Well the other day i had a go at my season goal of sub 24 mins. Pathetic i know but when the fastest time at the end of last season after my first season racing was only 20seconds under the 30min mark despite a years training i was gutted! In the UCD TT at the start of the season i shattered that time by almost 2 mins down to 28:05. Sad time still i know!

Then when i bought a dodgy second hand TT bike with no headset i managed to knock another 2 mins off down to 26:09.

how the good lads do it!

There were lads racing who were walking their dogs before it so the field was mixed and the course was lump on the N11. I hadnt been on the TT bike in 4 months and only been on it 3 times ever i think so it was uncomfortable to say the least! On the Tuesday i avg 315 watts for 20mins but due to the bike i could only hold 260 and it was a struggle with avg hr 176!!!

luckily i did break my time by 2 mins again! so its now 24:09. shocking i know! but progress indeed!

Going to get on the bike a few times and try woodgreen soon and see if i can beat my 24min mark this season!

WHAT A FRED

and i think we would all recommend it. It fitted 4 people perfectly. One or two more would be a push but for 300euro for the week between 4 people it was a bargain! Perfectly located at the top of Les deux alpes which takes anywhere from 27mins (anto) to 40mins+ to climb at the end of each day.

Preparing for the trip to alpe d'heuz. The jacket was for the descent but wasnt neccesary at all!!

This was obviously a bit daunting considering you would usually of done one or 2 cols already and would be fairly shattered but it always made you have a dang at your time. The climb has 10 switchbacks and is pretty steep too. Avg speed up it is about 15km so its reasonably fast compared to the Alpe d’Heuz and Sarenne.

Pantani holds the record up in from 1998 and there is a statue in his honour up there commemorating it.

Il pirato the record holder. (not me sadly!)

Its a great climb as if your not doing it in the middle of the day it can be sheltered with some trees but if its in the midday sun its a scorcher! no where to hide!!!

In this video Anto and Colin are coming back from a dirt road ride up to an altitude above 2500m. We were late picking them up from the bottom of the alp and got them with 3 switchbacks to go. They were flying! It gives you a good idea of the gradient and the look of the area. It doesnt look that steep but this would be a flatter section at about 6% some of it is about 9% id say with avg about 7.5%? Colin had to do the Marmotte (190km) the next day so was not impressed (he rarely is!). It was 9pm at this point so not much sun but its easier to go hard whens its not as hot thats for sure.

Coming up next we will take a look at our trip up the Alpe D’Heuz. A day that had 3 punctures, one person blew up and another got stranded! A real treat!

A split went on a whopper of a climb and me and anto were at the front of it and Skipper and Ben at the end of it sadly.

During the race anto did many attacks to try and cross the line first in a group of about 20 riders mostly from Lucan with some Usher and orwell in there too. As expected it came down to a sprint and anto came strong at the end with coming about 5th and half a wheel ahead of me. Well deserved and id feel guilty if i had of nipped him.

Looking at the power file from the race my sprint went up to 9oo+ watts for 5 secs then down to 400 when i got stuck behind a lucan rider then back up again so that was frustrating. Il race Saturday and see how it goes but im fairly goosed at present! A nice rest should do the trick!

The skipper cam flying in well up the front of the main group out sprinting many of them with Ben following close behind. A good day out and another 100km+ day.

More details on France training to follow…

Anto, no doubt, resting up before and after the event. What a Pro

Il go through some of the great videos and pictures i got in the alps.

We did a great video series on Colin doing the Marmotte.

Lets see how the training went when i do the club championships tonight.

Conquered the alp and a cheesy pic!

Colin before the Marmotte. (didnt look like this afterwards!)

Im saving my UCD gear for the France trip on Tuesday so i threw on the old black ones and looking at the pics i cant believe how fred-like they are! Need to pick up a few more pairs of shorts but i wont be going for the standard black ones.

But you also cant wear pro-team shorts as thats a no-no. You cant wear white shorts as although you look cool for the first week they will be covered in multicoloured gels and oil stains forever. So whats the solution?

Seth happy as larry

total fred shorts

I was thinking of going on the turbo for an hour tonight?

I was thinking of going to jacuzziand swim and relax the legs?

or will i just relax and go to bed early hoping to be better to cycle 120km round trip to the club race after work???

Seth doing a good early session

Yesterday mornings lovely recovery spin seems miles away now!!!

The yank looking smart as always

We drove out the LONG way (never listen to foreigners directions) and got changed etc pretty quickly. About 15 mins before roll out it starts lashing rain which all of a sudden made the sun cream i just applied fairly unnecessary. I stayed in the car while Seth warmed up. I immediately thought back to last weekends rainfest in Wicklow and thought this just isnt going to be my day. I HATE RAIN. I especially HATE THE COLD RAIN!

This seemed to be different though as it was still reasonably warm out. Through the rain lashing on the window i could see Seth waiving at me furiously. (imagine think American accent) “they are F**kin gone man, get out of the car”. At first i thought he was joking but, NO they actually had gone. I jumped on the bike and had visions of me chasing back through the cars at the start of a terribly long day.

Luckily enough i found a group of lads tipping out to the start so i knew id be ok. After that the rain died off and all was fine. I asked one of the A’s if this was the same course that we did at start of season and he said yes it was. This scared me as i found it very hard first time round still finding my fitness. He could probably see my fear so he tried to cheer me up with “don’t worry though its only one extra lap this time”. I didnt know whether i should tell him that last time in the C race it was only 2 laps making this double the distance!

A starting field of about 45 rolled out and the first 10 mins was pretty hard going. Considering i was sitting in a warm car only a few moments ago its not surprising i found it a shock but it soon settled down when a break got away. My plan from step one was to just sit in all day and survive. I hadn’t ridden this far in a long time never mind raced it!

I felt bad sitting in and letting everyone else do the work but more and more people tried to bridge to the breakaway so it began to get strung out and eventually it came together. Whoever told me before the race that this was flat was clearly born in the alps as it was very draggy in places and some of these would last a good few minutes. Now i may have exaggerated about the hilliness of the race but let me just clarify that it wasn’t flat!!!

Once the counter attack break stayed away things settled down nicely and although i didn’t hear any time checks i can only imagine that it was quite sizable considering when we arrived to the finish line 4 hours after starting i saw the leading group eating tea and sandwiches.

I have to admit i have found an endurance food like no other mid ride. I made a nutella and banana sandwich at home and had it during the ride to break up the monotony of 7 gels and 4 nutrigrains. I promised myself i wouldn’t fail in this race due to bonking.

Because of this it must have looked like i was just coming off a fast due to the amount of food i was eating every few minutes.

The ride went well for me (seeing as i only did one turn on the front) and i was happy the legs were ok for that distance. I dont think i could have done much work and finished the race and i think the lads who were up at the front riding hard all day deserve a medal but hopefully someday il be able to contribute to a race of that distance. The group up the road had 13 in it i was told after the race and there was a small sprint for prizes in the main bunch (which was only about 20 riders by now). I got 4th in that and missed out on a prize but with the little amount of work i did i wouldnt have deserved one and was just glad to finish the race. I dont think il be doing too many races that long for a while but at least i know what it feels like. 4 hours racing a bike without talking to anyone goes pretty slowly…

http://www.manxradio.com/newsread.aspx?id=36562

The winner of Gorey will go far!!!

Details on sundays meath GP to follow.

Still recovering from it!

The trip out to the race in Meath was perfect. I rode alone and got there in about 45mins. The race was a bit delayed so it involved sitting around for about 30mins which wasnt too bad as the sun was really shinning now and was quite warm. 

The C vets and Juniors had a 3 min lead and the B’s and A’s headed off together the attackes started reasonably early but it wasnt tough going really. One group finally got a good gap and a few lads kept bridging accross. This is where i dropped my only water bottle of the day. I did one small attempt to bridge accross but afterwards my mouth was dry as the sahara so i decided to sit in a pick up my bottle off the roadside on 2nd lap of 3. When i stopped and got it it was smashed to pieces by a car so i bridged through the cars (much tot the help of Gay Howard) and sat back in the bunch thirsty and thus hungry as i couldnt eat a gel or bar without water. This lasted for 90mins and at this stage i was just waiting for the race to end. 

With nothing to race for and i could focus more of my attention on the noise coming from my rear wheel. It was a noise i hadnt heard before and sounded like a mixture of a whirring, a rattle and a grinding? I soon realised that my cassette had actually come loose and was shaking about. Looking back on it i should have stopped to avoid further damage but with my recent run of DNFs i had to plough on. When i stopped at the finish line and took out the wheel the cassette actually just fell apart. Lucky i did stop so! I was delighted that one of the cars had a cassette tool and i tightened it up but the noise still continued on way home. If i just leave it alone maybe it wont get any worse…???

Couldnt download the powerfiles as my PC decided to stop working! but the race was 90mins with avg power of 230 (i think)? so pretty tame.

For the day i did 5h with another effort of 60mins at 240 on way home so pretty hard going. My aim of racing on wednesday too ended when i only got in at 1045pm. 

A quick pick from Howth Summit

One hour up Howth this morn and the club race tomorrow should make for a good testing week.