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.

Updates on the Ras

I will do my best to keep the site updated over the next eight days.

Stage 1 is tomorrow morning, starting at 12 o clock in Dunboyne and finishing in Portumna.

It's time I got to bed.

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPhone]

The Shay Elliot Memorial

Well.....The Shay Elliot Memorial didn't go to plan last Sunday.

I had problems from the very start with my rear mech. SRAM make some of the worst products I have ever used. Despite the mechanicals problems I managed to sneak off into a small group going up the main climb of the day. We had six in the group and were closing in on Irvine and Gallagher (who got 6th & 7th) - we were, however, in no danger of actually catching the winning move. The gap was coming down nicely when I realised I didn't recogise the roads, never a good sign when you know the course. I put my temporary amnesia down to low sugar levels or the taste of blood in my mouth after the climb but no. We had gone the wrong the way.

I am not entirely sure who was to blame and blame doesn't do much good anyway. We went from having a couple of minutes gap on the main bunch to having a one minute deficit. For no other reason than to hurt our legs some more we kept chasing until we re-gained contact with the bunch which thirty minutes previously we had fled.

Can I take any positives from the race? - yes! The race turned out to be a good 140km training session and the UCD lads (including Ras guest riders) were strong at the weekend.

I am looking forward to the Ras starting this Sunday and hopefully UCD are well placed for the county prizes.

Noel Hammond Memorial

The Noel Hammond was the perfect opportunity to gauge my form a couple of weeks before the start of the Ras.

The organisers came up with a top class course, the highlight of which was a five kilometer climb which we had to ascend five times. The race started at a fast pace - or so I heard. When the race started I was still in the car park shooting the breeze with some fellow bikers when I was alerted to the fact my race had gone,not a great start. I was lucky, one of the support cars was running late so I managed to scrub a lift on the bumper into the back of the race. Phew! That would have been embarrassing. I later found out that a couple of the good lads actually missed the start completely, I didn't feel so bad after hearing that news.



The break went very early. I moved to the front on a a decent to stay out of trouble. We turned onto the main road with the pace high. Greg Swinand (Irish Road Club) launched a couple of attacks which I followed, he is an absolute engine so its best to be touch tight when he goes. we managed to open up a small gap at the base of the climb when we were joined by Dave Peelo (Murphy Surveys Kilcullen CC), Neil Delahaye (Team Dectek), Odhran Connors (Orwell Wheelers) and Chris O'Reilly (Bohermeen CC. This was the race winning move. We worked well together, in our mutual interest, until the last lap.

With a couple of laps to go I was getting jealous of the cool looking road rash Colm Cassidy got last week in Ras Mumhan so I decided to get some of my own. Fast into a gravel laden bend - job done! The cuts are cool but the nights sleep, not so baller.



Greg lit the blue touch paper on the start of the last lap, he went for a long one with nearly a full lap remaining. He had the rest of us worried and we sprung into action. The break disintegrated during the chase and left only Delahaye and myself. We caught Greg on the final ascent of the climb which seemed to be getting steeper every lap. I attacked Delahaye as much as I could but he is like a machine. He reacted well and still had the power to jump me in the final meters of the hill opening a race winning gap. Greg and myself gave chase but Del was too strong and powered into a solo victory.



Common sense would tell you that one should not bring a sprinter like Greg to the line but defying logic, thats exactly what I done. And the result.....pretty predictable - he left me standing. I am getting closer to him in the sprints so hopefully I'll go to the line with him again soon for our next dual.

1, Neil Delahaye (Team Dectek), 2hrs.33mins.33secs;
2, Greg Swinand (Irish Road Club); @ 18secs;
3, Anthony Walsh (UCD); @ st
4, David Peelo (Murphy Surveys Kilcullen CC) @33 secs;
5, Odhran Connors (Orwell Wheelers) @40 secs;
6, Chris O'Reilly (Bohermeen CC) @1.40;



Photos from Irishcycling.com

Chilling out and doing some training

I took last weekend off racing and went down to the Slieve Bloom Challenge. Some great craic - the sportif lads are what I aspire to. They are riding their bikes for the reason we all started - FUN!. They don't mention zones, wattage or any of that other shit, they just ride their bikes with a smile on their faces, the way it should be.

Unfortunately, this week, I am back to all the 'shit' (zones, wattage etc) to finish off the Ras preparation. The big one is just under three weeks away so it's all systems go for another two weeks before a week of coffee shop rides.

My coach, Ric Stern (a top class man) has piled on the training these next two weeks so hopefully I'll make it to start line in Dunboyne.

I shall keep you abreast of developments.....