Another Busy Week for Midleton CTC.
This week ,my strava feeds gone nuts with the obscene amount of miles being done by our outstanding members.
Lots and lots of miles being done with a lot of long solo efforts with too many to mention.
Thursday saw the Whitegate wheelers section of the club off out around the back roads of Ballymacoda, Garyvoe etc.
As usual Franky “Froome “ Cashman ,Paudie Murphy ,Aiden Berry and John Sharkey lead the charge with David Coughlan and Tosh hiding at the back as well as taking a short cut home! Tosh is blaming the Man flu but David has no excuse!!! Both Fined 3 penalty points!!!
Friday was a very busy day for our members, Have ye no work to be doing?????
Tosh tried to redeem himself by taking a handy 66km spin with Barry Mcmahon, While John Sharky continued to rack up big miles this week with a solo 77km.
Jonny Finn used one of his rare days off to go and attempt to steal Peter Moloney’s thunder by trying to steal his kom’s on “Piano-Pete's Pesky Peaks!” and he did achieve a nice KOM on Young-grove climb of 5:24.
Shane Fuller Continued his race season prep with a very swift 50km tour of Cobh with a 30km average, a great solo speed considering the hills in Cobh. Anyone saying i’m bitter about him stealing my 2015 Kom’s is purely speculating !!!!
Saturday again saw a lot of riders on the roads in groups.
Tony Fitzgerald, Derry Cadogan and John Lynch did the Nico Spin 100km route in a very nice 4hrs.
While Paudie and Franky Froome got dragged around the place by Martin Cashman on a handy 80+ spin. Strava shows Martin did another 20km on his own so I’m not sure did he head home to get the car to pick up the lads after too man scones??
Saturday is also the Juveniles spin day and as usual a great day of training was had. As usual Club Chairman Ken Savage was there to help as well as Jonny Finn, Paul O' Brien and Michael Broderick Kept the group safe as ever in the back up car with Coach Tim Mahony riding shot gun.
Aidan Crowley from club sponsors Velo Revolution came down to pass on some of his valuable knowledge and took them for some Sprint training with the spin being 55km+.
Slightly off topic but during his recovery Tim is available to paint dado rails if anyone needs him according to Ken!!
Rachel Drennan kindly sent me an update on the day:
We are all training hard and everyone is getting stronger each week. On Saturday Aidan "The Dude" Crowley kindly helped out along with Ken and Johnny and offered his expertise while putting us through some painful sprints and interval training. Also, we're all looking forward to the racing season which will begin at the start of April for the juveniles.
Sunday
Sunday as we know is the main club spin as well as the now well established Beginners spin, Although the tag “beginners” may well be dropped soon.
Again a huge turn out for the beginners spin. Some of the race lads Lloyd Weymouth and Shane Fuller both went along as well as Garry Mcguiness, Dave O Brien and Fergus Blackmore all helping as road captains.
The group did the earthquake spin, as we all know not an easy spin with plenty of sapping climbs. Impressively the Average speeds of what ended up being two groups was maintained from previous weeks even with the big climbs added in. Catalina has sent me a very in depth report and its easy to see the passion for the sport she has gained by how much she wrote. Because the report is so in depth I will post it soon in its own right.
The Main club spin as usual had a great turn out with us heading north to twelve balls and on through Glenvile to Whitechurch for the now Customary Gucci selfie!
Some Good climbing done by the time we reached Whitchurch didn’t stop Jonny Waterman springing the suggestion we do Patricks hill again. My Prayer was answered though when Leonard got a puncture so a rest was got in the legs for a small few before we reached Patricks Hill. Leonard even Took the precaution of saving energy by letting Jonny Change his tyre for him!?! Cunning!
Special shout out to Derry Cadogan who apparently realised he dropped a contact lense at the bottom so went back down and came back up for a second time while the main group waited for the ‘rescue team”. (Derry doesn't even wear contacts?)
Again big shouts to Derry , John Lynch and Leonard O Sullivan who all did big mileage the day before as well.
I am sad to report Penalty points this week have been issued though!
Andrew Whittaker who walked up Patricks hill bike on back in order to save himself for the final sprint, 3 points and dissqualified from the sprint!
And Jonny “Theres no sprinting going on! wooossssshhhh” Waterman for using plain Skulduggery to win the sprint home, 3 Penalty points.
Heres the the Strava leader board this week Well done To John Sharkey, Donagh Mc Carthy and Derry Cadogan again .
The round up this week and last has been all cycling but as a triathlon club we have also had a good range of activities with Many Members getting some good running and Swimming done.
Russell Palmer got a few very rapid runs in this week as well as Jonny Finn and Colum Foley also getting some time in the runners.
The ever impressive Gary Neff had a great week with multiple runs transitioning onto the bike with some big mileage and impressive times.
Swimming has been a focus of the club over the last 6 weeks with the first Set of coaching sessions coming to and end tonight.
6 of us have attended the Fota Island Resort for the last 6 weeks under the fantastic coaching of Swimming Ireland Coach Marc Sanquest.
I must say at the start of the 6 weeks I couldn't even swim 18 meters without fear of drowning and am really thinking a triathlon is achievable after some great teaching from Marc. The Coaching sessions are going to continue and there may be spots available if others are interested in joining, Please contact Jonny Finn if you are.
Big Thanks to Marc and the Fota Island resort.
Thats it for this week see you on the Road.
Richie
