Wheelworx Orwell Ladies Crit League 2013

buffalo

There might be a thread on this somewhere already, but thought I'd post a reminder as this starts tomorrow night. Opening TT course is same as the one used last Thursday in the Orwell League.

Open to all female cyclists, the Wheelworx sponsored Orwell Ladies Crit League 2013 kicks off on Tuesday 9th April and will run for six weeks starting with a time trial, followed by five criteriums.

Round one is a straight 5km time trial starting at Johnny Fox’s Pub in Glencullen, Co Dublin, along the Pine Forest road. Sign on opens at 5:30pm at the Pine Forest Art Centre (for directions see http://www.pineforestartcentre.com/location.htm - 3km on the left from Johnny Fox's Pub) with the first rider off at 7:01pm. Food and prize-giving follows at the Art Centre. TT or ‘Tri’ bars and equipment are allowed.

For a map of the TT route, see:-http://www.mapmyride.com/route/ie/glencullen/804126867351311198

The races are open to female riders of all fitness and ability levels including beginners, youths and juniors. With expert advice on hand, the League is aimed at those interested in getting into racing for the first time and will be great for improving fitness, cornering and bunch skills.

Plenty more details available at https://www.facebook.com/events/144589725712706/

You only need a club comp licence to enter, and the atmosphere is very welcoming - the amount of baked goodies usually on hand is staggering! Doesn't look like I'll be there myself tomorrow night, but I'd encourage any woman thinking of trying racing to head out and give the course a lash! And any lads, volunteer marshalls are always welcome.

NamelessPhil

I'll be there. It might nice to meet some of the people I stalk on strava in real life.:)

buffalo

I fully expect you to get the QOM on Cruagh Bridge to Bridge on your way to the TT Phil!

NamelessPhil

No, not this time.

NamelessPhil

That went well, really good organisation. More women cyclists than you ever knew existed.

I was the sole representative of my club but I was in some very exalted company. The winner was from Garda CC in a time of 9:36. I came 13th in 11:01. My first ever TT and it was great!

buffalo

Looking at the pointy end, I see an Olympian, a previous league winner, a national champion, and a several riders who have been racing and honing their skills for a few seasons. Great ride Phil!

And actually, you beat the national champ!

colm_gti

Well done Nameless!! Doing the club proud

You should have mentioned you were doing a TT, could have done a job on my TT bike to get it to fit you, and at the very least you could have borrowed the pointy aero hat! :cool:

QueensGael

Results are here http://orwellwheelers.org/forum/7-women/4002-crit-league-results-2013.html - well done ladies! Sorry to have missed it

Plastik

9th Annalise Murphy - of Olympic sailing notoriety?

daragh_

Was bitter cold at the finish but fun to watch the pain and suffering.

Well done all and high-five to NamelessPhil for kicking ass. STCC FTW

morana

Plastik wrote: »

9th Annalise Murphy - of Olympic sailing notoriety?

yeah she likes the bike and is good apparently

NamelessPhil

colm_gti wrote: »

Well done Nameless!! Doing the club proud

You should have mentioned you were doing a TT, could have done a job on my TT bike to get it to fit you, and at the very least you could have borrowed the pointy aero hat! :cool:

Erm, the nearly 12" difference in height :eek: would have meant that the bike wouldn't have worked, but the helmet might have been handy. Thanks for the offer!

buffalo

Plastik wrote: »

9th Annalise Murphy - of Olympic sailing notoriety?

Aye, I'd heard she'd been out training with UCD over the winter. You can ask doozerie about the time he met her, I had a good chuckle. :P

colm_gti

Plastik wrote: »

9th Annalise Murphy - of Olympic sailing notoriety?

She was at that Intervarsity TT last October, pretty sure she was 1st in the ladies category....jealous of these naturally talented sports stars!

doozerie

I drove up to this with my daughter last night, she was really keen to see another bike race after her first experience of it a few weeks back. I'm pleasantly surprised at her enthusiasm, I never really expected a toddler to be that entertained by the brief glimpses that you get from standing at the side of the road, but she seems to love it and it has really opened my eyes up to the fact that bike racing can be a fun event for all of the family.

According to the reading in my car it was 3.5C up at Glencullen, and the tailwind that had seemed to persist up there over the last week or so was gone so the riders couldn't even benefit from that either, so well done to everyone who turned up and competed in conditions that must have made staying at home seem quite appealing.

My daughter and I sat on a ditch beside the road. As the first few riders went past I managed to utter a few half-hearted efforts at encouragement here and there, while my daughter reverted to shy quiet mode. It was silly to just sit there and look on though, I may as well have been watching cycling on the TV as a detached observer if I wasn't going to try to contribute something to it, so I started to cheer on each and every rider as they went past. There were a few other people standing at the roadside nearby and they seemed as reticent as I had been to start with. Maybe that reticence is an Irish thing, maybe it's just a basic human thing, but whatever it is it's a pity 'cos it can make a potentially fun event very dull, as well as throwing away an opportunity to encourage the riders who are giving it their all on the bike. Anyway, I had the advantage of a toddler who started to get more into it the more that I cheered and clapped, and there is nothing like the enthusiasm of a now hyper 3yr old to dispel any sense of reluctance or embarrassment so we both started clapping and cheering every rider that went past.

Most riders had their heads down and were focused on the road ahead, as you'd expect, but several of them took the time to wave and smile at my daughter, which fired her up even more. She was clapping like a mad thing, and yelling "Keep it going", by the time NamelessPhil came past (uttering the sentence "Ye must be freezing" as she passed, proving that mammy mode over-rides everything else, even ruthless cyclist mode ). Our daughter was delighted at the sight of her mother, but as that sight kept on going and disappeared into the distance towards the finish line, the delighted face crumpled and the words of encouragement turned to "Mummy?… Hug?…". Our daughter might enjoy a bike race but she hasn't yet grasped the finer details about how they work, the incompatibility of competing and stopping for a chat and a hug mid-event being a case in point. Moments later though she was back to yelling and cheering again.

After all the riders had finished, we walked back down to the car park, several riders cycling and walking their bikes ahead of us. Which would have been fairly innocuous if it hadn't been for my daughter singing loudly "Follow the ladies, follow the ladies,…" as we walked. As a backing track to a middle-aged man walking along a quiet-ish lane at night behind a bunch of women in lycra it wasn't the most tactful choice. We'll work on tact later though, right now I don't want to distract from her apparently growing enthusiasm for cycling events.

There was a very sociable atmosphere in the arts centre afterwards, as people re-fuelled themselves ahead of the prizes. My daughter sat there and lapped it up, while simultaneously lapping up a cupcake and milk, she clearly comes from the Sean Kelly camp of wasting no opportunity to rest and top up on carbs.

All in all it was a great event, congratulations to all the riders, and thanks a lot to Orwell and Wheelworx for the time and effort that must go into organising something like that and ensuring that it's a success. Good luck to everyone with the rest of the league, based on my first experience of it last night I expect it'll be a great success as it seems to have been in previous years. I'd encourage people to turn up and spectate and to cheer on the riders (and maybe even to help out with marshalling and the like), it's a fun way to spend an evening and I certainly hope to be doing more of it in the future.

Edit: Oh, and I'd also encourage more women to take part in the league too. If you've raced before then you already know how much fun it is and this is a good opportunity for more fun. If you've never raced before and are understandably intimidated by the prospect then this league looks like a great place to just give it a go as the atmosphere seems very supportive and encouraging.

doozerie

buffalo wrote: »

Aye, I'd heard she'd been out training with UCD over the winter. You can ask doozerie about the time he met her, I had a good chuckle. :P

The exchange went something like this:

Me: "Hi Annalise Murphy, my name is Feckin' Moron, but you can just call me Gob****e for short. So what do you do?"
Her: "I sail. I'm just got back recently from London"
Me: "Oh you sail a bit, that's nice. And you went to see the Olympics, that's nice too. I heard someone with a name not unlike yours being mentioned on the sport news just this morning, funnily enough. What event did you go to the Olympics to watch?"
:
Me (feeling very very stupid): "…Oh. …Ah …Right. So you're *that* Annalise Murphy. …sorry!"


I rebounded from the pure embarrassment of that to the following notable exchange on another training ride a few weeks later when I met someone else for the first time:

Me: "Hi Siobhan Eviston, my name is still Feckin' Moron, but you can just call me Utter Gob****e for short. So what do you do?"
Her: "I run"
Me: "Oh you run a bit, that's nice…."


I am my own worst enemy. At least the copious egg all over my face helps soothe my fiery red cheeks.

Paul Kiernan

I was cycling through the other direction (from Pine Forest to Glencullen) at about 7:15 and noticed a rather bad-tempered looking horse plodding along. He looked like he wouldn't take too kindly to a bunch of madwomen in pointy hats zipping past his arse end. Just wondering did he cause any problems or did everyone just ignore him? Or were they so focussed they didn't even see him? Ah. I hear you say, so that's what that large bellowing brown blob was.

silvo

Excellent organisation and a friendly atmosphere last night. Seeing the 500m sign near the end was a massive relief! Would recommend it to anyone trying road racing for the first time, especially with free tea + cakes afterwards.

buffalo

Write up and photos from this week at http://www.orwellwheelers.org/womens-news/477-cronin-and-walsh-win-in-rd2.html

MB Lacey

Decided to give this a go.

Reckoned if I was able to keep up with the men on my 1st beginner group spin and one of the strongest cyclists at the women's beginner spin I should be ok.
In my head I had a chance of winning, you know, what with the fact that I overtake people 90% of the time commuting, have overtaken people on racers on my hybrid and have a few QOM's and 2nd places to my name on Strava, I've a good chance right?

omfgg.

Imagine Jo Brand cycling round an industrial estate whilst 48 other Lizzie Armisteads/ Shanaze Reades who've decided to give road racing a 'go' - start at the same time as her, leave her for dust then lap her.
I was Jo Brand.
Worse.
All I could do on my last lap was laugh to myself.
(there was only myself to laugh with - all the others had finished).



Having missed all the 'intro to racing' classes Orwell ran for women, I started my race clueless, clearly not as strong/ fit as I thought and was the only gal to cycle in trainers.
Huge respect to the other women, it was quite something to watch the A races - they really are something else.
So is the organisation of this women's league.
Well done to Orwell, all the marshalls, organisers and participants.
If I was living in the sticks and wasn't able to attend this event I'd be well pd off, so for this reason and the fact that it's good fun despite ending up last or 2nd last (I'm not even sure where I placed) I'll be going again.

Caroline_ie

In cycle racing there is only 1 winner the rest are all losers. You get used to it after a while.

MB Lacey

Caroline_ie wrote: »

In cycle racing there is only 1 winner the rest are all losers. You get used to it after a while.

You're aiming too high.
Aim low.
My aim is to not be last next week, if I manage that, in my head - I've won

:rolleyes:

StudentC

MB Lacey wrote: »

You're aiming too high.
Aim low.
My aim is to not be last next week, if I manage that, in my head - I've won

:rolleyes:

Keep at it MB Lacey! I did the league last year as my first go at racing.

In the TT the first week I wasn't last, but I was fairly far down. Then in the first crit race I think I was last - I was lapped so many times by so many girls that I don't know, but I reckon I was. Partly fitness, but for me it was as much being a chicken when cornering and not holding a wheel properly. But as the weeks went on I started to get the hang of it, got a bit more confident with my bike handling and worked out who was at a similar standard to me and thus were my direct competitors. By the end of the league I felt like I was actually 'racing' - working to keep the group together, pulling your weight in the group, keeping an eye on what your opponents are doing, trying to set yourself up nicely for the last lap etc etc - greatfun altogether!

NamelessPhil

I was the same in the A race. I found out that I was seeded in the A race because of the fantastic TT I did last week. If I'd known that I would have gone slower! (not really).

I got dropped within the first few circuits and lapped about half-way round but reckoned it was good training in the outer reaches of my lactate threshold so I kept going trying to stay out of the way of the faster riders. It was worth it because I found that I was near one other woman from MAD and that she'd catch me on the descent but I was able to drop her on the small drag.

I just need more hills and then I'll be unbeatable!

Keep it up, someone has to come last and as I explained to my small daughter who was watching I didn't know what would happen unless I tried.