Junior Tour of Ireland Report

I know I said in my last update that I would try and get an update written every night but with no internet connection it was impossible.. So now that I have connection here we go:

Stage 1 - Junior Tour of Ireland (4km Mountain TT):

Not much to say about the TT to be honest. I rode like a sack of sh*t but still reckon my time given was wrong. I was given 9.12 but when I stopped my clock it was in the 8's not 100% sure exactly what second but I definitely wasn't in the 9's! I'm surely not going that bad?

Stage 2 - Junior Tour of Ireland (110kms Westport-Westport):

After my unpleasant result on Tuesday night I was in the mood to try something on Wednesday. Tried a few times in the opening 10-15km and got pulled back each time, I think the biggest the gap I got was 25 seconds! Shortly after that two of the "Hot Tubes" riders (Yannick Eckmann & Paul Lynch) got away and rode very well together. After 50km we had the first KOH at Lenane. I attacked again over the top and thought I might have picked up some points but that wasn't the case! I was brought back and a few km's later I attacked again and rode pretty steady in hope someone would join me, they did, but after a minute or two we were brought back as "Hot Tubes" were marking everything!

Over the next KOH which was only a few km's later the race split to bits! The pace was set high and when someone left a wheel go it was very hard to close. Over the top there was a group of 10 or so riders, so I got a bit unlucky to just miss that! After the climb there was a terribly rough decent where my chain came off the outside and was almost wrapped around my foot! Luckily enough I could get it back on without having to stop, but all hopes of getting across were lost.

For the rest of the race I was in a group of around 20 riders and by the end of the day we were down @5.15 on the leaders, lets just say lots of guys were riding the glass cranks!

Stage 3 - Junior Tour of Ireland (113km Castlebar-Ballycastle):

The longest stage of the Junior Tour and what a long day it was. When the flag dropped I attacked, as you do! After about a minute I looked back and saw a group of 5 riders bridging and when we joined up started to work together well. Quickly enough we had 47secs, then 54, then well into the minute and at one point we were over 2mins. Although we were riding well and had a big gap I knew being in that particular break was a recipe for disaster and as the gap was falling I tried to save my legs and not go too deep over the climbs, as I knew I'd need that energy for the last 15km. Roughly an hour into the race 4 of us were hauled back by the "Hot Tubes" outfit and 2 brave boys stayed out in the war-zone!

When I sat back into the bunch I had sore legs from the earlier efforts and found it very hard to recover and I didn't, at all! Being honest, the rest of the race was a struggle until the last 15km where I somehow found some sort of legs and made the vital split over the KOH's. All 3 of them! I had no water or gels for the last 20-25km so I was just waiting for that moment when the tank ran dry, but luckily enough it didn't and I rode to Ballycastle in the group contesting the win. It contained roughly 25 riders! The reason I had no water or gels is because I was being a little girl and was scared to go to the car incase I didn't have any legs to get back on - played it safe! Thats how sore they were, but hey I'm only human!

I'm very happy with how the stage went, especially as my legs were sh*te, could have went a lot worse.. But I'm not happy with how my GC was going, I deserved to be in a lot higher position than I was in, again the glass cranks were being used but I guess that's racing!

Stage 4 - Junior Tour of Ireland (91km Achill):

On paper, stage 4 was going to be decider and Achill never fails to disappoint! The conditions were windy, slightly wet (Not lashing) and not so warm which left the roads greasy. The select group was decided only 2-3km into the race when there was a mass pile-up, which saw up to 20 riders including myself involved!

 Unfortunately for me I was just moving up when the crash happened, still not sure exactly how it happened, but I was going pretty fast at the time. Luckily I didn't hit the ground, it's still a mystery how! I had my head down while moving up (just for a second) then when I looked up I had no time to stop quickly enough so I ran into the back of someone putting them into the ditch and just about saved myself from going over the bars while there was a bike hitting me from the right! On the save, I came down very hard on my right knee and smashed it on the top tube which immediately gave me a dead leg. Being so hungry to do well, I was one of the first to get going again and chased as hard as I could, but the bunch (or select group) drove on which gave us no chance. After sitting behind the car for 10mins or so I knew that my leg was dead but thought it might go away, until we started hitting some hills which put my knee under some strain. Some strain went to pain and pain went to not being able to put much pressure on it, so I wasn't it a good way! Thoughts started running through my mind of people who I knew with bad (long-term) knee injuries and I definitely didn't want one especially as I was going to Belgium a few days after. I had to abandon the race..

So that's my "Junior Tour" story. Not the mot enjoyable and it was really upsetting having to leave the race.

Now I am preparing for my long trip to Belgium and I'm leaving on Thursday. I'm back to Oudenaarde for more fun and games. So expect a blog update soon, stay tuned

Slan, Eoin