Sundrive Touring Group

Harrybelafonte

Sundrive have started a cycling group for those more interested in touring and sportives. Details below and on Sundrive



"We are a club based at the Track in Sundrive Road, Crumlin and were formed 3 years ago to help promote Track Cycling within the locality and to provide a flagship for riders primarily interested in track racing. Saying that our members also race Road, Mtb and CycloX and more recently we have added Touring to this list. We are fortunate to have attracted a wealth of experience and knowledge to our club and those with that knowledge have always been generous in sharing it and indeed our members are vastly experienced in coaching and have expanded this through courses and week in week out track sessions which we run at Sundrive. We also recognise that to grow as a club we have to expand our net wider and the direction we are looking at is looked to promote a touring section as we see the world of Sportives is forever growing and there there is a large number of riders out there that would benifit from our help. One of our newer members Ciaran Johnson has benifited from our help and has completed several milestone Sportives during the year and has offered to run this section with our help. Our first spin will be Sunday 2nd October from the Popes Cross in the Phoenix Park at 10am. Our intended destination for the spin un Tara (Tea Shop!!) and will split the group by ability and perhaps send the groups over slightly alternate routes all with accompanying expertise. This will be our exploratory run to see what we have to work with and how best for us to progress.

What do you need? A bike (not Mountainbike) in good condition with tyres pumped hard. Helmet (compulsary!). You also need the means to sort out a puncture - two tubes, tyre levers, and a pump. You should never venture anywhere without these essentials. You also need to be prepared for whatever Mother Nature throws at us and a fold up rain jacket would also be a good idea. Drink bottle and some food in your back pocket (banana, nutrigrain or breakfast bar). You also need a moderate level of fitness and will need to be able to ride for 2 hours minimum at 14mph (which is a moderate touring speed). You dont join a cycling club to get fit, you need to be somewhat fit first and then you can get fitter by venturing further (and faster), in the comany of others.

As this will be the first of our club winter spins we would also invite all our racing members to support this ride and we can sort things into separate groups for week two.

What else do we intend to do for you? Apart from supported and advice we also intend to run a monthly workshop and some of the topics covered will be basic maintenence, explanation regarding Cycle racing which should improve your enjoyment as a fan, nutrition, sports pyschology, training plans, Track - yes fixed wheel no brakes!

Basically we aim to to improve you as cyclists and help you achieve whatever your goals may be. We would also like to integrate you into our club and teach you about track racing and would need your help when it comes to running some of our events there. The reward as such would be to take pride to be involved in Ireland Premier Track Club and to share in its successes as we moved the sport forward on the National and International stage.

Enquiries to SundriveTTTourGroup@yahoo.ie"