2012 Des Hanlon Memorial RR

The Des Hanlon Memorial is one of the biggest one day races in Ireland – a few years ago, it was actually my first ever road race (glutton for punishment) – that day I thought all Irish road races were like that (well, my N=1 experience told me that).

At almost 160km it is one of the longest races in the Irish calendar and has a bit of everything – I would describe the course as hilly but nothing too selective – the steepest climb is about 7 minutes at 4.4%. The race wears you down with the constant ups and downs and draggy roads. Its place in Irish cycling means that everyone turns up for it so the winner is always very well deserved - there is no armchair ride to the finish here.

Most years, the winning break goes about 20-30 minutes into the race – 10-15 strong riders leave and that is that – this year was different. After the first lap, the peleton of (around?) 200 had been wittled down to about 60. Still a large number of riders on the testing course. The great weather these last few months has left us with a very strong Irish peleton.

For me, I felt yesterdays race in my legs for the first hour – after that though I came around and felt good for the rest of the race. I stayed attentive and remained at the front for the race, probably riding more than I should have. My brain kept telling my legs to attack, my legs, well, they mostly did what my brain said.

The climbs of the final lap came around and the front group was down to about to about 20 riders. With some strong sprinters still in the mix, my plan was to hit the final climb full gas. It worked mostly to plan but I took Mark Dowling (2011 National Hill Climb Champ) with me – at the top of the climb we had 20 seconds on a chase group of Thomas Martin and in form Peter Hawkins. Unfortunately, by the base of the main descent (it was into a headwind so not very fast), two become four. We rode steady for the next eight kilometers. With one kilometer to go we started playing around a lot only to see chasers riding through public traffic that stretched behind us (getting a lot of shelter no doubt), that scuttled my plans for what I wanted to try coming into the finish – Peter and I seeing the chasers get closer started out our sprints with 250 meters to go. Peter claimed the prestigious win, I finished second with Paudi O'Brien claiming third from the chase group which almost caught us.

Peter was "ecstatic" - me on the huds - Photo Tony Quinn

Weather was fantastic, it was a great race and I think I rode a reasonably smart race - I could have been more conservative at times. I missed out on the win which I am disappointed about but I did have a great weekend of racing.

Many thanks to Carlow CC for running such a great event year in year out – why can't we have hard races like this every Sunday – it would surely get everyone in great race shape for the Ras in a few months! One of the things I have noticed while riding the Ras in 2010 and 2011 is that a huge number of the county riders (amateurs) keep up with the full time Pros (and even kick their butts) until around 100km - then most die off - is it a coincidence that most Irish races are 100km or less?

Looking through some data afterwards – the 7 minute climb I mentioned, when I attacked on the final lap (after 3.5 hours of very hard racing in the legs) I covered the climb 30 seconds faster then I did in the Ras as part of the front group – glad to see things coming along well after the disappointments from last year.

I'll also answer something I'm asked about a lot - what did I eat/drink in the four hour warm race – well, I had no team support so no bottles from cars (although Team DID and Eurocycles did have bottles in the car to give me if I really needed them - thanks guys).

2 750ml bottles of Zipvit EnergyExtreme

1 Zipvit Sport ZV7c Caffeine Gels (usually only one during a race)

4 Zipvit Sport ZV7 Gels

1 500ml bottle of water I got from a random dude on the climb/feedzone – THANK YOU – I drank it in seconds

Report on Sticky Bottle and Irish Cycling

So the million dollar question - did racing (and winning) the day before hurt my chances at claiming the Des Hanlon Memorial - possibly - I love to race and back to back hard race days prepares me well for my goals later in the year. I would do the weekend the same again.

2010 Des Hanlon Memorial Road Race

This is just a quickie report on the 2010 Des Hanlon Memorial Road Race before I get back to talking about the excellent Ras Mumhan.

The days leading up to it I started to get a bit of a head cold (very rare for me) and some pain in my right knee – I think the pain was due to 5 hours sitting in a car from Ras Mumhan or possibly the pedals being a little wider on my training mountain bike that I was riding during the week. Lots of physio, icing, frictioning and massage and I felt reasonably good on Sunday morning for the 145km classic.

Race was simple – I missed the break (stupid stupid me) - chased very hard with Martin Irvine and Tim Regan (both Irish team road rides) as hard as we could but failed. All the 'big' guns were gone so it turned into a training ride. Mid way through the race the break had 3+ minutes but with 45k to go we had it down to 1:25 and I thought we could pull them back. What happened next was just ridiculous, two very large horses (with riders) where trotting along the narrow road. 70 riders coming at 60kmph down hill spooked them and all hell broke lose. I am very happy to say no one was hurt but the incident was terrible and should not have happened – there should be more than enough warning vehicles ahead to give those riders enough time to get off the road. This incident delayed us by about 1.5 minutes and all our momentum was killed off. I continued riding at the front and finished up getting a good workout in with a bit of a sprint at the end.

Funny, I tried to get a break going a bunch of times, say 7-10 strong riders but everything was chased down, and do you know what the people did when they caught us, they sat up - giver uppers!

Power figures were interesting enough - 333W Normalized Power for the race for me (3:40 ish racing time - I was doing a lot on the front). With close to 30 minutes in anaerobic power zones so I did get a good workout anyway...

Next week – round 1 of the Bundasliga – this will be tough!

2009 Des Hanlon Memorial

Every year I do a few road races. I like doing them as it is something a little different form mountain biking racing and I take them very relaxed. I don't taper or do anything special for them, but when I'm in the race, I do try to do everything I can to get a good result. My first road race was the Des Hanlon Memorial in 2007 – one of the Irish classics. This year was the third year that I was taking part in the race and I was taking Mel along with me too.

This year, the course was a little shorter with a section of the final climb taken out in favour of a very fast and twisty descent followed by a 5km drag on a main road to the finish line. For an Irish road race, I liked the course (I guess hilliness equates to likeness for me).

My Specialized Tarmac with Zipp 404s

In my previous two races on this course, the break went early so I stayed very attentive at the front of the peleton (there was about 100 riders) – surprisingly, we were almost two hours into the race until the break got away. It was on a climb (which I could have followed) but I got boxed in and missed it. The peleton rumbled along for a bit and then went to a practical standstill – I few jumped off the front and it looked like they too would stay away so I got ready and jumped too to catch the chase group. After a few minutes of pain, the chase group formed, there was about 10 of us (with about 10-12 in the lead break) and we started to work pretty well together. I much prefered being in the chase group – as we were working together to catch the break, the speed was reasonably constant – the boredom of the first hour was a distant memory.

With about 30 minutes of racing to go, we caught the break away – by this stage, with the two groups together we were about 16 riders. I was taking on some food and we turned onto one of the final climbs – I dropped to the smaller ring and the chain dropped. Try as I might, I couldn't get it back on while on the bike and had to dismount – by the time I got riding again, the chase were making another selection up the hill (i.e. they were hammering). I put the head down and chased as hard as I could passing others who popped off the back but couldn't make the lead group again. The rookie mistake cost me – my legs were feeling good, and despite if only being my 5 or 6 road race, I felt I could have tussled for the win. I rode down the sketchy descent and the 5 km drag to the finish. In the end, I actually came in 10th and was left thinking about what could have been. Between the warmup and cool down, it was 100 miles covered in the day and a good session in. The race was well run and I'll be back again next year.

There are some race pics here and results here.

2008 Des Hanlon Memorial Road Race

Yesterday saw me take part in my second road race, third race of, the year. As I said in an earlier post, I was treating this as purely training. But still, with any 150km+ race, a little preparation was needed. On Friday I picked up my new S-Works Road Shoes from Cycleways (Thanks!). White and very PRO looking – they also drop about 220 grams over my now relegated to training shoes. On Saturday, I had planned on riding off road for 2-3 hours but consistent rain (and a bit of a mechanical) meant that I was home, freezing after 1.5 hours. Well – the next day was going to be long so I was not too annoyed.

Sunday arrived to a bright and sunny day – I was not relishing the prospect of a race in conditions similar to last year. I arrived with enough time to sign on and get ready but not enough for a reasonable warmup – the first few km was going to be neutralised so that was fine, besides, all I wanted to do was sit in the draft all day.

A map of the course

Course Profile with speed

Race was going to plan. 30 minutes in, I had done nothing but stay out of the wind. We were on a bit of a climb and I seen a break of about 12 get away – they were a bit ahead and I seen a few try to bridge so I decided I may as well give it a go. For about 5 minutes a few of us worked to catch them in vain. Then another couple of people joined us and soon the peleton was with us again. Ahh well, it's probably best – I was supposed to only be sitting in. For the next few hours I sat in out of the wind most of the time – watching as people were slowly shelled off the back (sometimes in clumps). It wasn't always easy but I never really pushed anything. The course was basically a leg out to the start of a lap, 3 laps (4 reasonable climbs per lap) and then a fast ride into the finish. On the last climb of the second last lap I was chatting to another guy (sorry, I forgot your name – riding an S-Works Tarmac) that if we both have good legs at this point in the last lap we will hammer off the front. So, we rode the next lap and when that point came along both of us, joined by 3 others broke up the main chase group (we were about 30-40 riders from an original 100+) and 5 of us got away. 3 more joined us on the descent to the finish and we hammered along for what was a sprint finish in the end. I came in in 11th position overall in the S1 (probably equivalent to Pro/1/2 in the US) race – if I had stayed an S2 (as I was last year) I would have come second. For someone who took it (reasonably) easy all day, I was very happy with that. This race is known as been an Irish 'classic' and one of the toughest of the year.

Me on a climb - one of the few times in the wind :) (pics from Peter Purfield)

Coming in for 11th - it was a hard push down the hill

Saint Patrick's day for me is about resting, eating well (my PowerTap reports that I used about 4,000 calories in the race), going on a recovery ride and possibly heading into the city later to see some of the festivities.