CLUB NOTES

Post date: Mar 04, 2012 8:47:38 PM

Youghal Cycling Club Notes – Sunday 19th February 2012

As the mild weather continues the cycling thrives. So eager are some of our lads that they headed out mid week to tackle Mahon, Mamas & Strikes. Pure heroes lads, well done, a spin is no good these days unless you breach the 5000 meter climb! For the rest of us we had to be content with the regular Sunday morning spin, but what a spin it was! A good crew of 18 riders assembled at Moby Dicks for 9am and decided we would do the 90km Vee Ascent course. With that we headed out the Mill Road and quickly hit the Tallow Road. We climbed it steady to warm the legs and once we hit Lombards Bar the pace opened up a little. There were no complaints heard and the tone was set for the rest of the day.

Before we knew it we were rolling through Tallow and the km’s were counting down to Lismore and the start of our climbing. As we reached the start of The Vee it was Eoin, Brian & Sam that jumped first. After getting burnt by the same crew no less than three times last week, Wayne bit his lip and settled back with the main group. The three boys began to disappear off in front of us, then Greg went, at this stage it was every man for himself. Climbing fast and all pushing hard, the group stretched out as we cycled on to the top.

The views were massive as the glorious February sun shone down on us from clear blue skies. This Sunday we were not the only ones on The Vee, as we also me a large group from Dungarvan and Clonmel Cycling Clubs. There must have been over 100 cyclists all looking for a bit of hardness on this Sunday morning. We re-grouped at the top, turned around and headed back down towards Cappaquinn. We were barely clipped in when Greg was heard to call “Lets keep it at 35 lads”, that will be nice we thought, but when he passed we realised he meant miles per hour!! Holy Hot Wheels, the legs were screaming as we got into a great sprint for 18km all the way down to Cappaquinn. There were large groups of Youghal and Clonmel riders giving it all we could. Johnny Walsh was like a man possessed this week. He gave it all he could on the way up, and gave a little more on the way down.

Once we got to the tea stop in Cappaquinn, the quads were screaming as we bought all their stocks of Turkish Delight for the second week running. John Healy was heard to mutter “Jaysus, it isn’t often I am more wrecked coming down the Vee than going up it!”. Nicely refuelled we headed off towards Dromana Drive and onto Aglish. But this was not the end of the fun, as Brian and Eoin took the front of the group, the pace increased again. Anthony and Mark were off having their fun in Ballyhoura, so there was no shout of “Steady”, the pace maintained at a high tempo. As we crossed the River Goish and took the steady climb to Clashmore it was every man for himself. The peloton stretched out again as the legs were screaming for a break, but we still had about 20km to go before the break. We rounded the hairpin bend over the River Lickey, tackled the last pinch at Kilmaloo, before switching back towards home with a handy 95km on the legs.

As the ride was over we then started to think about the couple of cyclists that had dropped off the back. Reckoning that some of them were still on The Vee we have renamed it to Veeitnam. See you all for more next week.

Meanwhile a peloton of 10 riders met at Moby Dick's for the 10am Sunday spin. No argy-bargy about the route this morning as we set off out the N25 swinging left and down the bog road. There was no wind as we headed towards Balamacoda and on past Fr O’Neills playing fields. There was a strange silence as we neared the T-Junction swinging right and then left and up the hill to Kilcreden school. There were some dark mutterings as we climbed our way up past the school house.

We just had our breath back when we turned right towards the yellow houses where prayers were being said for whoever picked this route as we grunted and cursed our way up the short but very steep climb over the top. With the Ballycotton lighthouse in sight we free wheeled down to Garryvoe heading for Shanagarry and the coffee stop. Well refreshed we made our way past Ballymaloe house turning right and on to Ladysbridge where there was of course more climbing up the hill, through the village and on to the main road back to Youghal with 54km done at an average speed of 20kph. We were glad to see Cillian back on the bike again and we hope to see Jim back soon. A word to the 9am group - Did ye have to sprint the last 200 meters on the bypass? Ye could have waited for the two old stagers coming up the other side. Hope to see boy wonder from Gleann Fia back next week.