CLUB NOTES

Post date: Mar 05, 2012 7:21:15 PM

Youghal Cycling Club Notes – Sunday 4th March 2012

Another fine Sunday morning greeted all 15 riders at 9am. We headed off out the Killeagh Road into a fine westerly wind. Warmed up by the time we reached Killeagh we took a right to Mogeely and them climbed on to Dungourney at a nice steady pace. Pushing hard up the rolling hills there were cries of “Steady” from the usual crew, no need to name and shame, but ye know who ye are!! It was heard to be said that “Half wheeling was the Devils work, and even worse when doing it up a hill!”. We grabbed our breaths at the top if the climb and re-grouped and had a chuckle or two at the complaints.

Legs refreshed, the lads were on the Kangaroo juice again, as a group of three broke off at the front and enjoyed a sprint down to Castlelyons. Still energised from their exploits in Tralee last week, it was Tobin that took the first prime hotly followed by Fitzgerald and a fading Collins J

Twenty minutes later the group rolled into Tallow for the cup of tea and plenty of banter as Collins disputed that he only pulled up on the sprint as he thought he had a puncture. We believe ya Jason!! Nicely refreshed and ego’s put back in place we rolled out towards Knockanore and the ever familiar climb to The Pike. Having climbed this road a few time already this year we all had a strategy and climbed it well. Some were even heard to mutter that they love this climb, what the?

Once we got back to the Tallow Road the pace increased significantly as we finally had a little wind on our tail. We wound it up and there were no cries of steady as we all had eyes on the second prime of the day for the polkadot jersey. Again Tobin, Fitzgerald and Collins were pushing hard at the front. Tobin pulled through with 50 meters to go to the peak at Ballydaniel and he looked to have it in the bag. But Ciaran McCarthy had bided his time and he slung past Tobin leaving him in his dust and comfortably took the honours.

At this stage there was no holding back and the pace was held at a high tempo. With only a few more kilometres to the green jersey, we were like frogs as we hopped and rolled past each other every 20-30 seconds. It was wide open, coming down the home straight it was Collins out front closely followed by Heffernan & Fitzgerald. With a final push, after 95km of cycling, Heffernan finally put his nose out front and took his second green jersey of the year. Well done to all his domestiques again this week! However, Johnny Bulman is still holding on to overall yellow with his solid performances every week, never heard to complain yet. We just can’t make the routes hard enough for this man!!

As a final note we have complete our 8 week program of spinning in Aura Leisure Centre. Thanks to Wayne and Jonathan for dishing out the pain every week! With that we will now be resuming our Tuesday and Thursday eveining spins. We will leave Lidl carpark at 7.30pm and do a 60-90 minute medium to high tempo spin.

Schedule as follows (weather dependent):

Tuesday & Thursday at 10am from Lidl Carpark – Intermediate Cycling

Tuesday & Thursday at 7.30pm – Lidl Carpark for a 60-90 minute high tempo spin

Saturday’s at 10am from Lidl Carpark – Beginner & Intermediate Cycling

Sunday at 9am from Moby Dicks – Intermediate Cycling

Sunday at 10am from Moby Dicks – Beginner (& Golden) Cycling

Please note that all riders are expected to have road bikes (racer type) of good repair for scheduled spins. Riders must wear helmets, bring a spare tube & pump.