2011 IVCA (Vets racing) Sign up now!

victorcarrera

Anybody on here wishing to race with the vets this year can you please sign up now as we need to order and allocate race numbers, sort ability matrix and marshal list.

Everyone ( including Cycling Ireland Members ) is urged to down load the 2011 IVCA application form from http://www.ivca.info and to return with appropriate fee by the end of February at latest. This will help us greatly with administration.

Cycling Ireland members can pay either €20.00 up front to become registered in the league with the first two races ridden pre covered or they can pay a fee of €110 to cover a full seasons racing.

Non Cycling Ireland members: 165 Euro covers your Membership + Personal Accident Insurance + Race Fees for 28 Road races and 12 TT's. Great value for money.

C3PO

Is it possible to do a "few" of the Vet races or do you need to sign up for the full series. I'm basically a mountain biker but doing a fair bit on the road these days and would love to try a few road races. It's just that with the MTB NPS series and my own club league races there are only a limited number of opportunities to attend road races. I've applied for a full competition licence this year from CI.

victorcarrera

If you are male age 40+ or female 35+ you can participate in the IVCA races.
We recognise CI licences so if you have one you can register with us for 20 Euro which pays your race entry for the first two races.
Thereafter it is 10 Euro per race up to 11 races.
If you do more than 11 races with us (110 Euro) we stop charging you because it would have been cheaper for you to purchase an IVCA licence.
Lots of info (Race Calendar, rules, results etc) on our website www.ivca.info

Thank you for enquiring.

morana

its a very good league with lots of events and its well run on good sporting courses. I will warn you though just because they(we) are vets its very competitive and quick!!!

There is also an onus on people to marshal events (2 per year afaik) which is good in my opinion.

Beasty

You actually only need to be 40/35 during this calendar year - if you hit 40/35 on 31 December 2011 you can still race with the vets all year.

On the marshalling, this is normally allocated in advance, so you do sometimes need to try and find swaps if your own slots are inconvenient - I only started part of the way through last year, after they had completed the 2nd half marshal list, and managed to avoid getting any duties (I did offer, honest...)

C3PO

morana wrote: »

its a very good league with lots of events and its well run on good sporting courses. I will warn you though just because they(we) are vets its very competitive and quick!!!

There is also an onus on people to marshal events (2 per year afaik) which is good in my opinion.

As I know from my own experience Vets racing tends to very fast and competitive, in fact on the mountain bike scene some of the Vets are Elite fast - I'm sure the road scene is no different!

I suppose that raises the question that I really want the answer to - as a 50 year old (fairly strong and fit!) who wants to have a go at a few road races where am I best to start - Vet racing or in an A4 race? Where am I likely to cause least nuisance? I have been riding a couple of times a week in a group over the winter!

Beasty

Definitely start with the vets - I started racing last year (aged 49), initially with the Swords League, and then vets. The vets do some 40km midweek races at Batterstown - these are not too crowded. They do longer races over the weekend (70km+), but as they have 6 groups, again you tend to have a bit more space, and there is a very wide range of ability across the groups - I don't think I'd want to try A4 - bigger bunches, with no slower group to drop down to if things are not going well.

100Suns

I'm a noobie to the vets. I have a CI licence and at least one stupid question. Can I race under Option 1: €30 membership + €20 to cover 2 races, or do I have to pay the Insurance under Option 2 on the assumption that the CI licence does not cover me for riding a bike with like-minded potentially unstable lunatics in the vets category?

Thanks in advance

morana

100Suns wrote: »

I'm a noobie to the vets. I have a CI licence and at least one stupid question. Can I race under Option 1: €30 membership + €20 to cover 2 races, or do I have to pay the Insurance under Option 2 on the assumption that the CI licence does not cover me for riding a bike with like-minded potentially unstable lunatics in the vets category?

Thanks in advance

if you have a club or full competition licence with CI then you just need to pay as you go (10 per race). the insurance in CI covers you.
If you have an non-competition licence you would need to with join the vets and use their insurance or ugrade your licence....I am not too sure about the level of cover from the €10 if any. Victor?

fat bloke

I wonder can I take a case against the IVCA to the equality authority.

It's age-ism. Pure and simple.

I know I'd still get my a$$ kicked, but that's not the point.

victorcarrera

100Suns wrote: »

I'm a noobie to the vets. I have a CI licence and at least one stupid question. Can I race under Option 1: €30 membership + €20 to cover 2 races, or do I have to pay the Insurance under Option 2 on the assumption that the CI licence does not cover me for riding a bike with like-minded potentially unstable lunatics in the vets category?

Thanks in advance

If you have a full competition licence from CI, according to their website you have personal accident + third party cover for all domestic training and events.
So as per my earlier post you just need to register with the IVCA for 20 Euro and get 2 free races.
You can of course choose any valid option on the application form if you want PA insurance with the IVCA.
The reason we are asking CI riders to register for free is that this year we are testing a computerised login and league scoring system which requires all racers to have a swipe card to login. This is to run in parallel with our existing set up for evaluation.

RE: Other queries above.

I think Beastie's interpretation of the age cut off is correct. It is not clear from the rules of racing but I will take it up at the next committee meeting.

For newbie vets. There are 6 different ability categories and three different ability races so you will be allocated to a group of similar ability for evaluation.
If we don't know your ability in your first year you will be put in the semi scratch group for evaluation. Putting your most recent 40Km TT time on the application form will help us put you in a suitable group.

All our courses bar the curragh are flat to draggy 60 to 80 Km distance and generally the average road race speeds are.
Race 1 = 40+ Kph
Race 2 = 37 Kph
Race 3 = 33 - 35 Kph.

I will ask the race director to cast an eye over this thread to ensure everything I say is OK.
Thanks to all for your interest.

Beasty

I think it would be very unfair (on the rest of us) if 100Suns managed to get himself into semi-scratch;)

On the age point, I know one high profile boardsie who managed to race last year aged 39 - is there a chance he was cheating?

Actually I am pretty sure they treat us like horses - we are all given a 1 January "birthday" for vets racing

Beasty

fat bloke wrote: »

I wonder can I take a case against the IVCA to the equality authority.

It's age-ism. Pure and simple.

I know I'd still get my a$$ kicked, but that's not the point.

There is a short (and painful) cut into vets racing if you are a 35 year old "fat bloke";)

victorcarrera

fat bloke wrote: »

I wonder can I take a case against the IVCA to the equality authority.

It's age-ism. Pure and simple.

I know I'd still get my a$$ kicked, but that's not the point.

Smiley acknowledged but as a friendly society we do occasionally invite guests to participate.
For example last year we had the para athletes tandem teams for visually impaired people take part in our batterstown circuit TT.
And they kicked our asses on those occasions.

manwithaplan

victorcarrera wrote: »

If you have a full competition licence from CI, according to their website you have personal accident + third party cover for all domestic training and events.
So as per my earlier post you just need to register with the IVCA for 20 Euro and get 2 free races.

If Beasty's interpretation of the age rule is correct, I would be eligible to ride in vet races this year. I have applied to CI through Swords CC for a club competition licence. Can I pay as I go at €10 per race with the vets or does that only apply to full competition licence holders? I am guessing the latter but just to be sure.

Thanks

victorcarrera

manwithaplan wrote: »

If Beasty's interpretation of the age rule is correct, I would be eligible to ride in vet races this year. I have applied to CI through Swords CC for a club competition licence. Can I pay as I go at €10 per race with the vets or does that only apply to full competition licence holders? I am guessing the latter but just to be sure.

Thanks

The minimum requirements to race with the IVCA are as follows:
1 A full CI competition licence and 20Euro registration with the IVCA which pays the race fee for the first two races. 10Euro per race thereafter.

or

2 An IVCA racing licence with PA insurance as per the IVCA web site.

So according to the CI website your club competition licence is not sufficient to race with the IVCA.

Club Competition Licence
This licence is €55 if you are in a club, and €85 if you are not in a club. If you are from Ulster, there is a further €10 charge. This licence allows you to race in club leagues in road racing, but not in Open Races.

I originally opened this thread as a reminder to sign up but I will answer any queries here also. I may have to consult with an expert on some of the licencing and insurance queries so bear with us.

100Suns

Beasty wrote: »

On the age point, I know one high profile boardsie who managed to race last year aged 39 - is there a chance he was cheating?

@Victor - thanks for taking on the questions. I'm 39 this year. I'll also be 40 this year. I had presumed I was ok to race with the vets (starting in the limit category with the other juniours, naturally).

High Nellie

I am from down the country but would like to try a few events if I happened to be in the Dublin region from time to time. I have a CI Cat 4 lisence. I wouldn't be able to do any stewarding.
Would this be possible?
Would I need to register or could I get the equivalent of a 'one day lisence'?
I think it's a great organisation

High Nellie

Ok, don't reply by saying 'RTFM' ('Read The F@£$%ing Manual). I have re-read the thread and as I understand it, to answer my own question, I just need to register with Vets for 20E as I have CI lisence?

C3PO

High Nellie wrote: »

Ok, don't reply by saying 'RTFM' ('Read The F@£$%ing Manual). I have re-read the thread and as I understand it, to answer my own question, I just need to register with Vets for 20E as I have CI lisence?

Yes, but from what I understand you are also put on a marshalling rota and are expected to turn up for that too?

victorcarrera

High Nellie wrote: »

I am from down the country but would like to try a few events if I happened to be in the Dublin region from time to time. I have a CI Cat 4 lisence. I wouldn't be able to do any stewarding.
Would this be possible?
Would I need to register or could I get the equivalent of a 'one day lisence'?
I think it's a great organisation

Racing Director wrote:

All registered members are required to carry out marshalling duties as a condition of riding IVCA League events.

However we may be able to facilitate you as a guest for one or two races without marshalling or league points since you have a CI licence.
This scenario will be discussed at the next meeting and I will update here with our decision as there may be others in your position also.
The outcome is likely to be that CI licence holders who regularly participate in IVCA races are expected to marshall but occasional participants are exempt. We will decide on a figure to differenciate the two so as the exemption is not abused.

victorcarrera

As you all maybe aware the IVCA racing season starts next Sunday 27th March’11, this year the race committee have introduced a new computerised system to manage both the racing leagues (R.R. & T.T.’s) and the grading matrix. In order to have this system populated and up & running by racing date start a deadline of the 12th March was put in place for IVCA members/C.I. members i.e.

1. IVCA membership paid along with their details etc

2. C.I. members paying minimum up front sign-on for 2 races (€20) along with their details etc

Please note that this deadline was extended at least twice and every effort made to facilitate late entries, unfortunately it is now closed, however the door re-opens again after 10th April'11

In order to ensure no further disappointments and not miss this next opportunity, please send in your application form with:-

a) IVCA membership/racing fees

or

b) C.I. min €20 with your full details

Please see our website for further details www.ivca.info


Apologies to those of you left disappointed.

To those who have signed up, please arrive before 8:30am summer time on Sunday at Warrenstown Arms carpark to collect your race pack and allow time to attach frame and jersey numbers and attend pre race safety statement.
Safety pins and cable ties are included.

Beasty

3 cars broken into at the Warrenstown Arms this morning as the racing progressed. Looks opportunist - they broke into the "blind side" (away from the road) of vehicles that were towards the back of the car park. Looks like "car park duty may become something to add to marshalling responsibilities:rolleyes:)

Looks like they took bags (someone saw some abandoned bags and clothing some way away). Not sure if they were disturbed, as there was cash on open display in one of the cars that was not taken.

Nice to meet up with mc2000 and victorcarrera before the race, and Planet X during it.

The billed 60km turned into 70km for our race (the middle one), and the scratch race - you normally get a bit of discount in the vets races!!. The limit race did one lap less.

I probably started off a bit hard but was quite comfortable sat about 2/3 back in the bunch for the first couple (of 4) laps after an initial stint towards the front. On the third lap I drifted a bit more towards the back and was back to my old problem of putting the effort in to get back on after corners. My back was playing up a bit and as we approached the end of the 3rd lap I eased off the back and headed back to the car park

Nice to hear 69 year old Sean Lally won our race

In terms of stats, I ended up doing 50km at just under 35kph. Power details - average 227w, pedalling 259w, normalised 265w, max 990w

Planet X

Yeah, couldn't see you before the race as I was looking out for all the Swords jerseys thinking you'd be wearing one.
But drifted alongside you 1st lap and gave you a touch.

Just to correct you if I may, maybe you read it wrong in the "Training Logs" part, Seán Lally won the bunch sprint but two lads had gone up the road already, a few miles out, and stayed away. So, he would've come in 3rd.
Followed by Paddy F'Simon, Larry Clarke (Bray) and myself 4th in the sprint and I reckon 6th overall. To be confirmed, as they say.

Had a bit of a clanger on the first lap towards the end of the lap, I hit a pothole and my bottle hopped out. I could see it on the road for the next three laps, full, clear bottle with red liquid drugs in. Cycling back from the finish was going to collect it but some tight asred toe rag nicked it. :D:D
Was worried about drinking during the race then, was on my mind for a while but cadjed a drink off a mate. No probs.

Keep_Her_Lit

Beasty wrote: »

My back was playing up a bit and as we approached the end of the 3rd lap I eased off the back and headed back to the car park

Hard luck with the back trouble.

In terms of stats, I ended up doing 50km at just under 35kph. Power details - average 227w, pedalling 259w, normalised 265w, max 990w

How is the normalised power calculated?

Beasty

Planet X wrote: »

Had a bit of a clanger on the first lap towards the end of the lap, I hit a pothole and my bottle hopped out. I could see it on the road for the next three laps, full, clear bottle with red liquid drugs in. Cycling back from the finish was going to collect it but some tight asred toe rag nicked it. :D:D
Was worried about drinking during the race then, was on my mind for a while but cadjed a drink off a mate. No probs.

Saw the bottle on a couple of laps - it was probably the guys who broke into the cars who took it, hoping it was some kind of "happy juice"

Keep_Her_Lit wrote: »

Hard luck with the back trouble.

It's been playing up for a couple of weeks - I can't walk properly, but it hasn't affected my cycling too much (I was able to keep up a steady 38-39kph on the track in Manchester for an hour when it was at its worst. I think the constant speeding up and slowing down, combined with the length of the ride today made it quite uncomfortable during the 3rd lap, so I thought better of it - didn't want to push too hard and set myself back. I'll probably be giving next week's race a miss

Keep_Her_Lit wrote: »

How is the normalised power calculated?

I leave it to the computer (the Saris joule in this case);) - it basically estimates the equivalent constant power output which would require the same effort - this is not the arithmetic average, as speeding up and slowing down takes more out of you

morana

I seem to recall that this happened before and feeling was that this shower were targetting the vets racing. its a shocker to come back to the car and find it broken into.

Beasty

Results are up on the IVCA website - they've gone computerised, and as a result I seem to have been given 11th place (with 2 extra points), despite not finishing the race!!

(they seem to have placed everyone outside the top 10 alphabetically within each group - great rule for those of us with a surname beginning with "A" - hopefully the Swords League will adopt a similar rule:D)

mc2000

my effin car was broken into, along with 4 others - the gards were called and took all the details of the 5 cars that were done. Pain in the ar$e to come back to that.

Saw Beasty before and during the race, and said hello to Mr. Planet X during it. I was in the middle DMS and enjoyed it - had one or two goes during it. Finished in the bunch - I've no gallop so didn't bother getting in the mix at the end there. Always nice to see lads getting away like today during the race [when the group of 4 were away for a lap and a bit] and also the 2 lads who managed to stay away.

@Beasty - hope your back gets better, I think you should try next week as well, even if you only decide on 2/3 laps if you're worried about your back- it's just harder if you let gaps of weeks start opening up, it's just a bit harder then when you do go back into it. Next week is a CP so the pace won't be as up and down, it's more likely to be constant which might suit you better. And put some diesel in that power meter:D

victorcarrera

I spoke with another committee member this evening who looks after the marshalling and we will be pushing for an extra marshall to do security at the car parks for future IVCA races.
Having racing calendars online is an easy way to target cars in remote areas that have a high probability of having cash and cards left in clothing.

RE Beasty's 4pts. I twigged that from your other post but it had been uploaded before I could correct. It will be. I was sure it was you on the playback though.
Most likely mistaken identity. Too many riders didn't put up their shoulder or frame numbers today. You still get 2pts for a DNF.
Tip: If you can stay in the top 20 you won't find it so hard staying on the wheel when exiting the tight corners.

Keep_Her_Lit

Beasty wrote: »

It's been playing up for a couple of weeks - I can't walk properly, but it hasn't affected my cycling too much (I was able to keep up a steady 38-39kph on the track in Manchester for an hour when it was at its worst.

Hope you get it sorted (injuries are so damn frustrating).

I think the constant speeding up and slowing down, combined with the length of the ride today made it quite uncomfortable during the 3rd lap, so I thought better of it - didn't want to push too hard and set myself back. I'll probably be giving next week's race a miss

Well, that's one advantage of being a vet. You develop a keener sense of when to back off. Wise move by the sound of it.

I leave it to the computer (the Saris joule in this case);) - it basically estimates the equivalent constant power output which would require the same effort - this is not the arithmetic average, as speeding up and slowing down takes more out of you

OK. I see you almost scored a kiloWatt at one point, that's fairly up and down alright. Pretty good peak power, considering you weren't around for the final gallop!

Beasty

Keep_Her_Lit wrote: »

Hope you get it sorted (injuries are so damn frustrating).

It will settle down - I've had back problems over the past 20 years or so, but nothing major for about 10 years - just a back spasm every 6 months or so

Keep_Her_Lit wrote: »

Well, that's one advantage of being a vet. You develop a keener sense of when to back off. Wise move by the sound of it.

I'm a novice vet - only been racing for less than a year, and have only done 3 or 4 with such large groups - I'm not confident enough to keep in the middle of them - I tend to be at one end or the other. That said, my main focus for the year will be TTs and the track

Keep_Her_Lit wrote: »

OK. I see you almost scored a kiloWatt at one point, that's fairly up and down alright. Pretty good peak power, considering you weren't around for the final gallop!

A couple of 900w+ surges, and about 100 at 360w+, which works out at more than one a minute

Beasty

Next Sunday's (the 3rd) race was due to be run at Kentstown, but due to poor road conditions has been moved to Warrenstown (same sign-on location as last week, although I am not sure if it's the same course), with the start put back an hour to 10.15

I guess they will need someone to watch the cars...

morana

...or the robbers may be out in kentstown twiddling their window breaking devices!

Planet X

Well done Victor and rest of the race committee on the results and points tables. Speedy and looks very professional.

Beasty

68km DMS at Kentstown today. Victorcarrera was there sorting out rider registration, and taking his place in the Scratch race. Planet X turned up in his Boards jersey and was in the middle race, the same as me

It's a relatively flat course - I rode it once before in another DMS in August when I struggled to stay with the bunch towards the end, suffering from my tendency to get detached at corners and then push hard to get back on

Today was different, and I found the first lap (of 3) was at a quite leisurely pace. A couple had broken away from the group, and managed to stay away for the whole race. A few others attempted breaks, but all were eventually reeled in. With about 3-4km to go there was a tangle between two bikes - the rear skewer of one caught the gear cable of the other - the two riders struggled to get apart and ended up on the other side of the road, before someone came crashing down in front of me, although I managed to steer round the incident

There were a couple of incidents when I was badly cut-up by other riders. I approached the final corner in the froint to avoid any issues of losing time, and pushed on with just over a km to go. The bunch caught me, and as they were overtaking one rider cut straight across, causing me to brake hard and forcing me towards the back of the field. I had to drop all the way back to find a space to get to the outside, by which time I had pretty much given up, but then the bunch slowed and I came back up on the outside, only to find a couple of vehicles ahead, so I eased off again, coming in somewhere in the middle of the bunch

Stats - distance 67.7km at 35.4kph (last time 36.4kph)
Power - average 208w (216w), pedalling 222w (252w), normalised 246w (257w)
HR - average 147w (158w)

Although it was a bit slower than last time, the difference in effort was much more marked - it felt a lot easier and I suspect that is down to better overall fitness and smarter riding.

morana

I was speaking to Sean Lally yesterday and said I was surprised he wasnt doing the Gorey. He said "For Gods sake I am 70 in 2 weeks time! I decided at 65 I wouldnt do the open races anymore"

Now he is a cycling legend!

Beasty

morana wrote: »

I was speaking to Sean Lally yesterday and said I was surprised he wasnt doing the Gorey. He said "For Gods sake I am 70 in 2 weeks time! I decided at 65 I wouldnt do the open races anymore"

Now he is a cycling legend!

So what's your excuse for missing Gorey morana? (And how did you get on yesterday?)

morana

Beasty wrote: »

So what's your excuse for missing Gorey morana? (And how did you get on yesterday?)

I will start doing the open stage races when I am 65, Stage races bore me tbh!!!

Just ok . it was hard and 3 guys got up the road, they did a super ride.

Lots of attacking which makes it a bit of a change from the open races. our race was 39kph for close to 2 hours so thats decent enough.

When we are doing a CP we will form an alliance !