After an enjoyable winter of weekend lie ins, gentle walks and lazy afternoon coffee with friends I finally got the go ahead to resume training about three weeks ago. I've been advised not to get involved in adrenalin fueled racing where the pace is dictated by the fastest riders in the peloton. On the flipside I've been given an opportunity to rekindle the spark with my first love- leisure events. My first sportif of the year was an 80k down in Carlingford last weekend. It rained all day and I was the only Orwell rider cycling the event. I was exhausted by the finish and my car engine seized on the M1 on the way home. Not a great start.
I decided I would give The Tour de Foothills a go this weekend. After putting the call out on the forum for a lift, I got a couple of offers. One gentleman (who shall remain nameless) said he would be able to give me a lift but only on the condition that the day was dry. Luckily Leonard Kaye who is tough enough to cycle in any weather conditions stepped in.
Leonard arrived at my door as promised at 7.30am. En route down we discussed the intricacies of the new and improved leisure competition. Arriving at registration it was nice to see lots of Orwell jerseys - some old faces and some new. Tommy Scanlon arrived, biceps bulging under his blue castelli gabba exuding confidence after his recent upgrade to semi limit.
The Orwell congregate at the start (photograph with thanks to Adrian McLeavey from Irish Cycle Sport)
On exiting the building I noticed a large group of Orwell riders had congregated outside. A woman called Kristine who is due to join the new women beginner group approached me and introduced herself. She explained that she had a background in heptathlon and was looking forward to joining Orwell. She was taking on the 110k but didn't feel confident enough in her group riding skills to join the Orwell express train.
We set out and the pace picked up quickly. I could see Tommy's blue castelli at the very front of the group with orange Gerry in his distinctive orange kit not far behind. It wasn't long before I started losing the wheels in front of me and found myself in the group that I would stick with for the day… Eamon Eaton, Barry Martin and Ian Cullen who blamed his son Seaghán (that's just Seán spelt funny) for his lack of winter riding. During the course of the day I came to the realisation that my new immersion in the leisure section would be an excellent opportunity to recruit helpers for the women's beginner program.
Ann with Ian during the Tour de Foothills (photograph with thanks to Adrian McLeavey from Irish Cycle Sport)
It wasn't long before I discovered that hills were not my friend and immediately regretted my 3am binge in Eddie Rockets after the table quiz. On a positive note I discovered that my confidence on descents had improved greatly since October. Anyone who has experienced a crash quickly discovers that the psychological scars take time to heal. During my 6 months of sub 120 BPM heart rate the scars had surprisingly healed.
I was a little worried venturing past the 80k mark as this would be unknown territory for me and I wasn't sure how my body might react to the jump in distance from the previous week. I was surprised as we counted down the kms that I began to feel stronger in the closing stages of the event. As we got to the finish I noticed Kristine on the road and deduced that she must be pretty strong if she hadn't taken shelter in a group all day. I nabbed her at the post event tea and persuaded her to try the crit league 10 mile TT in a month's time. No group riding skills required.
All in all it was a very enjoyable day and I'm pleased to note that I'm up to 110k now. The W200 could be a realistic prospect. A lot of people are surprised to hear that I'm still a Wicklow 200 virgin... Not for long hopefully! So it looks like there will be no racing for me. Now where can I channel that competitive drive? Oh yeah 6 points please and 1 point for last weekend. Arriving late to the starting line I'll have my work cut out!
