Club League Update Rounds 4 and 5

Round 4: Corkagh Park Crit 40 mins + 2 laps

After the previous week's strong showing (until the cramped calf muscle), I was full of confidence of winning this round. I started off smart, staying near the front. Until the catch, to Limit, was made. Then with the group so large, and maybe some of my rivals for victory possibly out of position, I started to put the hammer down on the front. I soon realised that this was not effective in shelling the stronger riders.

New Plan, try to engineer a break. Engineering a break proved hard on this race. It looked like everyone fancied themselves as the next Kittel, Gripel, et al.

One of the laps, I got a massive fright. The lad inside me twitched a bit on the turn at the bottom of the circuit. I reacted in true Luke fashion; "Hold your fucking line". I was in a good mood, and focused on conserving energy that day. Hence deciding not to expend kilojules by include additional expletives, such as bitch, cunt, asshole. In hindsight, reacting with a loud vocal warning, might have served to further distract the lad. So I could've been at further fault. We had a brief chat at the end of the race, where we made our peace with the past.

After this scare, I was hit with a surge of adrenaline. I could hear Jules telling me that I was getting angry. I went to the front an put the hammer down again. Still nothing happening. I consigned myself to wait until the last minute of the race, to try a break again. So I was sitting in, ensuring that I took sips of water every lap, to avoid cramp.

Seven minutes from the end of the race, Garret says "Wanna go for it Luke?". I said "Not yet". But I was badly placed coming out of the corner, so I changed my mind. "Let's hit it Gar!!". We tried, but I could not hold Garret's wheel along the straight. He got a bit of a gap, and I got further towards the front.

I looked at my Garmin's timer field, "39 minutes". It may as well have read "Attack O'Clock". I hit the front, trying for a gap. Telling myself that somebody will let the elastic go. They didn't. As the bell was rung, and the pace fired up. My lower back exploded in pain. In the space of 50 meters, I had gone from first to last.

After the race, my mullet received two comments. One from Jules about Laurent Fignon losing the tour by 6 seconds, as he was not hairodynamic enough. The second was from Garret, instructing me to cut it off. This made him the second Connolly to discuss hair removal with me in the previous 24 hours + 2 laps.

I went to the WWE Live event the next night, and took all my frustrations out on Roman Reins, by booing him a lot.

I got the finish line video though:

Round 5: 10 Mile TT Batterstown

After leaving my bike into Joe Daly's for them to apply the parts for the Randonée. I got my 11-32 tooth cassette and GS rear derailleur installed.

I got to Batterstown early. The spate of crashes that marred the M50's Junction 6 last summer, seems to have abated. I had time to warm up into the block headwind. Dave was on his turbo trainer. Preparing for the latest round of the HenCon Challenge.

Garret lead his group ever so slightly wrong. The outcome was that Darragh arrived just at his allotted time. Meaning that he would be riding the TT tired. Maybe that was Gar's plan. Maybe I've watched too many conspiracy videos on YouTube.

When it was my time to roll out. I got a nice start. Then two cars passed me and tried to turn into the funeral that was happening. This slowed me down a little. As I journeyed further, I could not see my minute man, Dave, in front of me. I also could not see Richard behind me. Upon getting to the roundabout, Dave had extended his lead on me. He was about to lay the SmackDown on Gar. I missed out on spying where Richard was.

The way back was insane. A Block Tailwind. I fucked up a little on the way back. At times, I was pushing the 50x11 at 63rpm. I should've retreated into the 13t cog, to spin a bit more and save my legs. Towards the end of the race, my legs were tired from the grinding.

After the race, I hung about and chatted a little. Dave had made it 1-1 in the HenCon challenge.
He had beaten:

• 1 Scratch Rider, albeit returning from injury,
• 10.5 Semi-Scratch Riders,
• 13 of Semi-Limit's Bravest,
• 11 Limit Riders.

On the way home, there was a SpeedVan. It was parked 300meters after the 100kmh sign, where it's preceeded by a 120kmh zone. The profiteering bastards. The retarded driver in front of me was doing 80kmh in the 120 zone, obscuring my vision of the van. I popped out an passed him at 110kmh. I seen the van, went hard on the brakes and was at 90kmh when entering the 100 zone. I seen the camera flash. Or maybe it was the sun reflecting on the lens. I was scared of receiving more penalty points with my insurance up for renewal at the end of May. No letter arrived at the two addresses I claim to live at.

I scored a 27:10, which was 11 seconds away from 6th place.

Place Person      Time   After
1st   Eoin G      25:14
2nd   Tommy S     26:17  01:03
3rd   Barry M     26:34  01:20
4th   Conor D     26:38  01:24
5th   Paul F      26:47  01:33
6th   Killer      27:00  01:46
7th   Richard C   27:09  01:55
8th   Luke P      27:10  01:56
9th   Garrett C   27:28  02:14
10th  Kevin S     27:51  02:37
11th  Diarmuid D  27:56  02:42
12th  Malcolm G   28:07  02:53
13th  Dave M      28:34  03:20

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Club League Round 3: Corkagh Park Crit 30 mins + 2 laps

Long Story Short

• Feeling good in the race,
• Made the catch to Limit after 10 mins
• My calf cramped at 16 mins as I was about to go off the front,
• Took a lap out to stretch it, but missed the group,
• Got the finish line Video.

Strava

Ride: Club League Round 3: Corkagh Park crit 30mins + 2laps.

Flybys: Round 3.
I enabled:

• The Lukester,
• Gar, he started with Semi-Limit and finished 3rd,
• Robbie, started with Semi-Limit and made an attack on the second last lap,
• Simon, started with Limit and won.

Short Story Long

Build-up

I got a letter, my apartment management company, €65 rent increase per person per calendar month kicking in in August. Paris-Roubaix was on, I looked at the Paddy Power odds. Tony Martin was at 65/1. This was fate. He would win this classic on Trentin's bike and pay my rent increase. I put €1 on him and €10 on Sagan at 3/1. I got up early to watch the full coverage. Early in the race, Tony was put on the front because Ettix-QuickStep cannot make a break. Then after the Cancellara crash, I watched my €11 go up in smokes. Sagan's group was blown apart and Tony was sent to the front to push the gap out by burning all his matches, like someone trying to light a cigarette in the wind.

What are the government doing about these rent increases? Debating over a fucking prayer at the start of the day. The only God answering their prayers is Loki. Where's my USC decrease? Where's the increase in housing supply to counteract this supply and demand crisis? The Independents need to sort their shit out and pick a fucking side. Prior to the election, I instinctively thought that Independents were shit cunts, just there to take up space and pick up €100k per year. I changed my opinion during the election, I dared to dream that maybe they could actually do something. But now, I have reverted it back to shit cunts.

Alan Kelly celebrating his free €100k and ability to practice nepotism. Labour are basically independents.

I got two cycles in since the last race. On Tuesday Night Hills, I took 1:20 of my PB up Curagh Rd. to Pine Forest. I was feeling good going to sleep... Until I seen Brendan's pictures of human dominos in the Women's B-race Sprint finish.

Pre-Race

I got to the track ealier than last week. There was a Strata3-VeloRevolution guy doing laps. He seemed pretty chill. I did my warmup, maybe I didn't do as good a one are the previous week. Killian joined me for the Hamstring stretches.

Tommy arrived. Everyone looked at each other nervously. Some were intimidated, others just didn't want to stare. I took a glance when he wasn't looking. His jersey was a bit looser on his arms. I used to go to the gym a lot, take Z-Mag, Creatine, Protein and eat scrambled Hen Periods. I knew what boat he was in. He wanted to be seen as more than just biceps. He wanted to be seen as a man... with a kick-ass beard. Ann had published an article about the Tour of the Foothills, about 20% of the article was describing Tommy's biceps. With all publishing companies looking for the next 50 Shades of Grey and/or Danielle Steele, Ann might be setting herself up for career change.

John rang his bell. This signalled 5 minutes to go. He gave the usual preamble speech, the shortened version is "Don't be a shit cunt during the race". Yvonne had a mechanical on the start line. She commandeered Rebecca's bike. We had Martin and Grainne making their League debuts.

Race

When Limit got to the bottom corner, I started agitating to be let go. I was saying "Now, come on, that's far enough" to John. Romano was in front of me, sealing a few inches. We were unleashed. I couldn't clip-in. My cleats are pretty messed-up since I changed them. I'll probably need to get them checked with lazers.

I was near the back on the first few laps. I needed to get to the front. At the back, you're red lining it to keep pace and you'll also miss the moves. I moved up slowly. My legs were not working, my warm up was not right. Gaining ground on the finish straight. Last week, I used this straight to take a sip of water. This week I was too focused on making up places. I eventually hit the front about seven minutes in to the race. On the main straight, I was on the front, I gestures for people to roll through. I got some help in the form of two able bodies. Not exactly the Calais Jungle I was hoping for.

We were reeling in Limit riders. Lots of us were sensing blood. I got boxed in and a bad corner had me at the back again chasing on. I was slightly off the back when the catch was actually made. Some lad messed up the last turn, went into the grass and then pulled out in front of a few of us. The pace up front slowed and we caught back on. We made the catch after ten minutes of the thirty.

It was going to be a slight rest, then time to start shelling riders. I was making up places safely. At sixteen minutes I was mid-pack. I was feeling really good, warmed up just in time for the business end of the race. Matt was in front of me, there was lots of space on the right to move up. I asked Matt to attack. When he declined my generous invitation, I spun it up. On the drops, low profile, Luke Ewan. I hit the front.

Now was the time to take a few riders with me. Split the field. Hopefully catch some of the stronger lads out of position. Divide up the points between us. This would be the winning move. I had the hair gel in the car, I've been working on a mohawk/mullet, ready for the podium. I was ready for my value, in the Orwell Fantasy League, to skyrocket. People would not be able to have Brian Mc and I in the same team.

That was the dream. But just as my gap started to go out. My non-driveside calf cramped. There was a pain in my calf that felt like a pull. I tried to jam it back into place with my thumb. This did not work and Doctor Luke was reeled back in, chewed up and spat out. I pulled in on the home straight. I told John that I was going to take a lap out. I stretched the calf. It felt better. I tried to jump back on as the main group passed. But I was gone full Matt Stevens. I could not clip in. I missed the group. Race Over.

Post-Race

I decided to be helpful, I rushed to the car and changed into warm clothes. I picked up my phone. I heard the bell being rung. John's ringing of the bell would later be known as "Bellgate". I sprinted to the track, as I, like Tommy and Robbie, though it was the last lap. I had the camera ready to record in 120fps, to get the slow-motion video. The group approached, but John was shouting last lap. Dave was asking where Tommy was.

It wasn't the last lap. I got the finish of the race. Simon won, for real this time. I helped John identify the placers.

Robbie and Tommy were very confused. They went for it on the Bell Lap. But that bell only signified the end of the 25 minutes. So they had run out of steam for the actual final. Mistakes were made. The #JusticeForTommyAndRobbie hashtag didn't gain much traction on Twitter, despite The FroomeDog championing their cause.

What Was Learned

I need to drink more to avoid cramps.
I need to monitor the warmup too, last year 4x45seconds @ Z6 worked well for me.

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Club League Round 2: Corkagh Park Crit 25 mins + 2 laps

Long Story Short

• Goal for the race was last 30 mins before getting dropped, the race was 29 mins long and I did well
• Winning break went on the first corner,
• I bridged two gaps solo,
• Was never outside the top five wheels in a group after bridging,
• Took a last lap flier for 7th place,
• Lead out the sprint for 7th,
• Got 11th

Strava

View the Ride on Strava: Club League R2: Corkagh Park crit 25 mins + 2 laps. Top 11 finish.

View the Race Replay on FlyBys: Round Two.
I enabled:

• Myslef, as per ús, I am the protagonist,
• John B, started with SL and won,
• Tommy S, started with Limit and finished in the points.

Short Story Long

Build Up

After last week's anniliation, my confidence was a bit low. Still, I was keen to make ammends and test myself properly against the Limit groups. I intended to do some 30/30's on the Turbo on Monday, but I was too pissed off at The Walking Dead's cliffhanger. Pretty stupid blackmail AMC. Considering that there will be leaked set photos of the character on the ground with their brains exposed. My money is on Abraham getting romantically involved with Lucile. The show has a quota of African-American characters that they can have on the cast at any one time. I presume that this also applied to Gingers. Carol and Morgan encountered a new Ginger character.

Tuesday I cycled into work and cycled to the Tuesday Night Hills. I put in a few digs that would simulate the 30/30's that I missed the previous night. I got home, showered, fed and watched Wrestlemania. I also kept up my GitHub Commit Streak and extended it to 13 days at that point.

Pre-Race

As a member of our team in work was leaving, we went to Eddie Rocket's for Milkshakes. As I have been getting a little Lactose intolerant from my more Vegan/Vegeterian focused diet, I arrived at the circuit without much extra weight sitting in my digestive tract.

This diet change has also lead me to renounce my previous life as a Tuna Steampot consumer. I had my second bowl of Porridge, Almond Milk, Maple Syrup and Granola of the day at 5pm. I was at the circuit at 18:10. Which is not great timing, as my office is the next exit to Corkagh Park.

I couldn't decided what colour lenses to use, Yellow or Dark. There was rain promised, but it was bright at the bottom corner of the circuit. I went with the Darker ones. I was also employing the use of the Long sleeve skinsuit with a vest base layer and leg warmers and ankle socks.

I did my warmup and stretches. I went back to my car to throw in my jacket. Up the road Rachel was rubbing two Huskies. I have a bucket list, and hugging a Husky is on it. I could not let this moment pass. As they approached I bent down and stuck out my hand. They started jumping all over me. Next thing I was hugging them and they were licking my face. It was everything that I though it would be.

Jules showed up with a broken pedal. I produced my multi-tool from my utility belt.

Race

Racing in the rain, lets hope the Luke Staring at Stems does not become a thing. (Photo by Ian Anderson)

After standing around in the cold waiting for Limit to gain on us, Dick unleashed us. I was at the front for a few seconds, but I was struggling to clip in. I lost loads of places before I got clipped in. The biggest danger in Corkagh Park is that someone will lose a wheel and it'll be race over. Even before we got to the first corner, the guy in front of me lost the wheel. Some other guy was crossing wheels with me, thus boxing me in. I asked for space to get out close the gap. But these guys were in league with Mr. Blennerhasset and kept this animal caged. Spoiler Alert: the race was over before we exited the first corner.

I eventually got out and waited, near the front of the group, for someone to start the bridge. I have been watching some Cycling Maven and Vegan Cyclist videos on racing. I had one tactic, sit in and wait. No one wanted to come though. The race was getting away from me, I looked up and seen four groups ahead; Limit, John, Richard and Killian.

I punched hard and made the solo bridge to Killian's group. He was suffering from a dodgy hamstring. Obviously he wasn't warming up like The Cable Guy. There was two lads sitting on his wheel waiting for Killian to work. I took a breather at the back. I seen Killian pulling over and these lads were looking at him. I knew that there would be no help from these guys.

I jumped Grouppo del Killian and spent 5 mins averaging 263 Watts to catch the next group. Richard was in the same situation, except for bikes instead of hamstrings being his injury. Lads sitting on his wheel. We were now catching Limit Riders that had been spat out the back of John's group. I was taking a few small turns in this group with Richard.

I looked back and seen that Garret was leading the chase to our group. The main bunch was also in pursuit. They merged with us. "Great now we have all the firepower to reel in John" I thought. I was wrong. It was only Garret, Richard and myself taking turns. Three guys tired of bridging and chasing vs The Blenerhasset Express.

The three of us got a slight gap, and we caught Peadar on a slow section of the course. I yelled at him in good time to tell him to jump in behind me. He did. We were soon joined by the remainder of the group. It was getting darker and starting to rain, maybe even hail, hard. I should've used the Yellow lenses on the glasses, as now I could barley see 50 meters ahead.

I made a series of hand gestures to encourage more people to come through, but only Diarmuid joined us at the front. This was the opposite of the Turkish border, no one coming through. I stopped working. I let the three lads take a lap and then I'd make a gap for them to slot into.

When Dick announced that there was 2 laps left, I said to Richard, Gar, Peadar and Diarmuid to keep the pace really high. This would stop us getting swamped by the others and them stealing our hard earned point-less, imaginary places at the end for bragging rights.

As we passed a rider, Dave Mc was shouting "Don't let them laps you". Who was getting lapped here? Surely not Grouppo Luko. We evaded the Smackdown. I was half expecting Dick not to shout "Final Lap", but he did.

Final lap, I moved up along the outside of  the uphill home straight with really high cadence. I took the first corner really well. Then looked under. No one there. I hit the gas to the end of the straight. Still no one on my wheel. "7th is in the bag, just gotta keep going here Luke" I though. Coming out of the bottom corner I was still free. Gar got onto my wheel on the slight uphill. I lead it into the final corner. I moved left, as I wanted shelter from the cross wind on the run home.

Gar, Richard and two others powered past me. I kept it going for a Top 11 finish.

Post-Race

It was a bitter sweet finale. I lost my 7th place, but the lads who worked with my group got good places because I kept the pace high. I shook hands with Richard at the end, fist bumped Peadar. I would've offered some high-fives but my bicep was almost frozen from the wind and rain.

I stripped off the wet clothes and dried up as much as possible and messaged my house mates to turn on the hot water. Set the heat high in my car and drove/shivered all the way home.

I was very happy I stayed towards the front. The difference in Average Power output between myself and Dan was almost 50W. He was at the back of the pack and had to work harder due to the accordion effect. I had some celebratory Falafel on the Thursday night.

What Was Learned

• Maybe Damien Long was correct. I can mix it with these Semi-Limit lads.
• But he was also incorrect when he was talkig about lads not losing the wheel.

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Getting GitHub Gists to appear in Blogger Dynamic View

UPDATE: This no longer works.

Sometime in between the Big Bang and you discovering this post, Google updated Blogger to have these magical Dynamic Views. They're not that fucking special. If you use your Blogger to post code snippets in the form of GitHub Gists, you may have noticed that they don't appear in these Dynamic Views. You may have tried to Google this, and discovered that there is a Script from a mysterious Moski. You may have tried this method sans-success. Don't despair, Luke is here.

Open the HTML of your Blog Post and paste the updated Script at the bottom of the post, outside the last element.

Then for your Gists to work replace the GitHub Standard SCRIPT element with the following:

The HTML for this page looks like, the relevant lines are in green:

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Giant PX-2 Wheelset Weight, Width and Depth

When I got my Giant TCX SLR 1 for CycloCross this winter, it had some stock wheels on it. The nebulous Giant PX-2 Wheelset. I searched all over the internet to find more details on the rims. Alas my Googling was in vain. Then it came time to switch off my CX tyres and tame my bike's wild side. I first converted the bike to tubeless and now back to tube tyres, but this time it'll have 28mm slicks on it. I decided that I would note down the key features of the wheels for all to reference from here on out.

Spoiler Alert: They're heavier than lead. 2016 is going to be the year of the high quality CX Disc Brake Wheel. Hopefully there'll be a CX equivalent of the Campagnolo Zonda (or whatever Fulcrum sticker it has on it, it's the same wheel). At the time of writing, the front runner is the Zipp Course 30, they weigh 1,500g, but at €860, Zipp can fuck off.

Here's the skinny on these chunky rims:

• Weight: 2,562 grams. Front: 1179, Rear 1383. This includes the discs on the, but not the cassette.
• Internal Width: 20mm. This is compatible with Stan's No Tubes CX Conversion Kit.
• Depth: 25mm.
• Axel Standard: Front is 15mmx100mm Thru Axel, Rear is 9mmx135mm QR.
• Tubeless Compatible: Yes. I used Stan's Yellow Tape and Sealant with Maxxis Mud Wrestler TR tyres.

See down below for the images of the wheelset with the weighing scale and the measuring tape.

Weight - 2,562g

Front - 1,179g

Rear - 1383g

Internal Width - 20mm

Depth - 25mm

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Orwell Wheelers 2015 CycloCross Championships

Long Story Short

I finished 9th out of 15 riders,
I got lapped by Eric and Barry L,
I was involved in the course design and setup.

Strava

View the ride on Strava: Orwell CX Champs. 9th/15.
View the Race on Strava Flybys: Orwell Wheelers CycloCross Championships.

Course Segment

Short Story Long

Build-Up

Sometimes I like to lie awake at night and wonder “How many times could Eric lap me in a 45 minute CycloCross race?” On the morning of Saturday the 2nd of January 2016, I got my answer. This is my story…

Stephen announced the idea for an Orwell CX Champs at the skills session with Robin Seymour back in September. The idea was approved at the AGM. Stephen had asked for some help with the organising. Eric and I said that we would help out where possible. Stephen sorted all the details; the date, booking the park and sourcing the course marking hardware. We arranged to mark out the course on a Saturday, with Eric running the rule over it on the Sunday. Eugene was pioneering the promotional side of the event. We collaborated on the Preview Post. We agreed that Eric was the favourite, but disagreed about the women’s favourite. Eugene’s copy about Brianne being “a classic kampieonschap renster” proved to be foreshadowing that only Christopher Nolan’s “The Prestige” could outdo.

Pre-Race

Come the morning of the event everyone arrived almost simultaneously. Stephen unloaded 50 poles, some barrier creation paraphernalia and 40 mini-flags created by his family, which we used for the directions. Jen had contributed sweet-looking cakes and buns. I forgot to enquire about the origin of the tea and coffee, but that was a nice touch too.

Barry M, Daisy, Eric and I began the setup for the course’s first obstacle, a series of corners. With the limited amount of poles at our disposal, we had to be clever. I decided to just mark the inside of the corners with gates to aim for on the exit of the corners which would serve as the entry to the next corner.

With my section complete, I headed back to get my bike and warmup. Darragh was putting down flags. Damien was erecting the barriers. There was a crowd amassing with Garret’s band of merry men arriving. Dennis was handling the sign-on. Non-cycling people were looking over the fence, probably wondering if it was a crime scene or an archaeological excavation.

It was decided that we would have a neutral lap to get everyone familiar with the course. Myself and Eric lead the lap. Eric showed the way through the ammonia-soaked soil of the tree section that he had designed.

Eoin was the mystery man. The new signing, donning his UCC colours would start alongside the other three in the Chase group. Eoin was missed in the preview post, but he has been prominent in the B races. He scored a 4th in Fixx’s Glencullen, 2nd in DCCX’s Killruddery and the following week took victory in Sundrive’s The Muddy Cup.

Author’s Note: some of the details below may seem harsh, but it’s all tongue-in-cheek.

Aidan, Eric, Eoin and Valdis, the four horsemen of the A-pocalypse, were released first by the race commissaire. They would be starting a lap down. Once they had cleared the first series of corners the quintet of ladies were unleashed. The magic number of five competitors would make this a regulation Club Championship event. They would be getting a head start on the remaining men.

The four vets and one junior were combined with the two B-racers. Barry was leaving his jacket on until the last minute, as is Belgian tradition. I tried to distract Mike, first enquiring; “How is the hat business going?” and next asking him if he already had puncture. It didn’t work though, Mike brushed it off with a rye grin.

My goal for the day was to level the head-to-head with Barry, at three apiece. Mike, in absence of Richard and John, issued a challenge to me; “You and me today?” I had watched one too many Conor McGregor videos to quietly back down. I was just about to retort with a “I love this beautiful country…” spiel, but…

Race

The ladies entered the series of corners and the whistle blew for us. I completely forgot to setup my pedal for entry, this lead to some fluffing with clipping in. On a scale of one to Matt Stephens (of GCN fame), it was about a three. I discovered that I was second-last, just ahead of Malcom, or Lloyd (according to Strava), competing on his MTB. I just got passed Barry and Mike before the first corner. Everyone else, except us three course abiding riders, skipped this first obstacle. There was no point moaning about it, in the end, we were well beaten by Barry K and Eddie. There were a few more liberties taken with my beloved course, which lead to the deployment of some no-nonsense marshals.

Barry went out the back after the tree section. Ciaran was forced out with a puncture. I was able to keep pace with Mike for two and a bit laps. Together we passed three fifths of the ladies, Naoise, Aisling and Sandra. On the third lap the heavy ground was getting the better of me. My next two laps drifted from 6:44 to 7:04. My final three laps were 7:19. Mike vanished into the horizon. Orla was my next capture. Looking forward I could see Eddie doing battle with Brianne over the barriers. I really wanted to gain on them, but every lap they edged past the position that I marked them at the previous lap.

The crowd was cheering really well, with Dick, Killian and Garret being the most audible. This encouragement softened the blow of Eric et al. coming up to pass me for position. Eric passed me on the corners at the start of the lap. Eoin put the move on me into the increasingly slippy corner at the bottom of the descent. Valdis took me over by the bonfire pit. Aidan put me away under the trees.

The one section of the course that was the hardest was the run back to the start line. It was so bumpy that it was just battering all the little muscles and tendons in my spine. It’s a condition listed in the BroScience Medical Textbook as “Cross Back”. Cross Back can be a two day affair when DOMS sets in the next morning. It can be solved by going for a recovery ride to remove the lactic acid from the affected areas.

Towards the end of the race, the commissaire said “Two laps” to me. I immediately heard him and Damien Long say “Last lap Eric”. Race leader, Eric Downey was about to lap me. He floated like a butterfly up the drag en route to taking the checkered flag.

Next time I looked back, I seen Barry K looming large. He put me to the sword on the run to the line. He was pretty nice about it, and had some nice words as he passed me. We clapped the rest of the riders home. No one pulled out any Mathieu Van Der Poel style celebrations. There’s always next year.

Post-Race

After the race, we posed for a photo. We each grabbed some of the course markers, many hands made light work. The course was dismantled within minutes. The winners were announced. Mike produced his box of head apparel, now dubbed the “Handley Hats”. When I got home, I pulled the bike apart and gave it a thorough cleaning, as my CycloCross season was now over.

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DCCX Kalas Classics Series 2015 Round 2: Killruddery

Long Story Short

• Finished 52nd out of 71,
• Finishing time was 43:07,
• Lap times were 7:09, 8:25, 8:51, 9:22 and 9:20,
• Got lapped by 4 riders,
• Didn't crash this race.

Strava

View the race on Strava: DCCX Round 2: KillMUDDERy. 52/71.

View the race Replay on Strava FlyBys: DCCX round 2. I enabled;

• Myself, I am the posterboy for Ginger CX Magazine,
• Barry, we had a good battle for 51st,
• Andrew, he finished 7th, 2 minutes after the leader.

Course Segment

MultiMedia

Full Results can be seen here: DCCX Kalas SuperLeague Round 2.

Alek had his Handlebar camera: DCCX Kalas Classic Series 2015 (vol 2).

Sean Rowe was snapping the Ladies race, the B race and the A race.

Short Story Long

Build-up

Stages cycling support were very helpful. They said to leave the Power Meter indoors for 24 hours for it to dry out. I got a new battery door from Fitz Cycles and took it for an FTP test. The test put my 7 Watts off my 20 minute peak power which was recorded in March after a few hard months on the Turbo. I was pretty happy about the result, and I knew I could go harder. I decided to not use the Power Meter on my CX bike anymore.

I was really happy to see that the Vegan message is getting out in the open. GoVegan.ie's poster campaigns at the bus stops and the subsequent radio interviews are hopefully opening the public's eyes to the trauma that humans are capable of inflicting on a grand streamlined scale. A radio debate on NewsTalk ensued, the Vegan lady, said that animal abuse was "unethical". The "Cow and Sheep" representative had only one option left to him. He went with the nuclear response; "These Vegans believe that cows are raped". This lead host Chris Donoghue to end the interview there and then.

Even with the glaring evidence of the WHO's report, the government won't speak out about the animal trade, as they have campaign sponsors who are heavily invested in meat. Teagsc had a report detailing that by completing a conversion from a Dairy farm to an Organic Veg farm, you can increase your profits by €200pha. Although you'll have to go to Farmer's Markets at the weekend instead of CX races.

I fell victim to Amazon's Black Friday build-up deals when buying an SSD for my four and a half year old MacBook Pro. Which, like Paula Radcliffe, is running really well after upgrades are applied.

Pre-Race

The low lying winter sun blinded my eyes as I tried to navigate the non-existent car park. I didn’t know how to park. Being the third car at the event, I was going to be the car parking trend setter. The guy who handled the sign on arrived and told me there was a better car park around the corner, which I availed of. I went in to sign-on, where I encountered Alek, Barry M, Breda and our latest debutant, Luke.

I was the second person on the course. I did three laps. The first two laps I rode on the sides of the course, to discover where best to avoid the bumpy and soft sections. The third lap, I put the lap together, I knew the lines I’d be taking and the sides of the course I’d be elbowing to occupy at the start. The most important line of the course would be the entry to, and avoidance of, the water covered tractor tyre tracks. Whilst cleaning the muck out of my shoes and pedals using a tyre level, I watched riders trying that watery section. Everyone hugged the inside of the corner. I was going to ride the middle of the track and swerve across before the water. That line, would mesh nicely with the requirement to “just smash it” across the preceding section where John was marshalling.

The women’s race was delayed by fifteen minutes. I watched their start to cheer on Naoise and Breda. I also wanted to see what would happen at the first obstacle. I noted that the field was half the size of the previous week’s field, 13 racers as opposed to 26.

I headed back to the car to prepare for my race. I met Richard, Valdis and Fionn (whom I believe was making his debut in the cauldron of the A-race, fair play for not sandbagging). I lent my pump to Valdis to adjust his tyre pressures. He was going with 50psi in both tyres. I opted to go with 30psi. I should’ve gone down to 20psi, as the course evolved, it would request more grip. I didn’t anticipate this. Michael and Barry K also showed up. I consumed a gel and sank 750ml of water with a High5 Extreme Caffeine tablet dissolved in it. I couldn’t sleep until 2am that night.

I struggled to pin on the fourth pin, and needed help from some nice Australian/New Zealand people. I joined up to the grid. I wanted a good position after the previous week, where I started at the back. I wanted to be on the right hand side of the grid. It would allow me to access my planned line and the surface was more compacted there. I was about half way back in the grid of 71. Valdis was directly in front of me, Richard was to my left. Luke was diagonally behind me. Mike and both Barrys were buried in the scrum behind.

The Grid

Race

The countdown expired and we accelerated off. Most riders went to the left of the track. I made up lots of places by using the centre channel. Two lads came a cropper in front of me just before the water. I navigated between them and asserted my dominance over the point of track I wanted to use to cut across. Traversing this soupy section I was the second placed Orwell rider, with only Barry K ahead.

Water finds its level, and I was soon passed by Valdis, Richard and Mike. They powered along the bumpier, right side of the track in front of the hay bales. I occupied the smoother left side. After a few more corners, a guy on a mountain bike crashed, forcing me to lose momentum. I ceded places to Barry M and Luke. I looked back as I climbed the corn field section. I was about eighth last.

I was very weak on that climbing section. But I was much stronger and braver on the grass field downhill section. Throughout the race, I made up a lot of positions on this section. It was just a case of holding position through the mucky woods by going through a rut. After dismounting to jump the ditch, the lap brought us around to the timing mats. This was a nice part of the track. It allowed the tyres to shed muck, in the early laps anyway. From there it was about being brave through the wooden bridges and carrying as much speed, using a big gear, as possible through the John’s mucky section. I was getting bounced around, like a rag doll, but I was heading in the right direction. If you’re not in danger of slipping a disk in your back, you’re not going hard enough.

Another lad binned it just as I was about to make my cut across to avoid the water. I let him know I was displeased with his actions, as I dismounted and ran the following section. It was beginning to look like a Tesco Chow Mein, the one in the red box. It probably tasted nicer than its food counterpart. The rest of the lap passed of nicely.

The stuff CX courses are made out of.

I caught up to Barry in the corn field section of lap three, he said that it would not be his day. Next I caught sight of Luke. He, like many others, was paying for a fast start. John was cheering me on each time as I exited the forest section. I gave him a “Two ‘Go Luke’s for the price of one” deal as I made the pass on, nine years my junior, Luke.

Some guy rubbed tyres with me through the soupy section. I could feel the thread of the tyres jar. Then they gave way as he went down. He didn’t look as much like Harvey Dent as I expected, as he ran past me, nudging my shoulder with his back wheel. I made up another place on section in front of the bales. The guy almost lost it on the corner and clipped me. I was OK with this. I let him know that I was of the opinion that CX is a full contact sport. After my left hip coming in contact with tyres in the last three races, I could not opine differently. I encountered Michael in the corn field, we traded places twice as he sped off. The next time I saw Mike, he was standing at the side of the road.

The last lap of the race passed without incident, if you call getting skunked on the line by Barry “without incident”. After I made the pass on Barry, he was always within striking distance, just like at PunchesCross. We were able to fend off the leaders lapping us until the last lap. I sensed Barry’s presence through the corn field. I backed off through the greasy grassy downhill section, as more leaders lapped me. Any time I looked back Barry was looming larger. After transcending the ditch I had a few meters on Barry. I was on the drops giving it everything I had. There was a spec of dirt on my Garmin screen, it was obscuring my speed, I thought it read 36kmh, but it was 26kmh. I thought I had done enough, but Barry just appeared on the inside and beat me to the line by a bike length. I passionately voiced my feelings, which drew a few chuckles from the crowd. I lost the sprint for Fifty-first.

From Sean Rowe

Post-Race

Lots of riders followed my previous week's example, they took an extra lap at the end. The only problem with the races is that there is not a flag at the end. The course was laid out very well and the chip timing was a great addition to the DCCX series. The comments on Boards were very complimentary, as opposed to the previous round of DCCX.

I missed the whole A-race, as I waited in-line to use the hose and get my clothes changed. Wobbles, who parked beside me had a pretty badass power washer. It was a tank of water and a motorbike battery with a small pump. The complimentary beer was really nice. The presentation of the prizes took place and most people filtered out after that. I stayed to watch the last lap of the World Cup race that they were streaming. Everyone enjoyed Sven Nys pulling out the victory.

Pre-hose

What Was Learned

• Hoses are good at cleaning bikes, but it still needs more attention to fully clean it.
• The number of riders that I am being lapped by is decreasing, which is a great sign.
• My climbing is still bad.

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