Race Day 14: Ken O' Keefe Memorial

Yesterday we all traveled to Whitechurch, Cork which isn't too far from home. When I say we all I mean, My dad, Dion, Jack and myself. Going to the race I wasn't too sure how it was going to go, the reason being the hard TT I did on Saturday but no matter how it went it was going to be a good training session! The course is a pretty lumpy one with a 3km drag up to the finish and it gradually gets steeper before you do a U-turn and go downhill along a lumpy road for 6 or 7km, then another turn onto a secondary road with good surfacing and back to the 3km drag, and to make things worse - there was a headwind! Before getting ready for my race my dad and I got the boys ready for their racing. I gave Dion the race tactics to the best I could ,and did he do me proud! Coming around after the first lap there was around 5 away and he was sitting in 2nd position going over the top of the climb. After the U-turn, he attacked and soloed to victory about a minute ahead, to take his first open race win ever! And yes, he is only 12! Jack however, finished in 9th place and was happy with his day's racing. He is enjoying it more and more every time!

Legend!

Now, onto my race. Before my race I was getting ready and seemed to strain a muscle in my back, didn't want to make a big deal of it as people may think I was making excuses but I genuinely was not! I tried to cycle around a bit and hoped it would loosen out, but no luck.

My Dad rubbed some Deep heat into the area in pain to hope it would ease the pain and it did, for a while! 

When the race began attacks were going almost straight away, like always. But, like always, they were brought back time after time. After a few km's a break got away of around 8 or so riders, At the beginning it didn't look like it would stay away but as soon as it started to look promising I attacked across just at the start of the drag up to the finish line. When I got across the group split and 5 of us got a gap. For the next lap the 5 of us rode pretty hard but got no luck getting caught just about a kilometre from the line. 

After getting caught, I sat in the bunch to try and recover. Typically, this is when the main break of the day started to form. This is also when my back started to give a bit of trouble, getting out of the saddle was very sore and I tried to avoid it as much as possible but when attacks are going and there are a few punchy climbs it's hard to stay in the saddle. Throughout the day small groups were going off the front and I was very much a part of most of them. On the 5th lap, of the 7 lap race, we began to see the breakaway and the gap was coming down. Of course, I wasn't chasing as I had 2 team-mates in the first group, just following anyone else who was willing to chase. On the 6th lap a group of 7 or so went away in pursuit of the break-away and when the moment came, I attacked across and probably couldn't have timed it better! After turning onto the main road on the way to the finish we could see the break but with only 4 riders working we were never going to catch them, even though the gap was only 25 seconds. I rode in with this group and didn't contest the sprint, which left me in 13th position.

I was happy enough with my performance and felt strong throughout, but I think if I didn't make it into that group it would be a different story! 13th isn't all that bad.

Now, the "back" situation. After the race it seemed to get worse and worse as the night went on. I had to go to physio today and get it checked out just to make sure everything is ok. Wouldn't be convenient to get an injury at this time of the year, as I have a big few months ahead! 

Anyway, I don't want to keep ye reading forever, because if your still reading by now your probably thinking - "Whens this going to end?" well here it is. Stay tuned!

Eoin