Hello Ladies, Gentleman, Gucci’s and Barry Mcmahon! :-)
Its been a good week again for Midleton Cycling and triathlon Club, Isn’t it always!
Wednesday saw a large portion of members head of to the Sun of Lanzarote for a week of….. Cycling? Yeah cycling!
Judging from the strava posts we’ve all seen and the many Pics all over Facebook it looks like the lads have had a great week with big rides of 100km plus posted nearly everyday. I was going to write a bit of a report of some of thier spins but as we are going to be hearing about it from them for the rest of 2015 I thought i’d leave it to them when they get back this Wednesday!
Weather has been mixed in Sunny Midleton this week but still plenty of good spins have been had.
The weekend saw the worst of the weather but some of the best performance's of the week still were put in by Mctc members.
Saturday and Sunday was the Limerick Bradford race's and there was a few Midleton CTC Members on display putting in fantastic performances. Lloyd Weymouth was off tanning himself in Lanza and Lee Palmer Couldn't resist the temptation of riding with the real hard men of Mctc on the Sunday spin (More on that later) but we still had plenty to be happy about on Sunday come the end of Racing.
It was a great day Sunday for the Cashmans as Dominic Cashman riding for McCarthy cycles Osborne meats secured a fantastic 3rd place in the A4 category winning a sprint for the line to take that third over a De Ronde Van Cork Rider! YUSSSSSSSS!
Martin Cashman the super Domestique rode another strong ride for McCarthy cycles Osborne meats to set up his team Leader Paid O’brien for the win keeping him safe all day before releasing him for the break away win. Mixed days were had by Sean Hughes and Shane Fuller who gave strong showings of them selfs in their first forays into A3 before pulling out on what was a highly attritional day. Leonard O’Keeffe put in a strong day to get to the finish and be in with a chance in the sprint but just missed out. Well done lads can’t wait for next weeks results.
Saturday was also the Fota Duathlon and we had Plenty of members taking part, Nick O Donoghue did very well to get an 11th Place, when I saw him on the bike he was absolutely Launched! Flying past people so it did seem he may have passed a lot of people on the tough bike route. James Cronin also had a good day and again when I saw him he was passing out three guys on the bike and flying it towards the Fota hotel for the last change over finishing a strong 29th in a strong field of runners.
Bart Bejnarowicz and Irmina Bejnarowicz did the Duathlon together as well and finished strongly together with Bart in 35th and Irmina finishing a Superb 5th Lady . One of our now famous Beginners group Members Martin ORouke was also there putting his Cycling to good use in connection to his already strong running and finished 101st and 17th in his Category. With there being a field of over 200 to have all our members within the top finishers is great to see, Well done to all five and Thanks to Sinead Bracken for the pics.
Sunday.
The beginners spin wasn’t put off by the sub zero temperatures and stair rod rain that came down Sunday morning and did a handy 60km lap via 12 balls, Watergrasshill , Glanmire and home with a nice tailwind behind them.Yet again the group was massive and was still altogether when we passed them in the opposite direction towards Rathcormac.
Good route and weather planning was the key to this spin so fair play to Fergus Blackmore for looking closely at the weather and keeping the group from facing too many headwinds and having a sleigh ride home from Dunkettle with a major tailwind. I haven’t had a report from Catalina yet but when it comes I will post it up in its own right again. Thanks to all the Road Captains Garry McGuinnes, Alan Harty, Fergus Blackmore and Andrew Kenner.
The Sunday Morning Coffee spin on the other hand had not looked at weather! We set off for Windy gap at the earlier start time of 830 when it was blowing 40knots and the real ridiculous rain was coming down! This was a true spin for hard men of Mctc though and not a bit of moaning was heard from a single man! Unlike the fair weather cyclist out in Lanza moaning about the wind as they cycle around in shorts and jerseys and Sun on their backs!!! We are not jealous, We are not Jealous We are not… ok we are!
Such was the standard of hard men on this spin even though the temperature read -1 on my Garmin Lee Palmer still pushed on in only shorts, jersey and Gilet! By Silversprings we realised a group of seven driving into gale force winds was going to be knackered by Coachford and our enthusiasm would have been washed away by the driving rain so a route change was actioned by Peter Moloney and a last min detour up Silverspring hill ensued. After messing around at the lights with my shoe I was forced to play catch up a little but it did get me 2015 KOM for the hill! (If you thought I wouldn't mention that your mad).
More climbing up to Watergrasshill and some fun fast work all the way home ensued via Rathcormac and home. Working in a constant moving train into the head wind and up the climbs some great fun was had with 30kmph averaged maintained up the climb and then around 40kmph the rest of the way home with some fun breaks off the front instigated by Lee,Tosh and yeah ok maybe myself. Brendan O Breathnach must have been a relived man when we met him on the climb before lisgould and he tucked in nicely adding to the strength of our train. The detour and shorten route without a stop kept us warm and ended up being a great fun spin with a real mix of climbing and fast work pushed on by Lee. All in all a great spin, oh and Did I mention my 2015 KOM on silverspring hill? Oh I did?
This weeks Strava leader board has no suprises considering the lads are off "TRAINING" in Lanzarote. I would however like to Know whay Barry was slacking and Let John Lynch do over 100km more than him?
Well done to John Lynch for topping everysingle chart this week as well as Jonny Waterman and Barry McMahon for some really impressive numbers.
Oh Wait..... News just in!!!!
Yes I can confirm all the lads have been disqualifed from this weeks leader board for excessive levels of Heiniken and sun cream in their biological passports! In the Spirit of the Tour De France, this weeks trophy goes unclaimed!
See you all Next week stay safe on the road.