING ROUNDUP

To wrap up, I'm just going to let ye know what's coming up. The next few weeks will be busy- Next weekend I'll possibly be racing in Stamullen, possibly! Then after that I'll be doing 3 weekends straight of stage racing! Gorey 3-Day, Kanturk 3-Day and I'm going to the UK with the national team. Should be fun! Hope you enjoyed the read. Stay Tuned

Eoin

Race Day No.6: Silver Pail GP

Hello everyone, sorry for the late update on Sundays race, have been very busy and writing these blogs can be difficult, very difficult! So Sunday was the Silver Pail GP as ye know already, and its always a big race for me especially when its in your home town. It's always nice to get a result in front of the locals. If you're lucky enough to!

I woke around 9.30ish to have a big breakfast 3 hours before the race started, I usually do to let the process of digestion kick in and if the morning really goes well a number "2" will come before the race! After breakfast I started to get organised, went over to sign on which was only a few hundred meters from my house, which was extremely handy. When I got home the one thing I did before leaving for Castlehyde (Where the Start/Finish is) was tape the "Tour of Flanders" for viewing later on that night, and am I glad I did - Yes! On the cycle out with David I could tell it was going to be a tough day. Weather-wise it was hot but also windy which isn't good, especially on the Grange-Glanworth-Ballyhooly roads, where crosswinds and headwinds were pretty bad. God help the guy with the 808 deep sections he must have had it hard. I thought he might have been blown to Mitchelstown when I didn't see him for a while!

Anyway lets start to talk about the race itself, as soon as the flag dropped Robin Kelly of Comeragh CC attacked, and after winning the "Harry Reynolds Memorial" the day before it was clear he had good form and was a danger man! When I saw him attack I was thinking, "Oh no, I'm in for a tough day!". The first few kilometers were just attack after attack until eventually a group of 10-11 riders got away including my team-mate Michael Hennessy. Even though the break got away the pace was still very high in the bunch so I can only imagine the speed they must have been going in the break! People were getting impatient in the bunch and attacks were constant! But all but one got hauled back time after time. As the day went on things started to take there toll, staying near the front of the bunch means the pressure is on you to close gaps and hold wheels which can be tough sometimes, especially if your doing it often enough.

The 5 lap race was 100km in length overall and admittedly the last lap was a struggle, I could feel twinges in my legs which wasn't good and I hoped I could hold off a cramp until the end of the race. The main group seemed to be getting smaller and smaller throughout the day. I was looking at pictures from the first lap, then the last. Big difference! It was either a lot of people had been up the road, or out the back not 100% sure.

The last lap was a pretty tough one, I was definitely feeling the pain from my earlier efforts. The drags were difficult as people were still very aggressive with 90-odd kilometers in the legs! I was feeling good on the flat sections but the elevated areas were difficult. I thought I might just survive cramp as I knew the course so well and where to go easier and harder etc.. but no! On literally on of the last little hills my hamstrings completely locked up and I could go nowhere. And quite typically as I pedalled over the hill I could feel the cramp ease out when I got back on the flat but it was too late at that stage to get back on. There was only roughly a kilometer to go so it wasn't all that bad. Of course I wasn't the happiest afterwards but in reflection I was "a small fish, in a big pond", I still enjoyed the race and as a 17 year old I have plenty experience to gain! Every race I seem to learn more and more about technical aspects and when I start to put all these little things I'm doing wrong together, it should make a difference, well hopefully! So thats my quick enough re-cap on the Silver Pail don't want to bore people.

So since Sunday I've been in recovery mode. Yesterday I was pretty tired my legs were aching going up stairs, down stairs etc..  But today has been a bit better. I did an easy ride and had a massage straight after so hopefully that will help recovery! My physio has assigned exercises for me to do to strengthen certain parts of my body to try and avoid cramp happening again so I'm happy with that and if we can work together to keep my body at 100% its good news. So back to work tomorrow!

The plan for the weekend is to ride the "Edge Classic" in Minane Bridge, Cork. The Irish equivalent to the "Tour of Flanders" according to Tommy Campbell on Irish Cycling. Should be fun! I'll update on either Friday on Saturday on the build up to that and some news that I have to tell but for now, That's all! Excuse any bad grammar.. Stay Tuned!

Eoin