Lucan/Orwell/Tiernans/Usher/UCD league race 22/8/12

buffalo

Final race of the league!

Anyone driving out from town or nearby to this? Looking for a lift, don't need room for a bike.

colm_gti

buffalo wrote: »

Final race of the league!

Anyone driving out from town or nearby to this? Looking for a lift, don't need room for a bike.

I'll be heading from rathgar if that's any use to ya?

buffalo

colm_gti wrote: »

I'll be heading from rathgar if that's any use to ya?

argh, I'm northside city centre, I'd be a while getting across to you. Decided I'm going to get the bus for the novelty.

Idleater

buffalo wrote: »

Decided I'm going to get the bus for the novelty.

And a pint with your sangwige :-)

kenmc

buffalo wrote: »

argh, I'm northside city centre, I'd be a while getting across to you. Decided I'm going to get the bus for the novelty.

Is your bike still borked after losing us the world record last week??

buffalo

kenmc wrote: »

Is your bike still borked after losing us the world record last week??

Nope, all fixed up. I've just been stuck late in work all this week and unable to pick it up. Dave T, legend that he is, is bringing it to the race for me. All I have to do is bring myself.

colm_gti

Of course it would rain for the last one....

Instead of doing a pile of work early on and burning out, I decided to make an effort to sit in and preserve myself for when the faster lads caught us…but got too relaxed, started chatting to bloke briefly at the bottom of the uphill on the second lap and was punished when someone made a break. Started pushing on up the hill, and made it to the front of the chase. With the lead group about 200m ahead it became a solo TT effort to try and catch on for the length of the main road after the hill, to no avail, wasn’t loosing ground to them, but it wasn’t to be, eventually started to suffer too much, waited for the main bunch to catch me and rolled in with them. Good training and lesson learned for Cork next week!

buffalo

Well that looked like fun from the sideline. Sadly my mechanic didn't arrive on time, and I got tired running after the first lap. Well done to everyone who took part in the league, was a blast this year. Apart from all the rain.

doozerie

I enjoyed that. It was, as ever, a race in itself to get there. I encountered and rode with an Orwell rider from Scratch for a lot of the ride to the race. I was secretly hoping for a tow for part of it but I ended up giving the tow for the stretch from the roundabout to Caffrey's pub. I rightly screwed up there!

I fully expected to blow very early on in the race, so I went to the front a few times so that at least I could go out with a bit of an effort. The first few turns were hard going but I was surprised to find that I settled into it, so I kept on putting in a stint on the front whenever I could. We were quite organised for a while but it started to get irregular soon enough and from there on in it took an effort on the part of various of us to kickstart things again.

After scratch caught us it started to blow apart and I found myself out the back amongst a bunch of others. I dug in and continued to work hard, as did several others. It looked like we might get back on at a few points but we seemed to be catching people who were going out the back of the bunch and the efforts eventually took their toll and the bunch disappeared into the distance. I enjoyed the rest of the ride regardless though, there were several of us taking turns and it made for a fun run to the finish.

@colm_gti, Was that you in the Look shorts and Tiernan's jersey? I found myself struggling to get past you at one point a while after we'd been left behind. I'd moved up to do a stint on the front, but like the little car that couldn't having pulled out to pass out the truck in front, I was revving the arse outta my engine but not making any progress. If you wondered why someone to your right was laughing oddly at one point, that was probably me.

@Idleater, As bike nerdy as it sounds, I recognised you by the the clamp in your Strava image. Despite having met you in person before (Boards Evil 200), it's one of your bike parts that makes my brain go "hey, that's Idleater". That's normal, right?...

And as for the rain throughout the league, I swapped the wheels on my bike last night, and it was only while I had the previous front wheel off the bike that I noticed a sloshing noise. The rim sounds like it has quite a lot of water in it, from the Team Time Trial last week (yayyy, something else to blame my poor performance on!). And as I sit here with my bike behind me I can see the rear light turning itself on at random which probably means that it has water in there shorting something out. *sigh*

Idleater

doozerie wrote: »

@Idleater, As bike nerdy as it sounds, I recognised you by the the clamp in your Strava image. Despite having met you in person before (Boards Evil 200), it's one of your bike parts that makes my brain go "hey, that's Idleater". That's normal, right?...

The seat clamp is a nice bit of engineering all right :-)

Enjoyed that race too. Stretched the legs first time up the Mullagh and then sat in for the rest of the race. Enjoyed the pace when scratch caught us and headed for the car instead of the finish line.

Fair play to all the prize winners and all the racers in general this season. See you in the spring I guess.

colm_gti

doozerie wrote: »

@colm_gti, Was that you in the Look shorts and Tiernan's jersey? I found myself struggling to get past you at one point a while after we'd been left behind. I'd moved up to do a stint on the front, but like the little car that couldn't having pulled out to pass out the truck in front, I was revving the arse outta my engine but not making any progress. If you wondered why someone to your right was laughing oddly at one point, that was probably me.

Aye, that was me after I had murdered myself to get up to the break, got bored and sat up for you guys to tow my sorry ass home Were you wearing a translucent rain jacket? This happened towards the end of the second lap? T'was nice to meet you, though I'm sure the circumstances could have been nicer!

Looking forward to next years club league, having only bought a bike in march and taking part in my first race on that Sally gap finish race, I was never going to be in contention for a win, but I've gotten a great taster of what racing is all about, and hopefully with a good winter season behind me I might be a bit more competitive next year! Top job to all the organisers and support!

doozerie

colm_gti wrote:

Were you wearing a translucent rain jacket?

Yes, I was. Well, it started out translucent, by the time I got home the black road muck was starting to win the battle to determine its colour longer term. This bothers me more than it should, I feel an irrational urge to reserve my rain jacket for dry days only.

daragh_

Well done all. Kudos to Colm. I've no doubt he will do great things in the League next year.


Last night was dismal for me. Got dropped again, near the first climby bit.

Second week of feeling crap.

Having dipped toe in League racing this year (3 races and 2 Time Trials) I've learned the following:

I should have been in limit.
It rains ALL the time.
Getting dropped is a great way of meeting new people (hello Steven, good luck this weekend).
I should have been in limit.
I have an amazing ability to ignore my own limitations.

I'm retiring now to plot a winter of spin classes, mountain biking, more spin classes and turbo sessions. 

I look forward to next year, in Limit.

lalorm

So ends another year. Enjoyed it this year despite the rain. Ended the year stronger than I did last year so its all good. SS next year me thinks, although I probably won't get a say in it. Some strong lads in SL this year and L. Time for some of us to move up next year I guess.
Right, time to hang up my A4 numbers for this year. See you all at the hamper race.