IVCA (The Vets)

RobFowl

The IVCA racing season starts this Sun at Batterstown.
I'll be doing a good few of the Sunday races so might see some of you there..

Calender (racing) here http://www.ivca.info/ivca2012/racing2012/racecal12.shtml

Main site here
http://www.ivca.info/

Pablo Rubio

Looking forward to this , my first year in the vets. Competing with some of my adversaries from years past:)

morana

I am marshalling...

Beasty

Wrinklies in lycra - not a pleasant thought

Not as bad as a wrinkly hippy sporting hi-viz and telling everyone where to go though ...

mc2000

good man RobFowl - did you get clearance from HQ to get out on Sundays - you're gonna love it, will give you a chance to unleash your formidable sprint.:pac:

@Beasty - great things are expected after you're good showing up in Dundalk.:cool:

VanhireBoys

Wish I lived in the East of the country now.....!

Beasty

mc2000 wrote: »

@Beasty - great things are expected after you're good showing up in Dundalk.:cool:

Unfortunately racing the ladies made me "peak" too soon - I have a feeling that Sunday may be a bit on an anti-climax ...

DirkVoodoo

Beasty wrote: »

Unfortunately racing the ladies made me "peak" too soon - I have a feeling that Sunday may be a bit on an anti-climax ...

Don't worry, they have all sorts of treatments for that nowadays. It's nothing to be ashamed of.

Beasty

DirkVoodoo wrote: »

Don't worry, they have all sorts of treatments for that nowadays. It's nothing to be ashamed of.

Not worried at all - I believe someone who may (or indeed may not) have contributed to this thread already has access to all the required "resources"

LionofFingal

Tomorrow (Sunday 25th) first race of the IVCA 2012 racing league, hammerfest aaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh still suffering from an acute case of FLB syndrome, to all buddies out there when I die tommow please spread my ashes over the 3 Sisters on the 8.30am Sat morning spin. My I RIP...........:eek:

Beasty

... the scene of the Lion's greatest triumph, of recent decades anyway. Bit slow off the mark here though LoF - first post 2 years after registering, and still beaten to it by RobFowl by nearly 2 days - perhaps a sign of things to come ...;)

bcmf

mc2000 wrote: »

will give you a chance to unleash your formidable sprint.:pac:

I prob wont get to race until later in the year so he may as well enjoy sprinting before he goes to his established role as my lead out man :P

Beasty

What a glorious start to the vets racing season, warm sunshine and relatively light winds all the way. 3 large groups, with RobFowl turning up with his newly installed Zipps (one of them the wrong way round mind), making his return. The Lion of Fingal managing to get in a break of 6 and finish 5th in his race

In terms of the middle race, I would guess there were 40 or so of us - pretty large by normal vets standards, although it was still a well ridden race with no major safety issues.

I hung around the back for most of the race. I never felt uncomfortable at any stage, and wanted to see what it was like when not putting in any effort at the front - I knew there were plenty in the group to do that. RobFowl and mc2000 were in the same group, and I think mc2000 managed to get involved in one failed break attempt.

2 guys did manage to escape and stay away on the final lap. Coming into the final straight I was right at the back, and given the size of the group there was no room to progress without movng into the wind so I left it until just after the 1km mark. I was all the way over on the right hand side of the road, but it was still congested. I was about to move through a gap which then looked like it was rapidly closing so I backed off. It opened up again and I managed to get through just before the line - I would guess around 10th place, but only one septuagenarian ahead of me - Sean Lally showing he has lost nothing over the winter taking 2nd place in the sprint, 4th overall

bcmf

Beasty wrote: »

newly installed Zipps (one of them the wrong way round mind)

I really really hope it was the front one that was the wrong round.............

Pablo Rubio

Good race today .Nice weather to start off my first race in the Vets League. Pretty well organised safe racing ,apart from few hairy little moments with brake levers in peoples backsides, and people on the wrong side of the road even after all the warnings shouted about oncoming traffic. Had a few digs up the road but didn't really have the legs today.Went a bit too early in the Gallop and Sean Lally came by just before the line......Deja Vu!!!!:o
All in all ,a good morning & looking forward to rest of the years racing.



Also noticed people emptying the water out of there bottle coming to the finish(don't really think it's necessary)........but, just a little bit more sensible than the throwing away of bottles in some of the open races recently:rolleyes:

mc2000

Cracking weather for the first race of the ivca season. I was in the middle dms with Beasty and RobFowl, good size bunch and good pace... I was feeling ok for first two laps and staying in the first third or so of the bunch... Didn't really have legs to try a dig or two (just coming off the back of trying to shake a few calf niggles... so that wasn't me you saw Beasty )... Last lap found it a bit trickier to stay up the bunch and was loitering at the back a bit... Not much room to move up and a hairy moment on the Trim rd after the Warrenstown inn where someone tried going for a non-existent gap in the middle of the bunch... Happy enough to roll in with the bunch at the finish.

36mile race, 23.0 mph avg (37kph in new money), avg hr 160, max hr 178... that was for the middle dms

morana

Enjoyed watching you from a corner!

Dan martin probably think i am a joke though. Leeuw van fingallen did a good ride...

Beasty

With a record turnout of nearly 150 last Sunday, next Sunday's race at Kentstown is likely to be changed to a DMS from a CP, on the back of a new rule that DMSs will be run whenever more than 100 riders sign-on

mc2000

That's a good call... In the Orwell / lucan/ usher / tiernans/ ucd league last year they switched to dms format when it went over 60 or 70 or so signing on... I much prefer Dms's anyway... It would be even better if they let us have single group dms's (e.g. Green-only dms as opposed to us always being put in with the [stronger group] whites).... There's enough in greens anyway to make a single group dms be as big as some of the Tuesday night dms's last year

Beasty

There's talk of restricting numbers, which is what happens in the Ulster CI open races. I guess it depends on the course also - 6 groups may be difficult on shorter courses with scratch possibly catching the slowest group. I also think they would need to even out numbers in the groups - there were only 11 scratch riders on Sunday up against 60 from Group E. The A/B race only had 27 riders, whereas we had getting on for 30 from each of groups C and D in the middle race

One other thought - some guys travel quite a way to race mainly in Leinster. Perhaps there could be consideration given to putting on a few more races in other provinces, perhaps on a Saturday to spread the load a bit (although it would be more hassle in terms of organisation), as well as opening it up to more vets

morana

This is something that i am thinking of alot myself. We, ci , should have an over 40's league in each of the province.

The way to proceed with this would be to have 6 ci licence holders to come together to form an association in the province and then to setup the races based along the lines of the ivca early start etc. membership could be charged up front and a club racing licence required.

I am sure lots of 40+ guys and 35 ish girls in the other provinces would enjoy this.

I suppose at this stage there should be a vets commission as the avr age of members is quite high.

The Crunch

morana wrote: »

This is something that i am thinking of alot myself. We, ci , should have an over 40's league in each of the province.

The way to proceed with this would be to have 6 ci licence holders to come together to form an association in the province and then to setup the races based along the lines of the ivca early start etc. membership could be charged up front and a club racing licence required.

I am sure lots of 40+ guys and 35 ish girls in the other provinces would enjoy this.

I suppose at this stage there should be a vets commission as the avr age of members is quite high.

Some great ideas there, Anto, but is there not a risk of duplicating the work of the IVCA, especially as they spread their wings a bit with races in Limerick, Dundalk and Longford last year?
Why not work with the IVCA to get them to look after 40+ racing in the provinces now there is a new spirit of cooperation between the associations?
I see the IVCA are showing a lot of interest in the Masters Road Worlds this year. Why not work with them to organise and select representative teams to this and the track worlds?
The likes of Swinand, Peelo and Wyley should have an international competitive outlet given, as you point out, the average of racers is on the high side.
(If you get that hip sorted I might select you, too!)

morana

The Crunch wrote: »

Some great ideas there, Anto, but is there not a risk of duplicating the work of the IVCA, especially as they spread their wings a bit with races in Limerick, Dundalk and Longford last year?
Why not work with the IVCA to get them to look after 40+ racing in the provinces now there is a new spirit of cooperation between the associations?
I see the IVCA are showing a lot of interest in the Masters Road Worlds this year. Why not work with them to organise and select representative teams to this and the track worlds?
The likes of Swinand, Peelo and Wyley should have an international competitive outlet given, as you point out, the average of racers is on the high side.
(If you get that hip sorted I might select you, too!)

yeah I wouldnt be inclined to step on their toes as they do alot of great work across all spectrums of cycling.

All bar the Austrian Races need a UCI licence so all CI vets can go without selection but it would be great to have a league promoted by an association for over 40's. Its easy enough for a club to have an over 40 event on the day of other races but to have an every Sunday would be the way to go.

the ****ing hip is a pain in the groin!

RobFowl

morana wrote: »

the ****ing hip is a pain in the groin!

Try knee pain !!!
It's as bad....

Beasty

Well my knee surgeon has just told me I can ride through the pain ...


... of listening to you two going on about your "war-wounds"

Beasty

morana wrote: »

Its easy enough for a club to have an over 40 event on the day of other races but to have an every Sunday would be the way to go.

I thought the rules were changed this year to allow 50+ masters races to be run in parallel with Open races, so I'm a bit confused as to how 40+ races could be run without a further rule change

The other thing to note is that the "masters" category strictly starts at 35 rather than 40. Although the IVCA are not constrained by UCI rules and definitions, so they can set the barrier at whatever level they like. If CI wanted to start "masters leagues", particularly as something to build up to European and World events, should it not accomodate those between 35 and 39 also?

The danger, of course, is that there are so many exceptional riders in their late 30s (and indeed early 40s) that it may the be dominated by the younger riders (which is why I think the 50+ category is a good idea;))

morana

Beasty wrote: »

I thought the rules were changed this year to allow 50+ masters races to be run in parallel with Open races, so I'm a bit confused as to how 40+ races could be run without a further rule change

The other thing to note is that the "masters" category strictly starts at 35 rather than 40. Although the IVCA are not constrained by UCI rules and definitions, so they can set the barrier at whatever level they like. If CI wanted to start "masters leagues", particularly as something to build up to European and World events, should it not accomodate those between 35 and 39 also?

The danger, of course, is that there are so many exceptional riders in their late 30s (and indeed early 40s) that it may the be dominated by the younger riders (which is why I think the 50+ category is a good idea;))

Maybe you have a point but a Vets only race could be run. Essentially as an association of CI it can run events anyway it sees fit It would be akin to a club league. The over 50's is a great idea but my thinking would be that these races would be an option to open races for the older guys. CI never adopted the masters cats as per UCI but I think it was mainly die to a lack of racing numbers at the time. those were the days of 4ooo members unlike today.

(slightly OT) I have been saying this quite a bit that CI has to look beyond the narrow focus of Racing as the majority of our mebers arent road racing cyclists. Moves are afoot to try broaden our appeal out as we speak

mc2000

Kentstown this Sunday, hopefully it'll be a DMS. I think this is a bit of a slog of a circuit, some nice long drags to catch you out if you're too much in the red going into the bottom of them... winds are forecast northerly on Sunday so the main N2 road could be a bit of a pig if you try a solo breakaway... nice wide straight road.... bunch can see you for miles... can see you suffering out in front as they leave you out there to fry....

...will RobFowl bring the bunch to its knees [or his knees]? ... will the Beast within the bunch manifest?.... thrilling stuff :pac:

Beasty

In I'm sure what must be a first, the IVCA have closed registration to their racing for 2012 for safety reasons - too many racers are turning up each week.

So any more wannabee vet racers will have to continue to serve their apprenticeship in the open races and club leagues for now.

morana

The Crunch wrote: »

Some great ideas there, Anto, but is there not a risk of duplicating the work of the IVCA, especially as they spread their wings a bit with races in Limerick, Dundalk and Longford last year?
Why not work with the IVCA to get them to look after 40+ racing in the provinces now there is a new spirit of cooperation between the associations?
I see the IVCA are showing a lot of interest in the Masters Road Worlds this year. Why not work with them to organise and select representative teams to this and the track worlds?
The likes of Swinand, Peelo and Wyley should have an international competitive outlet given, as you point out, the average of racers is on the high side.
(If you get that hip sorted I might select you, too!)

Not available for selection....huge fish to fry at the moment

Pablo Rubio

Good Race in Dundalk yesterday. Tough rolling course with plenty of headwinds and crosswinds.