Thank you to Patricia Cosgrove for the photos.

A report by Phil O'Flaherty. 

Life begins... 

I was 40 on Sunday. The sun shone and the Dubs won. All was right with the world. But when I tell my grandchildren about my collapse into middle age, this is what they'll have to put up with...

I cycled out from town with a friend from Dublin Wheelers. As we pointed our front wheels towards Ballyboughil (it's even harder to spell than it is to park in), I asked him what the story was with non-handicapped races which were new to me. His advice was highly technical -   stay near the front and give it a lash when the time is right.

We arrived in Ballyboughil and it rained. A lot. I had stuffed my base layer in the Wheeler's bag which had been spirited away to a marshalling point somewhere near Dundalk. I stood in my short sleeve jersey under a tree. The tree wasn't working.

We set off after a while and there might have been enough of us for a game of five-a-side. There might even have been a few subs. 

The pace was slow enough. The first time up the Nag's Head, nothing much happened but I felt fine and some others seemed to be under a little more pressure. Phil Prendeville punctured near the flyover and I thought "poor Phil" but I also thought "I wont have to look at his arse receding into the distance up the climb".

Peter Doyle rode away from us up the hill the second time. I just stuck to the wheel in front of me and hoped he wouldn't stay away. He was reeled in near the flyover and things got a bit cagey. 

Peter asked (jokingly) whether we were all waiting for the sprint. I said I was waiting to watch the sprint. He said to me that my best chance was to have a go up the climb and to make it count. That made up my mind for me.

On the last go up the hill, I knew I couldn't attack too early or I would blow up. I left it until near the top. The pace wasn't that high and I gave it my best. It wasn't that impressive but I think I was helped by the fact that I was definitely not a marked man. Dermot (not sure of the second name) came with me but he crashed on the turn at the top - I think he's alright but his elbow looked a bit iffy at the finish.

I'm not sure how far it is from the top to the finish - someone said 10k but I think it's a good bit less than that. I got into the drops and rode as hard as I could. I didn't look back but I was expecting company at any time. I stole a glance over my shoulder just before the finish straight and didn't see anyone. Halfway up the straight, I had another look for the purposes of determining whether I could strike a pose for the camera. I was met by a view of marauding pursuers so I abandoned the Zoolander plan and pedalled like bejaysus. I had a few metres to spare.

It may not have been a vintage club championships and everything went my way. However, I promise as club champion to campaign for world peace and for freedom for Tibet.  

Many thanks to Joe, the marshalls and all those who helped out. I would also like to particularly thank the lads from the saturday morning spin from whom I have learned a lot since I started heading out last October.  This is my first year racing and I have been murdering myself with some excellent lads in Group 4. I could have taken it easier in an earlier group but I wanted to push myself and learn what I could.  Thanks for the help guys.

The “B” race started and I wasn’t 100% sure if we were cycling or swimming there was so much water coming from above and below! I spoke with Brian Kenny at the start of the race and the two of us agreed that this could be one for us and that we would sit as close to the front as possible to avoid trouble and then attack the second time up the Nag’s Head climb.

I felt that I did a good amount of work at the front of the race and was feeling good so, the first time up the Nag’s Head I decided to set the pace at the front of the pack following Alan Kelly, who had gone off on a solo (He mentioned afterwards that it was all about getting TV time for the sponsors!). We let him sit off the front all the way up and then reeled him back in on the way back to the start line.

It has to be said at this point that the pace was fairly pedestrian with nobody wanting to get caught out. For this reason, I found myself again at the front pushing it on. I didn’t mind and neither did the others who were keeping it going also.

Just before the Nag’s Head start, while still on the R132, I was at the front when Laura Banfield came past and said “Come on Conor, let’s go”. I duly jumped on and followed as she put the hammer down. The only problem was that so did all the others and we ended up together very quickly again.

Entering the Nag’s Head climb for the last time. If the finish was on it I’d have won, but it wasn’t. It was time to put the plan into action. I went for it from about third in line just before the cross roads at the McNally junction and put the hammer down big time. I heard lots of grinding of gears behind me as the others started to react. Head down go, go, go were my only thoughts. The sudden injection in pace meant that I got a decent gap. I heard someone say “I’m with you” and a glance over my shoulder confirmed that it was my co-planner, Brian Kenny. The two of us cycled side by side as fast as we could, spinning up the climb. We passed an earlier breakee (number 48 I think, who had gone off the front earlier before we got to the R132) and I was certain that we nobody was going to stay with us.

After the bend before the line on the Nag’s Head I stole a glance behind and saw the pack less than 50m behind us. What in the name of god, I thought to myself. How is this possible? I was certain that we had put in enough distance to stay away all the way down to the finish. We hadn’t. What we did manage to do was split the group into two, with about 13 or so in the first half.

We slowed up and the group caught us just at the top of the hill and we tucked in for the run back down to the finish. John was leading the way mostly at this point and I was happy to just sit in and stay in touch after the climb.

Some poor lads stem snapped on the fastest part of the circuit and he went down. I heard that he is ok aside from some bruises and cuts. That cut the group down to about 10 riders.

The last few kms got interesting with everybody watching each other. I observed all this from the back of the group and I had a suspicion that I might be able to sneak a place here if I rode wisely.

The line came into view around the last bend and I moved up past number 97 and Laura and sat on the left most edge of the road. The lads were all looking at each other and John was at the front doing a great owl impression with his head almost all the way around over his right shoulder. I saw my chance and absolutely belted it up the left avoiding the sheltered line. It was working. I passed everyone between me and the leader. I was almost on his shoulder when he realised that I was coming and the two of us went head to head over the last 50m or so. It was so close on the line that we were not sure who got it. Joe McNally took a look at us both as we came back down to the line and awarded it to John. I think that there was only the width of a tyre and a rim in it to be honest. John will say there was more! Ronan got third, but I’m not sure what the gap was back to him. It couldn’t have been much.

Afterwards, I told John that he could have the official victory but that I was claiming the moral victory for my attack on the Nag’s Head. I never knew that I had a sprint finish in me like that!

A really enjoyable race I must say but I would have loved a finish on the Nag’s Head with perhaps another half a lap thrown in so that I could have tried again for the hill climb win.

Bring on the promotion to group three next week for the top three finishers. Apparently, this is our reward!

Thanks to the organisers and Marshals as always.

A 5 lap race starting from Ring Commons Sports Centre, with a total distance of just over 50km

I was riding in group 2, which was again very large with probably over 25 riders in total. The other groups were quite a bit smaller, and perhaps some thought should be given to moving some of the riders up to Group 3 (there are certainly a number of very strong riders in group 2), and possibly moving some down to Group 1. I guess it would be ideal if we could get similar numbers, certainly in the first 4 groups.

We set off as usual at quite a rapid pace, although we did have quite a tail wind to push us along.

We got the up and overs working a bit on the main road, but it's a bit of a scrappy course with perhaps 3 decent stretches where riders can work properly together.