Tough times never last, but tough people do...

The last few weeks have been busy to say the least. I finished my exams on Friday the 15th of June and went straight into training and racing. I am now a full time cyclist and what a feeling that is! Although things are not all running smoothly the last week or so has been tough...

I rode the Cork Championships and finished 3rd behind "fast-man" Paidi O'Brien and "man of the Ras" Eddie Barry after 2 days of training hard. I was active from start to finish and surprisingly felt really good after just finishing exams. After a number of attacks I finally got a gap and was joined by 3 more riders and the winning breakaway was formed. Unfortunately I just got caught out leading out the sprint - so 3rd it was!

Sticky Bottle Report: Cork Champs

Photos courtesy of Karen M. Dunne

200m to go...

The night after was the Stephen Roche GP in Dundrum, Dublin. I've never raced it before so was really excited to give it a go as it always looks like a great event. The circuit is so small it is really reminiscent of a Belgian criterium! All was going well and legs were feeling good until about 7-8 laps to go when someone smashed my back wheel breaking spokes, so it was game over! Although the night was great my 2 little bro's, Dion and Jack both won their races so a successful night for us.

Sticky Bottle : Set of photos from Stephen Roche GP

On the attack!

Nico Roche and I at the Roche GP

Nationals...

Warming up 

I only rode the TT this year but not too much to report on it to be honest, basically in the days leading up to it felt a bit of stress on my knee cap and found out the morning of the TT that I had some inflamed tendons (Tendonitis). I got the green light to ride it after being strapped up. Turns out I could barely push the pedals into the headwind, for the first half I had to stay in the bars and not the extensions. There was too much pressure while on the extensions. My first half was absolutely terrible, I nearly got in the car but knew at the halfway point it may improve with the tailwind and by god it did! Not trying to make any excuses, just explaining why my performance was severely under par. I did a time of 51mins 50secs for the 35km course. Respectable enough considering how badly things went! 

For the TT I am going to do something very unorthodox of myself. I will post a Garmin file! I want ye to see for yourselves how I couldn't push into the headwind for the first half, and want ye to see how big the improvement was on the way back to Cahir. It was like turning the turbo setting from 10 to 1! Here it is:

Nationals TT File - P.S. Started 15secs early, Stopped 15secs late.

Photo of me in action courtesy of Ciaran Fallon 

I tested my knee the day before the Nationals by riding the course in some very good company (Matt Brammeier, An Post lads, etc..). The knee was 50/50 and wasn't feeling the best. After an excellent talk with top coach Andy Sparks, I was advised by Andy, my coach Martin O'Loughlin and Paddy Doran to give the Road Race a skip. Thankfully I did - however much it killed me to do it! I went to the Fermoy Physiotherapy Clinic where I was checked out and the diagnosis is a mild Tendonitis. A week or so off the bike and I should be back to normal - but I am going to treat this with respect! Better to miss a few days longer rather than turning a short term injury into a potentially year-long one. Just disappointing as I spend a lot of time keeping my body in good nic, but I guess thats just the way it goes!

Finished exams, nationals are over and now putting together the finishing touches before I start getting my things together and packing for Belgium where I will spend the remainder of my season. I will again be based in Oudenaarde, in the region of Flanders where my team "ASFRA-Flanders Racing" are based also. So I'm looking forward to leaving next Tuesday! My next blog will be from Belgium and I will spend the next few weeks over there recuperating and looking after my knee.

Until next time...

Eoin

Exciting Times Lay Ahead...

Quick update today before things get busy. I am currently in the middle of my last exams "EVER" in school so therefore things are very quiet on the racing front. I have however been training! Not as much as I'd like but just doing enough to keep some sort of fitness. 

However I have raced 2 league races, 1 being a TT and the other is 30km road race where I placed 2nd on both occasions. The TT was held in Patrickswell, Co. Limerick on course #1 of the Cycling Pursuits  Time Trial League, Patrickswell-Croom-Patrickswell (18.5km). I was very excited about the TT which is unusual, but the reason being it was my first proper TT of the season (The other being the short 2-3km TT in Ulster) and I was interested to see how it would feel. I had been working on my TT position and got to put it to use by placing 2nd with an average speed of 43.4km/h with a time of 25.05 for the very rolling course (That was with leg warmers, jacket, normal helmet etc..) - It was fun! 

The other race was my local league race in Fermoy. Attacked, attacked again, and again... and after a series of attacks, must have been about 7 brainless attacks I eventually got away and was joined by 2 others. One being a man fresh off the RAS who beat me in the end which is pretty understandable. 

Weather has been generally fantastic in the past month however it.. (See pictures..)

Went from this...

To this!

The last few days have been pissing down with rain. A months worth of rain in 36hrs! I was forced onto the turbo trainer which is always a good motivation test every now and again. So hopefully I will get out tomorrow in some decent weather.

When my tests end I will then for the first time in my life become a full-time athlete - which for me is a very exciting prospect! I will have a week or so to prepare for the Nationals including the Stephen Roche GP on Wednesday the 20th, Friday the 22nd the National TT Champs on my training roads in Cahir and then the National RR Champs on Sunday the 24th of June. It's not ideal but it is what it is now! A week following the Nationals I will be on my travels. Back to the school of hard knocks that is - Belgium! 

Until next time,

Eoin