Orwell-Lucan-Usher-Terians-UCD club league 30/6/2011

lalorm

Enjoyable race last night. Started with SL and managed to stretch the legs a little off the front on the second lap. An Orwell guy managed to go with me for a while but lost him before the bridge. Managed to stayed away until near the usual finish when I got caught. Heart rate was wayyyyy up at almost 200. Started to get stitches and was out the back. Stayed with SS/S for a while but then the stitches were too much and I called it a night and headed back to catch the finish. I have most of the race on film and will post it up later once it's ready.

AstraMonti

Was a good night out again but wasn't feeling good in the start. Was there early to do a lap before we start and I told Ken and Caroline that I am not gonna try anything today because I am not feeling great, but I should have kept my mouth shut, because I did.. We started a bit slowish with a very civilized pace but I started to get bored and as we turn left on the bridge I pushed the pace and continued with another two guys working fairly well. We lasted about half a lap more before we got caught by lalorm (as it seems now ) and I jumped onto his wheel without thinking twice. He was going fairly fast and I was already a bit toasted so I lost him before the bridge and then the whole group caught me.

I still don't feel comfortable in a very big group (I think that will come with time) so I slipped on the back avoiding any trouble which it was a stupid mistake as I got dropped on the last climb before the turn. I did some tt efforts to catch up on the group but it was too late.

Anyway, I probably need to learn to pace my self better, but I like a lot to just go on the attack and see how long I 'll last, so I ll keep doing that as long as I enjoy it

kenmc

Stupid bloody cleat came loose on me, lost 1 bolt almost lost all 3. Was feeling good too

tawfeeredux

Marshalled yesterday but was aching to race when I heard it was going up Ballysmuttan road at the end. Still getting over a quad strain so better off taking it easy. Was sitting at the usual finish line waiting for the groups to come through when kenmc came up & performed a very elegant dismount into the grass before fixing his loose cleat. Didn't head up for the finish once they turned up towards Ballysmuttan. The two Orwell lads were looking strong as they took the turn, but it looks like they were caught before the end. Turning into a battle royale at the top of the league!

Idleater

Enjoyed that race (and the brief leadout for lalorm) but I hit one too many holes and the front finally gave way to my first racing puncture heading for the turn off near Blesington on Lap 3.

Shame really, I was going to give the hill a good blast and was looking forward to it.

doozerie

I went off with semi-limit and I thought we were motoring for the first lap - average of about 43kph by the time we hit the bridge, and after the inevitable slowing up up the drag the average was a little under 40kph by the time we went through the (former) finish line for the first time. It slowed further after that but I think it went up again once we were caught by combined scratch and semi-scratch (just after we'd completed the 2nd lap I think).

It seemed to me like there was more dodgy stuff going on last night than in previous races. I saw at least two incidents where someone switched their line suddenly and dramatically within the bunch and nearly took out the front wheel of someone behind them (DirkVoodoo was the near victim for one of those, I think, thankfully he stayed up or I might have been taken out as well as I was on his wheel at the time). I was nearly taken out of it myself a couple of times too as a result of the same kind of thing. Various other kinds of silliness too. On the first lap as we approached the left turn off the main road the guy directly in front of me grabbed his bottle for a drink seconds before he was going to have to steer round the corner. That means he is a confident bike handler and more than capable of getting the bottle back in the cage in time to take the corner well, right? Wrong. He swung out wide and cut straight back in again to try to get in front of me as I was sprinting out of the turn. Dumb, that's one sure way to take down a few people. He gets added to the growing list of wheels that I make sure I am not behind coming into a turn. Later on, on the final run up towards the turn-off for the finish I found someone trying to essentially muscle me over to the wrong side of the road. I was moving up on the outside, he was slowing on the inside but seemed to decide that pulling over pretty much on top of me was the thing to do and he kept on nudging further and further out. It seemed like desperation on his part as he seemed to be having trouble holding the wheel in front, but that's poor justification for acting the maggot towards those around you. I had to up my pace to get around him on the outside, ending up on the wrong side of the road in the process, and I imagine those behind me had to do likewise.

When we were caught by the chasers was another demonstration of lunacy. They came up fast on the outside and a lot of people towards the front of our group seemed to just swing en masse to the right. The space on the outside narrowed to just about enough room for one rider to squeeze through, and it meant that a lot of riders were now completely on the wrong side of the road. I kept my line on the left, having been on the outside line of our group when we were caught, and there was a decent stretch of clear road ahead of me now that so many people were on the wrong side of the road. Madness.

As for me, I seemed to have caught a bit of Menchov-itis for the evening, the bad aspects of Menchov-itis unfortunately. I nearly rode myself off the road a couple of times. Completely unwarranted and unprovoked, I just took completely the wrong line on a couple of bends and found myself steering towards ditch rather than tarmac. Hopefully no-one was following my line on either occasion. Managed to get it together each time though, hoping that no-one noticed, only to hear someone having a good laugh beside me on one of the occasions. I was only scarleh'! I'm probably on his list of wheels not to follow into turns.

I reckon I was quite far back when we took the last turn up to the finish, certainly back far enough that I had no idea how many people were ahead. I seem to be spending more time towards the back these days, I should really have more faith in my legs and push my way towards the front more, I'm in danger of becoming a right sandbagger. I got past quite a few people just after the turn and continued to pass people in ones and twos as it went on. Saw yet another incident of a rider nearly taking people out of it on the way up - well, I saw the riders behind him taking evasive action, and heard the yells, didn't see the initial action that caused it. Towards the finish line I was pedaling squares and was glad to cross the line but all the action had been well up the road by then and I was too far back to see any of the placings. Fair play to Scratch, I'm not sure how far back they started but the time gap between Limit and Semi-Limit at the start seemed unusually long so Scratch must have started well back - they must have hammered round the course and were still hammering away right to the finish line. Very impressive riding.

joker77

Felt pretty tired driving out to the race, wasn't expecting much from my body, still not getting enough sleep at the moment with the new baby in the house, and haven't done a whole lot of training - an hour here and there is about it.

When we headed off though (SL), the pace felt very comfortable - it's a bit enough group that even if you are doing turns up the front, they're not for very long at all. I thought the pace was quite slow compared to other weeks, but I looked down at my computer on the second lap and it said avg of 39km/hr, which isn't exactly slouching. Was enjoying it, legs felt good, so kept on going trying to stay near the front once we got caught by SS / S.

When we made the turn for the hill I was surpised at how fresh I still was, and how just kept passing people out. I have to make an apology again to the Tiernans and Usher guys I nearly rode off the road - I was going round a bend on the hill on the inside, majorly overshot it, nearly forcing the 2 lads into the ditch. It was very close to all three of us coming off, totally my fault, I put my hands up so apologies again. They were cursing me, and rightly so....

I'd say I finished in the top 20, which I was happy with, all things considered.

Diarmuid

Tough race. Brian from Orwell attacked on the N81 before the turn, I went with him. Cue 16minutes of suffering. We rode well. Initially I thought we would be caught but at the key point before the bridge we keep the pressure on and I think the morale in the chase must have waned. By the turn at the usual finish line we were both tired but had a good gap. Frank from LCRC put in a big attack going up that final hill and got across to us. I was really cooked at that stage and wasn't able to hang in to compete for first. Had to settle for third. Had a comfortable gap at the line over 4th. Probably 15sec or something but tbh my head was hanging over the handlebars at that stage and not on the sprint.

doozerie

Forgot to mention my other Menchov moment. Was going over a speed bump, middle of the bunch but on the inside fortunately, had to wiggle the bike to avoid an unexpected pothole ahead and completely unclipped my left foot. Was left with my foot swinging in the breeze for a moment or two, which is an unconventional way to race to say the least. I've seen several claims online by people saying that Speedplay cleats never unclip accidentally, you can't be trying hard enough as all I'll say.

I nominate myself as one of the least sensible wheels to follow of the night. The competition was tough in that category last night but I reckon I'm in with a shout for a decent placing.

buffalo

First DNF of my cycling career. Muscles were still stiff and sore from tag rugby on Tuesday, knew I wasn't going to be doing any spectacular. Hanging off the back of SS all the way round the first lap, by the time S caught us on the N81, I was biting the handlebars. Sat up just before second time over the bridge, and pedalled ever so slowly up to the finish line.

I hadn't realised just how far after the turn the line was (indeed, I thought it was a different turn). I think if I had've hung on for another lap, I'd still be on the way home this morning. Great to watch riders come over the line though - Brian and Frank were pretty tight coming up, and Diarmuid (as he said) had a good gap. Alan did well to get 4th, there was a mini-sprint to contest!

lalorm

Idleater wrote: »

Enjoyed that race (and the brief leadout for lalorm) but I hit one too many holes and the front finally gave way to my first racing puncture heading for the turn off near Blesington on Lap 3.

Shame really, I was going to give the hill a good blast and was looking forward to it.

I was wondering where you got to. Next time.

Idleater

lalorm wrote: »

Next time.

Do we have team orders for swapping wheels? Did you do a Gadret and conveniently look the other way as I slowed up?

lalorm

Idleater wrote: »

Do we have team orders for swapping wheels? Did you do a Gadret and conveniently look the other way as I slowed up?

I didn't know until after you were out. I was waiting at the finish to see where you came. Besides, you were to go with me on the attack. What happened?

lalorm

Here's a video of the race from last night. Didn't manage to finish, but still enjoyable and good training.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IsBwctMQfN4

Diarmuid

lalorm wrote: »

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IsBwctMQfN4

starring role for 0.5sec at 6:46