FROM THE CURLEWS TO THE PYRENEES


On Saturday the 14^th of July last, the French once again celebrated a pivotal moment in their history with their annual marking of  Bastille Day.  For the Curlieu Wheelers however, it was a day when they would write a new chapter in their young history by taking part in the L’Etape Du Tours 2012.

Club members Joan Gardner, Enda Madden, Brian Supple, Brian McMahon and Gavin Brennan, along with honorary member Dessie McLoughlin, joined forces with other cyclists from Galway and Dublin to make up Team Freewheelers, and pedalled their way through the Pyrenees in order to raise funds for Cancer Care West, the West of Ireland Cancer Charity.

On the day, the local paper ‘La Republique Des Pyrénées’ ran the headline “8,000 a l’assaut des cols mythiques”, and at 6:20am Team Freewheelers immersed themselves in a sea of cyclists with a common aim.  The route chosen for this years Etape event was what would become Stage 16 of the Tour de France, which is regarded by many as being the greatest cycle race in the world.

Beginning in the southern city of Pau, and winding its way through 200km of Pyrenean countryside, the route took participants up and over 5 major summits, namely the Hors Category Col d’Aubisque, the category 1 Col du Soulor, the Hors category Col du Tourmalet (the highest paved road in the Pyrenees), the Col d’Aspin and the Col de Pereysourde, the final two ascents both being listed as category 1 climbs.

The final 14km was a welcome descent into Bagneres de Luchon, where a tremendous effort by all participants was rewarded by a welcome dinner at ‘L’Hotel de Paris’ (only 10km from the Spanish border!).

Of course, when in France on Bastille Day, it would have been very rude not to venture down town and quickly undo a period of relative abstinence which had prevailed during the weeks and months leading up to the event.

Team Freewheelers/Curlieu Wheelers wish to express their appreciation to all who gave generously to the Cancer Care West – Family Support fund in the lead up to the event.

Until the next challenge!! – A bientôt.

Club Notes:

Club Notes:

The new Curlieu Wheelers club gear will now be a familiar sight in Boyle and the surrounding areas, with the bright yellow and blue kit it will be easily spotted over the coming weeks. Thanks to the sponsors Abbey Tree Services, Brogans Pharmacy, Roscommon Herald, Dalys Drinks, R.J Shannon & Co. Accountants Ltd.

Well done to club member Sarah Neary who was the first Lady home in the Humbert  Challenge Spint Triathlon. Sarah had a fantastic time of 1.11.31 with a blistering run time of 19.02. Also well done to William Little who was third in his age group also posting a great time of 1.15.49 with a strong bike of 33.02 mins.

Cycling Summer Camp Sprocket Rocket is coming to Boyle in August. It’s a funway to get kids involved in cycling. Minimum age is 8years old. Kids will be learning bike skills, balance, braking fun races and much more. For more information contact regancarmel@gmail.com  

Club Spins continue to roll out every Tuesday and Thursday Evening at 7.00pm from St Josephs Boys National School Abbeytown. Sunday morning spins are 9.00am Advanced and 11.00am Intermediate same start point. There was great numbers out the last weeks and some new faces and good to see people in the club colours so hope to see you all on Sunday. New members are always welcome. Email curlieuwheelerscc@gmail.com for more information or check out our blog at curlieuwheelers.blogspot.ie.

The Roscommon Pink Ribbon Cycle is on this Sunday 29^th of July all details are on their facebook page or sroll down to older posts on blog for more info and the An Post Tour of Meath is also on this Sunday again details are on the blog. Best of luck to all Wheelers taking part.

We have a weekly piece in the Sports Edition of the Roscommon Herald, in the notes of the Leitrim Obsever, the Weekender, The Roscommon Champion and the Una Bhan News letter so please email any photos, events or results so I send them in every week.

Any Wheelers that have not collected their gear that they ordered can they please collect it Tuesday eve before the spin at 7.00pm St Josephs National School Abbeytown . Even if you’re not going out for the spin pop down and collect it. If people can’t collect it can you contact Carmel curlieuwheelerscc@gmail.com as we need to balance off the accounts at this stage.

Mark Hayden Memorial - Carlow

Before I begin apologies for the grumpy picture of myself, despite having the lovely new gear I was not really looking forward to this race.   I think this was a combination being tired of from the long drive and some hard training sessions I put in during the week, anyway I was here so had to give it a bash (a quitter never wins my favourite motto).  This was going to be a testing circuit of 3 x 33k laps with very few places on the course to recover.

I decided to play this race a bit more smart this week instead of jumping head long in and attacking, it was time to start racing and not using these events as training.  As you get to know the riders throughout the season you get a good idea who are strong and who are the ones to watch.  So after about 20k on the first lap I moved to the front and the first move I got into was with a strong rider, I decided to just follow him for a couple of km and see what would happen, seven more riders joined and we all started to work.  I had a fairly good idea that the break would see the finish before the bunch and gave it my all, unfortunately I was not going well and felt very sluggish and midway through the second lap on a particularly difficult stretch of road my legs I could not recover and I got dropped from the break and re-joined the bunch.

Slowly but surely other riders from the break began to re-join the bunch so I wasn’t the only one who was having it hard.  Five remaining riders just about held of the bunch which I was happy about as they must have been giving it a 110 percent just to stay away.  One lad from the original break got caught by the bunch with about 1km to go.  All I could say him at the finish was that cycling can be a cruel cruel sport sometimes.  Carlow Cycling Club put on a lovely spread of sandwiches and cakes and more importantly tea, and the chat with the lads is always great after the races.  I think it’s an Olympic motto “it’s the taking part that counts” and for me that’s particularly the case, it’s all about the craic and giving it a go.

 Cheers Paul

An Post Meath Heritage Cycle Tour: 29^th of July 2012

11km Family Loop, 50km Tara Loop €20, 100km Royal Tour €30, 160km Royal Challenge €35. Cycling Ireland members can avail of a 10% discount on their respective entry fee.  All details for the event are on http://www.meathsports.ie/  or  www.anpost.ie/AnPost/IrishCycling/An_Post_Cycle_Series/Meath

Already there seems to be a good numbers of Wheelers travelling to this event and the Roscommon Pink Ribbon Cycle.  So contact fellow members and we can try to travel in groups to make it easier.  It looks like the first event that Curlieu Wheelers will be in there new Club Gear.  So it would be great if as many members as possible could join us at one of the events.

Roscommon Pink Ribbon Cycle – Fun Cycle

FUN CYCLE

Roscommon Pink Ribbon Cycle, in aid of Breast Cancer Research (NBCRI),

will be held on

SUNDAY, 29 July 2012

All ages, all abilities catered for.

100k, 60k, and 10k Family Routes.

For more information call:  086 8196062 / 086 8417264.

L'Etape Tour

"From Curlieus to the Pyrenees"  Well done to all  of the team on the L'etape 5-peaks Challenge in aid of the Cancer Care West Lukemia Fund . Enda Madden, Brian Supple, Brian Mc Mahon,
Gavin Brennan, Joan Gardner and Dessie Mc Loughlin.

An Post Meath Heritage Cycle Tour: 29^th of July 2012

Early bird closes the 19^th and penalties will follow if you enter after this date. 11km Family Loop, 50km Tara Loop €20, 100km Royal Tour €30, 160km Royal Challenge €35. Cycling Ireland members can avail of a 10% discount on their respective entry fee.  All details for the event are on http://www.meathsports.ie/  or  www.anpost.ie/AnPost/IrishCycling/An_Post_Cycle_Series/Meath

Already there seems to be a good numbers of Wheelers travelling to this event. So contact fellow members or drop me an email and we can try to travel in groups to make it easier.  It looks like the first event that Curlieu Wheelers will be in there new Club Gear.  So it would be great if as many members as possible could  make it to this event.

 July 11^th/ Wednesday Eire Og summer Race League Round 5 @ Rosses Point Sligo.  Sign on at 6.00pm till 6.45pm. Race start at 7.00pm.

 Tour of Connacht 300km and 210km on the 4th and 5^th of August.

This will be a great event and with the L’Etape gang just back from their tour there will a few Wheelers gearing up for this.  The West Aware 2012 Tour De Connaught Charity Cycle is to take place over two days on starting on Sat August 4th and concluding Sunday August 5th. The aim of the cycle is to raise funds for Pieta House West, and to spread awareness of Suicide Prevention services available to people in Ireland currently. There is two routes planned a Gold Route (Day 1 190km, Day 2 110km), and a Green Route (Day 1 110km, Day 2 100km). This event is a Charity Cycle, therefore not a race per se. Closing date is July 19^th. Fee €75 (More info racedates.ie/road-cycling/west-aware-2012-tour-de-connaught-cycle-tuam-galway)

Tour De France Live coverage every day on connachtcycling.com .Thanks to Brian Nerney for the pictures he got a closer look at the action at the Start of the Tour.

Tuesday and Thursday Spins are still rolling out at 7.00pm from St Josephs Boys National Abbeytown.  The weather hasn’t been great for the last few spins in the evening so if you can make it out this week.  Make sure to come along.

Sunday Spin this week is 9.00am for advanced and 11.00am for intermediate.  Same start point. It’s the last spin for the L’Etape crew so why not come out and join us for the spin and offer them some encouragement for their trip ahead. Some members are heading on the 9^th and the 11^th and the big event starts on the 14^th so make sure to keep an eye on our face book page and curlieuwheelers.blogspot.ie for updates.

L’Etape 14^th July

 After months of training and preparation and regular spins over the Curlews in all weather conditions Joan Gardner, Gavin Brennan, Brian Mc Mahon, Enda Madden and Brian Supple will take on the Pyrenees on the 14^th of July

L’Etape du Tour – Pyrenees, is one of the most famous Tour de France stages, it encompasses 4 huge climbs totaling 4500M and will have close to 8,000 cyclists participating. Less than 1 week later the official Tour De France race will cover this exact route

They will be raising awareness for Cancer Care West Family Support Fund. We wish Joan, Gavin, Brian, Enda, Brian Supple and Dessie Mc Loughlin all the best for the event and make sure to follow their travels on our facebook page.

Mullingar 2 day 2012 Race Report -Paul Byrne

I have fond memories of competing in this race.  It was in this race 20 years ago that I managed to get my first placing in a race, finishing 3^rd on the last road stage.  The race was organised by the Lakeside Wheelers.

There were 3 stages in total; 110 km stages on Saturday followed by a 3.5k hilly TT Sunday morning and then a 90k stage in the afternoon.  I had not raced anything like these distances so far this season let alone do it over two days.

The first stage was 3 laps of a 37k circuit and my plan on the first lap was to just sit tight in the bunch for the first 50k and see how the race developed.  Sometimes you need a bit of luck but unfortunately there where to many big teams controlling the race so it was very hard to get away. 
A bit of luck did come my way on the second lap, just as I was riding in the front of a bunch I glanced over my shoulder to see a crash so phew a bit of lady luck shone on me.    I seen the eventual stage winner attack with about 20k to go and i tried to chase but after about 10k I just couldn’t make the junction, and had to give up. I finished about 40 seconds down on the bunch with the stage winner a further 36 seconds ahead again.  The sad news was that the crash took out about ten guys and they failed to finish the stage.

It was an early start for me on Sunday morning as the TT started at 8.30am and I was one of the first of so I was on the road at 6.30am. I Finished 50 seconds behind the stage winner.   The stage winner from Saturday’s stage a guy from a club called the Phoenix Cycling  had done enough to hold onto the yellow jersey by 10 seconds going into the final stage in the afternoon.

The worst thing about double stages on the one day is hanging around particularly with an early start in the morning;  I must say Lakeside Wheelers made sure there was plenty of tea and made you feel really welcome, there was plenty of chat and banter and the afternoon stage was soon upon me. The stage was 3 laps of a 30 mile circuit.  

I had no choice but to sit tight in bunch as the race started off at very high speed.  With a lap to go the Yellow jersey disappeared into the bunch unable to do any more work at the front of the bunch with his team mate only able to go to the front whenever the pace dropped,

I really feared that he could lose the race because he had no support, we forget that cycling is also a team sport.  I then thought that the right thing to do would be to help them in whatever way I could, as my chances were gone.  The first thing I did was go to the leaders teammate and told him not to ride on the front anymore as there where to many other teams that should be on the front riding to protect their riders that where in the top 5, as they would only be too happy for him to ride at the front all day and then attack.  I said that the other teams will panic and start chasing and true enough that’s the way it panned out I said I’d help out in whatever way I can.

With about 10k to go the Yellow Jersey went to the front as the guy in second overall had attacked I helped out at the front as much as I could as his teammate could not help anymore and we brought the GC contender back.  I rode on the front of the bunch for the next 3 or 4 k to keep the bunch together, and then the inevitable happened my legs exploded with cramp and again had to just coast to the finish.  As I crossed the line a couple of minutes later I heard a shout from the other side of the road and it was the lad from Phoenix Cycling Club saying thanks very much as his teammate had won, to me that thank you is every bit as good as any prize.
Lakeside Wheelers put on a great event.  I’ve a good few races coming up in the next few weeks so hopefully my efforts over the weekend should pay off with a few results;