Paddy Flanagan

Just back from a super weekends racing at the Paddy Flanagan. Team mate and all round top dawg Colm Cassidy took the overall honours over the three stage event.

The race went pretty much as we would have hoped - it must be the first time we have got something tactically spot on. I was up the road in the early break on stage one with team mates sitting on getting a free ride in the chase group behind. The chase group eventually caught the break making a strong twenty man front group with all the GC contenders. Casso attacked getting third on the stage and a few precious seconds on the chasers.

A good TT put Casso into yellow for the afternoon crit around Newbridge town center. As expected the crit was fast and furious. There was three right hand turns in the course, this was a slight concern as neither me nor casso can go around right hand bends. With only a three second lead in the overall it was never going to be an easy afternoon but we managed to keep it all together and hold onto the jersey. The team was super strong with Ciaran, Fiachra and a few friends putting in a solid shift to hold onto the jersey.




Great result for Casso and UCD!

World Cup in Segovia

I rode my first tandem World Cup races last week. It was a enjoyable but very different experience to road racing. Everything on the tandem seems to happen in slow motion, you can see where you want to move in the bunch but it doesn't pan out the way you imagine it. I am not entirely sure of the reason, the bike is a lot less responsive than a standard solo bike - slower to accelerate, slower to corner and cumbersome to maneuver.

I rode a 21km TT and a 108km Road Race finishing pretty much middle of the road in the races. The result was roughly as expected for a debut off the back of a difficult Ras.

A very enjoyable week for the squad was capped off by a Gold Medal performance by the girls tandem (Fran Meehan and Catherine Walsh) and a double Gold for World Champion Mark Rohan.

It's back to road racing on the solo bike for me but the week in Segovia was a welcome change of pace.

The Ras

Well the Ras updates didn't go to plan.
It was always going to be a struggle. I was so shattered after every stage that the last thing I wanted to do was start typing shit and pretending I wasn't shattered.

The Ras was a struggle but I was racing. Some lads go to the Ras just to survive - I was one of those last year. There is nothing shameful about surviving the Ras, it is something that should be celebrated. Other lads who are capable of racing but for one reason or another, choose not to race and simply follow wheels all week - these are the lads I don't understand. I enjoy the aggressive side of racing, there is no fun for me in following wheels all week without sticking your nose in the wind.

It was an eventful week. Sometimes I attacked, sometimes I followed and other times I held on for dear life. I was in small breakaways at the front of the race, sprinting for the win on stages and out the back in the cars. I was sunburnt and soaked - the week had it all.

I'm not going to drone through eight days in a narrative.
The highlight,race wise, was finishing up 23rd on GC and Second County rider. The non race related highlight was the absolute madness which was the team dinner in Blarney. I nearly wet myself laughing and my throat hasn't been the same since.

The lowlight (if that's even a word) was loosing teammate Colm Cassidy, when he was forced to abandon after a crash on stage four.

I am off to Spain on Tuesday for a World Cup on the Tandem but it shouldn't be too hectic with only a road race and time trial to compete in over the course of a week. The Ras took a fair bit out of me so I am going to re-charge the batteries and shift the engine back to neutral for a couple of weeks and build again for the nationals.