2010 Irish XC NPS Round 5 - Killaloe

Although it had been a week since the end of the RAS, I really wasn't ready for another race – especially one as demanding as a cross country race. Anyway, I found myself down in Killaloe riding a pre-lap of their course under sunny conditions. Those sunny conditions where not a feature just a few hours earlier where torrential rain covered the country – this left the technical rooty singletrack in a very challenging state. The course was one I like – it started with a long fireroad climb and when you have been doing that for almost 6 minutes you start to hit steep singletrack climbs before you eventually enter the downhill singletrack. The singletrack weaved it's way around trees and over roots back to the start with a good smattering of technical kicker climbs thrown in to make sure you don't recover too much.

After the preride, I still wasn't in the right mental place to race, I contemplated sitting it out and taking photos and videos – being a good spectator – but with the drive down, thought that that would be a little bit of a waste. At 1:30, I toed the line (well, at the back of the grid as this was my first Irish NPS of the year) and we started up the hill. There was a good elite crowd here for the race, with Robin Seymour, Peter Buggle, Joe McCall and Canadian, Mike Garrigan as well as the usual suspects – with the super techy descents, Robin was always going to be the man to watch – that guy just floats over that stuff that the rest of us mere mortals have to slog through!

Mel says that I look like a spider here :)

The pace up the first long climb was pretty steady, and I entered the singletrack in around 5^th position – my plan was to ride a fun race and get a workout in – if there wasn't a smile on my face, I was pushing too hard! I rode steady for the first few laps trying to clear the techy singletrack – it was very tricky as if you make one slight mistake, the next 30 seconds of riding was just about trying to get into a rythm again. From the 3^rd lap (of 6) we started to lap riders and that was noticable in all of our laptimes. Although everyone was super about letting us through, the break in rythm on such a course greatly affected the speed we rode the sections. Coming into the final lap (after some jostling for 2^nd to 4^th position), I came through in 4^th position with Joe and Peter in sight 15-20 seconds up the road. I hadn't planned on trying to catch them (still riding with a smile) but by the top of the main fireroad climb I was on their tail. I thought to myself, well, I'm here, I may as well attack. I put in a good attack on the steep climbs and lost my companions as I entered the singletrack descent. Towards the bottom of the singletrack, Peter had caught onto me again (probably lots to do with the fact that I was riding like a squirrel) – with a few kicker climbs left, I attacked on each and rode through the start finish in 2^nd position behind Robin.

Elite Podium, Me, Robin and Peter

The course was good (wish it had stayed bone dry, but VERY glad it didn't rain more) and sitting around the lake afterwards in the sun with the rest of the competitors was great. Results are up here, and many thanks for Aine for being the feed support angel and Conor for the photos.

2010 FBD Ras Stage 8

The final daily RAS installment. I kept it steady, finished in the front group and won the county rider overall. 17th overall on GC and second Irish person (behind AnPost Pro, Conor McConvey).

2010 FBD Ras Stage 7

A tough day today going over my training hills - the video says it all.

2010 FBD Ras Stage 6

Another fun day in the RAS - a bit more climbing. I made the front group over the big climbs and thought that was it for the day. But another group of 30 chased on. I got 22nd in the sprint into Gorey. Video blog says it all.

2010 FBD Ras Stage 5

An epic day for me on the bike - crashes, bikes changes, chasing for an hour, got on, pucture, chased back on - gassed. Tough final climb - on a heavy unfitting bike. Still, I survived and no major injuries. Video blog has more.

2010 FBD Ras Stage 4

Another video blog - a good day for me, attacked into the break of the day and scored 15th overall. (2nd county rider - behind my teammate - the only county riders in the break).

2010 FBD Ras Stage 3

A hard day in the saddle today. 47kmph for the first 2.5 hours and we were not even on big roads. 171km with only 800 meters of climb. 3rd 4,000 calorie day in a row.

2010 FBD Ras Stage 2

Another quick video update after the massage. Dinner soon. Easy to see the time I was in the break today. Last 1.5 hours was neutralized after the big crash.

2010 FBD RAS Stage 1

The Profile - pretty tough at parts!

36th today (153 starters), 4th county (non pro team) rider, our team, Eurocycle is 1st county team.

Biking Car Boot Sale - Tuesday June 1st

Many of us have biking bits and bobs that have been sitting around for way to long. An XT mech you bought just when you switched to a SRAM drivetrain... spare mud tires, stems, posts, the list goes on.



On June 1st, from 7pm to 9pm at the Blue Light carpark in the Dublin Mountains we are going to have our first car boot sale. Turn up with your bits and bobs (and cash!) and you never know what space you will create in your garage for your new bike bits. Afterwards, have a beer or two with us - what more can you ask?


View Larger Map

Me, I'll have lots of bits for sale - pretty much all high end and mostly new. Stems, bars, tires, forks, saddles and more.

2010 Noel Hammond Memorial RR

I hadn't planned on racing at the weekend – two long rides, one on the mountain bike, one on the road bike was planned – a weekend away from racing. As it happened on Saturday evening, the temptation was too much – the course seemed to be pretty hilly and with only seven days to the start of the RAS, I knew there would be a good turnout of riders fine tuning their form.

The A1/A2 combined race started on some rolling roads that led to the start of our lap and a very fast descent. The course was a ride out to a lap we cover five times – basically, a long fast descent, some windy rolling roads and then a reasonably long (for Ireland) climb with a few steeper sections. From the start, I stayed in the first few riders to stay out of trouble. Along the bottom of the course, a few attempts were made at escape and I covered anything I felt was dangerous and let one or two smaller ones (with less 'firepower') go. As we hit the climb for the first time it all came together – Niall Delahaye and Conor McConvey made a bit of a go but towards the top they were caught again – it was at this point I decided to have a go – I put the head down and pushed for a few minutes with only Niall coming with me. We stayed away for three quarters of a lap until ten more riders (all the suspects I would expect) bridged across to us. That was the end of the peleton for the day. We were a strong group and worked reasonably well, some skipping turns etc... but mostly good. There were a few attacks and digs as we went around but nothing major.


On the penultimate climb, fireworks went off with Conor and Niall setting a blistering attack, that was neutralized, then it was the turn of myself and Paul Griffin and Mark Dowling, cracks where appearing and over the top of the climb, Conor and Paul led just five of us as a group over. We rode pretty well for the lap but got caught by the chasing seven at the base of the last climb. Mark Dowling attacked on the climb early and got a gap but I didn't worry – despite the group being larger again, it was myself, Conor, Paul and Niall that moved ahead catching Mark and splitting the group again – it was the same five of us off the front. With a quick descent to get the gap and then some cagey riding (need more experience at this) we got the straight for the sprint – I finished fourth of our group of five.

My only gripe about the race and organization (and it really was a very well run event, and one that I will definitely be back at) was that there were no markers for how long it was to the finish. A simple “1 KM” or even “500 M” sign would have worked...

Anyway, it was a great race and I was happy I decided to give it a go. There is another report available here.

2010 Race Bike - Specialized S-Works Epic

For 2010, both Mel and I are racing on near identical 2010 Specialized S-Works Epics. The bikes are basically the stock S-Works bikes with some modifications from our other sponsors: KCNC, Schwalbe and a little help from Stan at NoTubes.


Outside of the paint work, the major changes on our bikes this year are:

• Full SRAM XX drive train, we have a double (39x26) on the front and 11-36 on the rear. Shifting has been amazing – I love the twist shifts that I used for the last 3 years and when SRAM eventually (hopefully!) release a 10 speed twist shift, I'll move to it. I have to admit though, I do like the triggers – shifting has been crisp and perfect – shifting on the front ring (although, with a 39 tooth big ring, it will be a seldom used operation) is especially slick.

• NoTubes Podium wheelset – from NoTubes, we are running the NoTubes Podium tubeless wheels – total wheelset weight is 1.26kg. Slightly heavier than my old ZTR 7000 wheels but the additional weight is in the ZTR hubs which, due to the flange spacing, will give a slightly stiffer (and more affordable!) wheel

• The frame has been upgraded with a stiffer carbon front triangle and the liberal use of ceramic bearings for the bottom bracket etc...

• The rear brain shock has also been updated – a slightly heavier weight in the inertia valve gives better terrain sensitivity. It is also now produced with Fox which should alleviate some of the quality control issues some earlier versions had.

KCNC components are used throughout to also drop the weight down to a hardtail beating 9.4kg (20.7 lbs). This is not showroom weight, but ready to race weight with tires, sealant, bottle cage and pedals. It feels light, very light.

Tires, we stick with our general purpose setup of a 2.1 Schwalbe Rocket Ron on the front and a 2.1 Racing Ralph on the rear. We use this exact setup for 95% of our racing and training.

I have a few rides completed on it now – like last year, the bike wants to go, and go fast. When the terrain is smooth or on most climbs, it's stiff like a road bike – every ounce of energy goes into the wheels with no suspension bob front or rear and with the light wheels and tires you really feel the acceleration. Descending or riding technical terrain, it feels that the bike is running away from you – it wants to go faster than you can handle. It's an amazing feeling – it is like, extra little motors in the hubs giving you a speed boost. Both Mel and I are throughly impressed with our new race bikes and can't wait to get more races in on them.

Many thanks to our sponsors for helping us put all this together - Cycleways, Specialized, Schwalbe, KCNC and NoTubes.

"His and hers"

2010 Tour of Ulster

After the Ras Mumhan, I wanted to take part in another 3 or 4 day stage race before I tackled the much bigger, longer and faster 8 day FBD RAS. The Tour of Ulster has long been the final testing ground before the RAS so on the May bank holiday weekend I made my way up to Dungannon (staying with my sister and her family who live locally – thank you!) for the 3 days and 4 stages.

The first stage was billed as the most difficult, lots of going up and down hills but unfortunately nothing long or particularly steep. I and a few other lead riders missed the break and ended up putting a large amount of work in trying to chase. I was in multiple chase groups as the day went on but none stuck until on one of the longer climbs between Paul Griffin and myself blew the peleton apart (there was a big split, about 25 of us now in the chase). Not many riders wanted (or were capable) of working and I even made a go myself on a solo effort. As we hit 40km to go, heavy rain came down and as we were on small twisty roads so the pace dropped significantly. The final 5 km where dry and a mad dash to the finish line ensued. I finished towards the front of the chase.


The second stage was another long enough one – about 150km around Lough Neagh. The roads were mainly flat but there was a nice kicker towards the end. Breaks came and went during the day and I had to make a few big efforts to make sure I stayed towards the front. There were a few riders out front but in the final few km there were a few nice climbs. 4 other riders and myself broke from the group with a few km to go and on the final kicks, I myself kicked to get a gap. Unfortunately, some of the course marking was not so great (I believe Philip Lavery lost his yellow jersey on this stage for a similar reason) and I made a wrong turn which sent me from off the front of our group to off the back. I chased back and caught some of the riders by the line. A really nice finish – just wish I was directed better.



Stage 3 was a very short time trial. I have not taken part in a (flat) time trial before and unlike a bunch of riders I would be rocking no aero gear or TT bikes. I warmed up fine and felt pretty good. During the 2 minutes 50 seconds (yes, I said it was short), I was careful not to go too hard at the start but ended up having way too much left in the tank at the finish. It was undulating and I don't think I kept in a hard enough gear (cadence average was 110). Power was pretty low too – only 470W...

The final stage was a circuit race with a few sharp corners and a few short climbs. 10 laps in all. I tried to get myself into a few moves and a few things looked promising but groups were getting away and being pulled back all day – I had to choose my battles alternating between attacking and then getting some recovery. On the final lap, 5 of us got off the front and were making good progress to get across to a break – we were off the front for a lap and got within 25 seconds of the break, but with the yellow jerseys team driving the peleton, we were caught with a couple of kilometers to go. I was sitting in 11^th (would have been 7^th only for the wrong turn) but dropped to 15^th overall after the final stage. I had a big week of training leading up to the race and didn't ride particularly smartly during the race as I was simply using it for training – I didn't mind doing big efforts etc...

Guess the efforts - power data is heavily smoothed

I enjoyed the racing, and felt stronger as the days and stages progressed. It was also nice being up north for a change. I could really get into this stage racing thing... Now – less than two weeks until I start the RAS – after that, focus goes back to mountain biking – my MTB racing has really suffered lately as I have focused on the road these last 2 months.

MTB and the Dublin Mountains on TV

Last night, RTE 1 (Ireland's main TV Station) showed a program about the use of the Dublin and Wicklow mountains by various groups: walkers, artists, scouts and most importantly, Mountain Bikers.

My club and I were involved in the mountain biking segment from about 7 minutes in. I think it worked pretty well.

Click on the image below to watch the video until May 27th


Cycling, road, MTB, track, commuting, fixie etc... have been on our National TV channels almost weekly now for months. It's great to see and hopefully secures in peoples minds that Ireland really is a great country for riding in - no matter what your discipline or level.

A video from the 2010 Dalby World Cup

Some footage Mel shot form the final lap of the Dalby World Cup. The riders are descending Medusas Drop

Photos from the 2010 Dalby World Cup

A few pictures from the World Cup at the weekend. Taken while either Mel or I was supporting the other.

2010 XC World Cup Round 1 - Dalby

2010 UCI XC World Cup Round 1

Basically not a good day for me - not going well and then crashed out into the DNF bin. Video blog says it all.

No Bundasliga Round 1

Due to the world ending - I mean, giant dust cloud flowing over Europe, Mel and I can't get to Germany to take part in the Bundasliga in Munsingem. We were both really looking forward to it and were even going to spend two days having a look around the area that Mel used to call home.

With that cancelled and my day off work booked, we decided to go to Powercourt Gardens to have a look - it was closed due to the untimely death of the owner of the estate...

I think I'll now play it safe and go ride my bike or something... Road racing this weekend I guess.

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!

2010 Ras Mumhan - Stage 2

Stage 2 of the Ras Mumhan was known as the Queen Stage – at 140km it was not massively long but the final 80km would be constant climbing and descending over Kerry's most picturesque roads. We would even have a hill top finish on the world famous, Molls Gap. The climbs were pretty long but none steep unfortunately, still, having heard about the course several months earlier it was a stage I looked forward to.

Mel and I woke on the morning of the stage to a miserable day, high winds, lots of rain and pretty cool temperatures. The final 60km would also be directly into a 40-50kmph headwind – fun... The conditions would only add to the stages epic feel.


At signon, it was announced that the first 8km would be neutralized to get us outside of Killarney – happy days I though, less need for a normal warmup as it was pretty miserable – 3 jerseys and 2 thermal jackets were just about keeping me warm. As we rolled out, a few riders and coaches nudged me and knowing my mountain biking background said that I should really like this stage, well, here goes.

The first 60km were pretty uneventful – there were a few harder sections but not much happened. A break got off the front of about 8 riders but I could see strong climbers still with me and the peleton seemed to be motivated enough to not give much time so I didn't worry much. By the time we hit the first major climb, the Cat 2 climb at Lauragh, I knew it was time to bid farewell to the peleton and bridge to the break. Mark Dowling and 2 others made the faster trip up the mountain with me and we continued pushing it all the way down the descent catching the break just after the roads leveled off. The descent was pretty scary, a lot of rain and high speed kept me on my toes and I was glad to be with the break.

No sooner had we caught the break then we started to climb the Cat 1 Healy Pass – it was 6km at around 5% so not very big by alpine standards but the wind and rain kept it tough. I and a few of the other climber types kept the pace reasonably high on the front all the way up with a bit of a sprint at the top for the King of the Mountain points. I didn't want to go too deep early on the stage and settled for 3^rd over the climb but pushed on through so that I would lead on the long, very windy descent. I would rather ride on the front than sit on someones wheel for the descent so I took us down to the base. A little more flat riding and then a horrible drag on a long straight road. The wind was horrible and a couple more riders made it across to us from the peleton.

Climbing the Healy Pass - picture from here

A few kilometers before the next big climb, Tim Barry, Nial Delahay, Charles Predergast and myself made a break for it. By the time we got to the base of the Cat 2 Caha Pass we had created a 40 second gap. Tim and I rode tempo on the front as we climbed the pass but unfortunately Nial and Charles were paying for their earlier efforts. We slowed the pace as having those riders would greatly help us on the descent and flat section before the final climb of the day. By the time we got to the top it was obvious they were gassed – Tim and I were feeling good so we bid farewell and continued on. The break was pretty close behind us, about 20 seconds but we soldiered on through the wind.

I followed as closely as I could to Tim on the descent, we were descending like deamons and I really had to trust he knew the roads (I found out later he knew them very well). As we reached the bottom, 2009 Hill Climb Champ, Paul Griffin and Dutch man, Wim Botmon made it across to us. We quickly dropped into an efficient pace line and pushed out our gap to the break from around a minute to 3 and a half by the base of the final climb of the day – Molls Gap.

I had been feeling very comfortable all day and my legs felt great, but at 4% with a massive headwind, attacking on Molls Gap wasn't really going to be an option. Wim and Paul stopped working and it was left to Tim and I to pull us to the long climb. I was riding well within myself and as we passed the 5km to go sign wished that the wind would ease a little to allow for some attacks. It didn't happen and we rode to the top at a steady tempo – I actually rode the climb a lot easier than I would in training, but anyway – the wind was simply nuts – looking back, I probably should have tried to get away a few times anyway, but hindsight and all that...

250 meters to go and we were all looking at each other riding at a pedestrian pace, Paul Griffin led out the sprint and I followed, soon, Wim kicked just hard enough that I couldn't catch him but I passed Paul before the line to finish 2^nd. Not the win, but I would be lying if I said I wasn't happy. Shortly afterwards, I was told that I also now lead the mountains classification – I hadn't really been thinking of that but it was a nice surprise and I also moved up from 49^th in GC to 6^th.

The wind howled and I put on more and more jackets as we all became icicles for the presentations. Flowers and a nice new mountains jersey were the rewards for my days toils – I really really enjoyed the racing – bring on more stages like this.

Stage results are available here - the RTE news (Irish National TV station) had a small section on the news about it - kinda cool.

2010 Ras Mumhan - Stage 1

Ras Mumhan has the reputation of being the toughest stage race in Ireland outside of the FBD RAS. It was this reputation and the associated hills that led myself and Mel to sign up for the race. As it turned out, Mel was the only female rider M.A.D. enough to take part so she was going to have a very tough time - lots of hard training for her. We booked ourselves into the Kilburn House B&B (which was simply perfect) and then took the long drive down.

The weather forecast for the race looked terrible – lots of rain, high winds and even some snow – we packed a few extra layers and were determined not to get too bothered by a bit of harsh weather, although by the end of the race, we felt some of our tan had somehow washed off.

The stages lay like this: the first was a mostly flat 100km, second stage was flatish for 60km and then some long but not steep climbs (I had my eye on this one) for the final 80km. The next stage had lots of smaller climbs and was very exposed while the final stage was two 35km laps and then a circuit race around the base town of Kilorglin.

140+ riders started the first stage – basically I spent all of my time trying to stay around the front of the peleton but always being squeezed back – it has been a long time since I raced in a big group so it took a little getting used to again – after the first stage I was fine. It was at one of the times when I was squeezed back on narrow roads that I could see a break get away. There was nothing I could do... 100 meters back on packed tiny country roads – damn – rookie mistake. As the race progressed I got to the front and tried to get a good chase going with a bunch of attacks – at one point we had a 30 second gap on the peleton but they chased us down. We headed back to Kilorglin for a mass sprint behind the break. A crash in front of me on a tight corner caused a break in the peleton and I was a further 10 seconds back. After the stage, I was 5:34 back on yellow (It is important to note the 5:34 for when you look at how far I finished the stage race behind yellow).


It was a windy stage but the scenery was beautiful with Kerry's finest snow capped mountains being our backdrop.

Later – stage 2 (much more interesting!)

2010 BMBS Round 1 - Sherwood Pines

After spending the guts of a month traveling and racing (and working) abroad Mel and I came home pretty shattered from it all. The week I returned I also took part in two road races, a race on St. Patricks day and the following weekend, the first round of the Irish Road Classics Series held up in Donegal – The John Deere Classic (Finished 11^th, ended up TTing alone for the final hour holding off the main group). Something wasn't right though – during training, and even racing my heart rate was not rising – I use my power meter (and perceived effort) to judge efforts in training and racing but the heart rate is a good gage of how things are running – things were not running well. I performed a threshold interval (400Ws for 15 minutes) and my HR average was 161... 10 less than it would be normally for such an interval and about 18 less than it would be if I was racing.

Stunning in Donegall - from Marian Lamb

This attack on a 10 minute climb blew the field - I'm 4th in green, 7 of us broke off

The following week I took it very easy, some sessions were cut short when I couldn't turn the pedals and I felt very very tired all the time – not since I started training as an Elite have I felt like this.

The first round of the British National Series (BMBS) was being held in Sherwood Pines the following weekend – a race that I swore the previous year I would not return to. Obviously for a BMBS, organization, atmosphere and competition are all top notch but I really disliked the course. Fast, flat singletrack through trees that I didn't feel flowed very well (with a few sections that were the exception). Anyway, with the cancelation of some Bundasiliga races, Mel decided that she will have another go at the BMBS series (she finished 3^rd in 2008, her first Elite year, and 2^nd last year) – I guess my mind was made up for me, I'll go and race as Mel is going anyway.

The race was a quick out and back, we flew out on Saturday morning and home on Sunday evening. With bikes already packed from our return from Israel, preparation was stress free and when we arrived at the airport in East Midlands we found that our rental Ford Fiesta was upgraded to a Mercerdes AMG estate – wow :)

After some fun playing with the gadgets on our new car we arrived in Sherwood – the day was nice but the course was still a little wet and boggy in places. If the weather stayed the same it would be very fast again for race day. I was happy to find on the preride that the course was changed a lot from last year with some technical sections added and even a little climb (although there was still only 700 meters of climb over the 50km Elite race distance).


Race morning arrived and I was gridded on the front. “Some time in the next 15 seconds” - BANG, and we were off. I really really need to work on starts, I was moving backwards. Up the long drag to the first singletrack I was sitting in around 25^th place when I sensed a rider trying to barge through on my right, he rode straight into me and tangled my bars – F**K, I really don't want a crash at 40kph with a bunch of riders around me. He knocked me off my bike but I kept things upright (I was sitting on the top tube, chain was dropped feet skidding on the ground) but he came off considerable worse as I saw him tumble into the bushes – please, ejits, learn to ride a freaking bike and do not take other folks out of it – it is not like we don't have a job to go to on Monday morning!



Anyway, after that, I entered the singletrack almost last (55 starters in my race). The course is almost all singletrack and passing is a real difficulty. With my troubles over the last week, and even not knowing if I would race until the morning I took this setback as a nice challenge to move up as much as I can and enjoy riding my bike at race speed. I started pulling back people from the start but congestion in the trails meant that my first last was almost the slowest of the race, my last almost the fastest (data from the Garmin). Over the laps I rode past more and more riders, passing on the fireroad linker sections and then dropping them on the singletrack. Towards the end of the race, my legs even started to feel good – on the climbs I felt I could attack strong but wished I had been dicing more towards the front of the race. After a little over two hours I rode in for 21^st position.

It is funny looking at the results, in Israel (Man'nit) I beat Dave Fletcher on a flatish race and diced with him the following day on the European Champs course finishing a few seconds back while in the BMBS he rode to a great 3^rd position while I was in 21^st. I classed this race as a 'C' race and I guess that shows somewhat – roll on the hillier, more mountain bikey races in the UK :)

A really well run race and highly attended (all races were full - 650 riders!) - good job!

2010 Israel Cup Round 3 and 4 - Ma'anit and Haifa

When Mel and I where organizing our trip to Cyprus for the Sunshine Cup we also noticed that there were a few UCI International races being held in Israel over two weekends around the same time. Unfortunately, the first two races, on the first weekend, clashed with the final round of the Sunshine Cup but the final two races, in Ma’anit Forest and Haifa, home to the 2010 European Championships, looked perfect. With that, we booked the flights (210 euro each for the 300 kilometer flight) and contacted the organizers.

Weeks later, we finished up the Sunshine Cup and took the short flight over to Israel not really knowing what to expect – it was our first time in Israel and first time in the Middle East. I’ll leave it to another time to talk about our impressions (very positive) and just stick to the racing for now.

We only had one day before the back to back cross country races – we started out riding two laps of Ma’anit which looked to be a very flat course – 1 km into the 7 km lap I was thinking, oh, no, this is really boring – just like Sherwood pines. Fortunately, the likeness ended. After the first 1-2 km of fireroad and pretty boring (straight) single track you hit a beautiful shaded (in the heat and humidity this was really important) single track climb that shot you into super fast, grippy, well designed singletrack. Every corner was perfectly curved to carry maximum speed and breaking was an afterthought. I usually don’t like such flat courses but this one really stood out for the quality of the single track. It also had some mildly technically rocky sections and step-ups to make sure the heart rate never drops too low.

After riding 2 laps and sweating what felt like 3 liters of water we headed to Haifa for a lap of that course – we would not be able to preride the morning of the race (due to other races) and the course was apparently very technical so another preride in the heat was mandatory.

Ma'anit Profile

The course was very different from Ma'anit – more climbing, lots of singletrack (but still reasonable passing opportunities) and a few very technical sections. Unlike Ma’anit, many of the corners where very lose and would optimally be ridden many times to see how quick you can take them. We had one lap (nowhere near enough) but at least we wouldn’t be riding the course completely blind. If there was one thing I would have changed about the preride/racing, I would have ridden a few more laps, fatigue be damned.

The Ma'anit race morning arrived with a panic – I had some technical issues with my bike that needed fixing before I could use it! Not nice to see at 9am when you have a 40 minute drive to the venue and a 11am start! I’ll mention them again in another post but a call to Matzman Merutz had us calmed down and heading to their bike shop. I dropped off Mel at the venue first (to register us) and got my bike working, arriving at the race venue 30 minutes before the start – a short warmup, which, considering the heat, 35C+ and 60% humidity, may not have been that bad of an idea, and I was on the start line.

The start was fast as we shuffled around before we entered the first singletrack section – the size of the field was smaller than in Cyprus but still high quality – I think the size made the start a little less stressful. 7 laps of the 15 minute, 7km course seemed to fly by. I ended up being about 20 seconds back on a road race (guys riding in a group) for the first few laps but that broke up a bit and I moved up a few positions – feeling dried out but surprisingly okay – I finished up in 12th, behind Austrian Champion Hannes Metzler. My laps were consistent which I was happy with considering the heat – the bottle of water I threw over myself at the second feedzone really did seem to help a lot. Funnily, after the race I checked the Garmin and we still managed almost 800 meters of climb over the race – no big climbs but I guess all the slight drags added up. Many thanks to Benjamin Sonntag’s dad, Claus, for doing feed support for the race.

After a nice lunch, and a dinner shortly after that, the next day’s race was on our minds. This next course was going to be much more difficult – I didn’t ‘know’ the course at all – it was the type that you really need to ride a few times to learn the lines – at 6km, it was also pretty long but despite the climb and technical sections it would still be pretty fast.

After a pretty good warmup we lined up, again in the heat with no shade (I wonder what the European champs will be like when it is 40C+ here?). The start went okay, attack after attack going off the front in order to get good position for the technical singletrack. All was going pretty well until the first proper technical downhill section – there was a rock drop that you had to get right and then turn into a left hander – all was happy until the pleb, sorry, rider, in front of me stalled after the drop – I had nowhere to go but down the drop and then over the bars. Bang – blood flowing from my leg, arm, I was winded and again had a bruised butt. I was a touch annoyed. I picked myself up, checked the bike (perfect thankfully) and by the time I got going again, Maja Wloszczowska (female Silver medalist from the Olympics) was almost on my tail. A junior had also gotten by that seemed to know the course (and was thus hard to get past) and was pretty slow on the singletrack techy climbs. Eventually I got by and started to work my way through the field again – my leg was throbbing but being the last race of the series, and having a while until the next international race, I pushed on. Like the previous day, we had another hot day – unfortunately, when I came through for my bottle going onto the 4th lap (we had six laps) – my feed supporter didn’t notice me (despite my screams) and I missed a bottle – crap – I was thinking about the fresh bottle for half a lap and now it would be another 21 minutes. I grabbed my bottle on the next lap and had the almost 500ml down me before I left the feedzone! To top it though, as I came through for my final lap my feed supporter was nowhere to be seen – another lap without a bottle – the last few laps where very tough, I felt very dehydrated and finished the race feeling like a dried up pretzel – it took two days for my skin to return to looking normal. Afterwards though, looking at the lap times, my laps where consistent and my last (like the previous day) was actually my second fastest – my legs were gone on the climbs but I more than made up for that in the techy sections – I really wish we had more time on the course.

Haifa Profile

A bloody knee...

With that, our weekend of racing in Israel was complete – my favorite race was the first in Ma'anit – it really was a fun course. The course in Haifa seemed to be a little scattered, it didn’t really flow as a complete lap and the corners where pretty lose (apparently, in July it will be much more dusty). Still though, it will be a good course for the European champs with a very fit and technically skilled rider coming out on top (oh, and they must be able to deal with the heat!).

Results for Ma'anit are here and Haifa here.

Follow me - the trailer

Follow Me - the Teaser from Anthill Films on Vimeo.

Sometimes it would be nice to be a downhiller...

2010 Cyprus Sunshine Cup Round 2 - UCI S1 Stage Race

Last weekend was the Sunshine Cup Stage race that both Mel and I had been looking forward to. The race was a one lap time trial around the cross country courses loop, then a 41km point to point with a large amount of climbing followed by a long cross country race.

Stage 1 – Time Trial

When Mel and I got up to go to the time trial in the mountains, the weather really did start to turn bad. We were blessed with almost perfect cycling weather for our whole trip except the three days we spent in the mountains racing. When we arrived, the weather was terrible – wet, cold and the course very muddy. Like last year, the course was pretty simple, lots of climbing (300 meters of the 7km course) and 5 very steep, short descents. Warming up was a difficulty, it was very cold and I have found it hard to get motivated for such short, wet races. I rode my lap taking the descents reasonably cautious (I didn't want to have a big crash like last year) but never felt to have good legs as I road the lap. I finished up in a very 'meh' 49^th (80 something starters).

After a single lap!

Stage 2 – Point to Point

The point to point is a pretty fun race – the first 40 minutes of riding is boredom city (up and down fireroads) but then we hit the major climb of the day, about an hour of continuos climbing with the last 35 minutes on single track. This of course is followed by a magical 10 minute descent when you drop 600 meters of vertical gain on single track and then a loop of the cross country course back to the start. Like last year, my diesel engine wasn't ready for pushing so hard at the start and it took a while until I really started to get going. Over the climb and descent, I passed about 20-25 riders and finished up in a much more credible 36^th position. We had rain before the start of the race and 20-25 minutes at the end of my race but conditions from the previous days of rain meant the course rode a bit slower than last year.

Stage 3 – Cross Country Race

The final stage was the cross country race – like all races over here, it was going to be on the long side of what constitutes a cross country race. On the start line temperatures where cold and it looked like the rain was about to start again (a massive storm woke me, even with ear plugs in, during the night so we knew the course would be water logged). The race started – and as usual at the start of the season, I went backwards for the first while – however, this time my legs actually felt reasonable. I settled into a good rhythm and started passing riders, and then more riders. The rain had started to become heavy at this point and I was getting very cold (despite also wearing a base layer) – I seldom get cold on the bike while racing (well, at least off road) but this was one of those times. As the laps went on, I saw riders pay for their earlier efforts and blow as I rode by – even passing Christoph Soukoup on the final nasty climb back to the start/finish area. This time I finished a weekend best of 26^th which placed me 27^th overall and claiming some UCI points in the S1 classified race.

A great race, but it was unfortunate that the weather was so bad – of the 19 days Mel and I spent in Cyprus, 16 days had almost perfect cycling weather, these 3 had horrible weather.

Many thanks to Fredrick, Boerje (of Cycle in Cyprus) and Harry for all the assistance at feed zones etc... over the weekend. As privateer racers - Mel and I rely on folks like you - many many thanks!

2010 Cyprus Sunshine Cup Round 1

Wow, that was hard. A winter of training and the odd cyclocross race really made me forget just how hard XC racing is and yesterday was a real 'tough cookie' as a first race.

It has been almost 5 months since my last race and like last year, Round 1 of the Cyprus Sunshine Cup was my introduction. Round 1 this year was being held on a course that was very similar to the course that the final round last year was held in Voroklini. This year, they took away a rocky technical climb and descent (about 1.5 minutes) and added an extra 2 laps! This was going to be a long hard race. 240 meters of climb on the 6.7km lap – I would have 7 laps and an additionally hilly start loop totaling almost 2,000 of climb.

Nerves were the order of the day for the morning – “why am I doing this?”, knowing how hard the 2.5 hour race was going to be. After a navigational error on the way to the race course we arrived with just enough time for a good warmup – at that point, the nerves subsided as my race head went on.

The start was going to be manic – due to my placing in last year's series I had a good grid position (3^rd row) but having almost 100 international riders on the start line (almost everyone flew in for this, only a few Cypriots on the line) meant that the race start would be manic for all involved. The race whistle blew and the frantic pace began. I slipped down a bit on the climbs but I wasn't too worried – it would be a long race, the first of the season and the temperature was soaring. The first lap went by in a blur, it was feeling tough but not too bad. Second lap was okay as I eased off a little to catch my breath putting in a reasonable lap time but by the start of the third, it felt like I had blown my lights. From that point on I suffered around the course – the power was drained from my legs but the close racing helped pull me along. It really was a shock to the system.

Coming through for my final lap, I seen a few riders that were ahead of me at the side of the trail, oh no... I was pulled! I wasn't close to being lapped and I was about 14% (there is a 20% rule) off the pace of the winner – I was a bit annoyed to say the least! My legs were cramping but I still wanted that final lap.

I had no major incidents in the race, no crashes (almost everyone you met after the race had some cuts and bruises), I burped my tire on a descent midway through the race losing a little air which meant nursing the tire a little, but nothing major. All this and a huge amount of suffering meant I finished in 41st - better than half way in the huge field.

A clip of one of the descents. The guy who messes up on it wins the next day! It is much steeper than it looks.

The first race of the season was one of my toughest – I seemed to blow up and had to endure the severe course. As ever though, the racing was close, and the organization ran a top quality event with a World Class field in 30 Celsius heat – what more can you ask for in February. I'm really looking forward to this weekends stage race!

Results are available here.

2010 Irish National Cyclocross Championships

It takes a long stopover in Heathrow Airport for me to finally be able to put something down about the 2010 National Cyclocross Championships.

The cyclocross season for me was about doing something a little bit different in the winter, getting a few high intensity workouts (races) thrown in and enjoy another aspect of cycling. Having just complete the season, I achieved all of the above. But, I digress, back to the racing...

Due to the terrible weather back in January the original date for our National Championships had to be delayed by almost a month – the course itself, on the original day of the championship, was great – covered in snow, slippery, but very very fast. However, road conditions in the country meant that the venue would be hard to reach for some which forced a postponement. For that race, I had prepped a little, for the first time in the season I had taken it a little easier in the lead up week and was feeling fresh for race day when I found out about the delay. This complicated matters as two days after the initial championship, I was traveling to Gran Canaria for a month of hard road training. This camp is a cornerstone for the coming cross country and road racing seasons so I was not going to change my plans.

Fortunately for me, the rescheduled date for the championship was after I returned from the camp – the following day in fact! Arriving home at midnight on a Saturday having travelled from another continent for a one hour sprint the following day isn't great, but I was really thankful to be there at all for it.

Race morning arrived and I was groggy – first things first, prep my bike for the race and then start prepping Mel's as she was going to take part in the MTB short track support race. This all took more time than I wanted which meant a slightly later arrival at the race venue than I had planned. My plan was: preride a couple of laps (and learn how to ride off-road again!), go back to the car, get race kit on, and then head to the road for a high intensity warmup.


The warmup laps went pretty well – I adjusted the pressure in the tires up a little as it felt a bit squidgy for me (being used to 110psi, dropping to 26psi felt weird). I then met my parents and brother who came up to watch the race (incidentally, they loved it – a great spectator sport). As I noticed that the mtb race had not started, I inquired when our race would start and was told 1:30pm, 30 minutes later than scheduled – no problem, I'll just hang out a bit and then head to the car to get ready at 12:50. At 12:45, as I started to head to the car to get ready I heard that the race was in fact going to be held ON schedule – damn – I'm not even ready and have not had a warmup! I raced to the car (the warmup?) and got my race gear on and got a passer by to pin on the number. Crap...

On the start line (legs cold), there was no ranking based on any races from the last 12 months, only the previous years national championships of which I was not a part. It was a very wide start with around 12 riders lined out and it made a nervous few minutes trying to make sure my race for 1^st was not hampered before we even begin this technical course.

I just about got to line up on the front row and a while later the race started – I say a while later because there was no “race will start soon” announcement, or the REQUIRED, “anytime in the next 30 seconds” announcement! Just a random whistle, followed by a “go” when there was a realization that most of the competitors didn't know the race was starting!

Picture via bikepure

I had a poor start (something I have been working on and getting better at) and spent the first lap and a half moving through traffic. I than sat in third and started chasing down Liam McCreevey and Joe McCall. Joe, who has been very focused on this race for many months sensed that he didn't want me close to him and attacked hard when I was about 10 seconds back – Liam dropped off on the attack and I soon passed him. Joe and I raced at around the same pace, him always around 10-20 seconds up until midway through the race when cornering aggressively (the course was a joy to ride with highspeed slightly bermed corners) when my bike skidded to a halt – instantly, I thought I had lost a derailleur as my gears had started to cause problems. After a few seconds, I figured my wheel had simply come loose and dropped out of the dropouts – a bit of fiddling and I was ready to go – my Garmin tells me I lost 40 seconds in this episode. I continued on but found it hard to get a flow again with Joe and I staying about the same distance apart. I finished feeling fresh a minute back on Joe to claim my 2^nd place. When I say fresh, I mean, I could keep the same pace for another hour or two but going quicker than that was very very hard – cycling 90 hours in the previous 4 weeks over big mountains tends to do that to you!

As you can probably tell, there were a couple of things that frustrated me about the day (only one being down to me, although I did skip my usual kit check before the race start as I hurried to get to the line) – the main thing though was that I would have enjoyed a good race against Joe – some close racing. This race for me was a simple time trial around the course – thankfully, the course was exceptional and I enjoyed that aspect immensely.

Thanks to the organization for running the event – especially Greg May – due to the postponement etc... he came under a lot of flak, thank you for holding through and running a great event in a great venue. Thank's too to all the supporters who where out to cheer us on – I hope you got to see at least a few of us suffer!



So that was the end of my first Cyclocross season – I learnt a lot from it and enjoyed it. I will have to see how it effects me a little later in the year (too much racing?) but I'm pretty certain I'll be back next year to give it another go and claim that Green jersey. In the last two years, I have claimed National Elite medals, silver or better, in four different disciplines – the Pokemon phrase springs to mind – “gotta catch 'em all”... Maybe I should get a Time Trial bike... :)

Setting up a double crankset

I have been asked about the crankset on my training bike many times and each time I explained it from the start - I guess I should put together a quick post that I can point to in the future.

The setup starts as an XT crankset (triple) that needed new chainrings. I don't use a granny ring and spend most of the time in the big ring so I felt a proper double setup would work better. With the big ring (a 42) where the middle ring was, I would also achieve a great chainline meaning that all the gears on the rear cassette would be accessible without having the chain at extreme angles.

I basically removed all chainrings from my XT crankset and bought the following 3 items.

Narrow chainring bolts (or single speed ones) for holding on my new big ring.
A 42 tooth 'middle' ring.
A 28 tooth 'granny' ring.

Then I simply bolted on the new 42 tooth ring where the middle ring used to live with the narrower chainring bolts, then the 28 tooth ring where the granny lived and finally adjusted the 'H' limit screw on the front derailleur so that it would no longer move to the old big ring position.

A post ride example of the setup

I've been really happy with the setup and spend much more time in the big ring as you can easily access the full 11-34 rear cassette.

2010 Irish National Cyclocross Video

As I posted earlier - the National Cyclocross Championships where on at the weekend. My report is still to come (I came second) but I wanted to post this video first. It's pretty short (I forgot to charge the camera), and mostly covers the front of the race but at least you get to see what it was like :)



It is in HD so should look good in Full Screen.

Irish Cyclocross Champs

This weekend DCU Cycling Club and Team Worc are hosting the Irish National Cyclocross Championships in St. Annes park. Origininally, the event was to be held on the 10th of January but was postponed until February 7th (this Sunday) due to the crazy weather at the time.


My time in Gran Canaria ends on the 6th and I'll arrive back in Ireland late that night - not the best prep for a 1 hour flat out race on Sunday but I'm still really looking forward to the challenge. I have not been off road in almost a month and am really looking forward to riding my cross bike.

All details for the event are available here - if you are not racing, come along and cheer us on. It is a beautiful park and you'll get to watch 100 folk 'suffer' around the course :) The main races starts at 1pm.

GC T-Shirts

Like last year Mel and I have found a few 'interesting' t-shirts while walking around the shops... Spot the wonderful English :)

Wheelworx XC Development Series

This spring there is a new XC series in town. To promote the development of XC racing a new series has been put together over 3 weekends starting on February 21st. These races are aimed at people new to the sport and 'Sports' (beginner/intermediate) category riders. The courses will be designed to be fun, fast and not overly technical so that new riders can get a feel for what XC racing is all about.

It's almost 4 years since I took part in my first race, a decision that I (obviously) have not regret! No matter what age or skill level you are (or even if you are a roadie!) - give it a go.