UCD Cycling Club

Exciting new site for UCD

2010-08-05T17:17:00.002+01:00

We've just launched our new website, check it out at

www.ucdcycling.com

This blog will be replaced by it and will be updated as regularly. No jobs will be lost.

First Road win of the Season for UCD last weekend

2010-08-04T15:27:00.001+01:00

So UCD get their first open race win of the season with the Stage 2 win by Ciaran on Saturday in the Tain Team Tour in Dundalk. The weekend started with the red carpet treatment for the teams star rider and ex captain, Niall (the banker) Dwyer.

He rode his heart out for the team on the 30km team TT which placed them 10th out of the 12 teams in the race. The rest of the team was made up of Al and Eoin who cycled the 40km to the start of the TT as if the race wasn't tough enough.

That night the dinner table was awash with excitement and discussion of tactics for the following days 100km road race. The race started off very fast and Al was suffering from some stomach issues having had an extra hour in bed and taking a late breakfast. He rode hard the night before and was participating in his first race of the season. He is truly a warrior!

The stage went well for UCD as a group got away on the half way climb and with Ciaran being the only UCD rider in it he was tactically able to sit on the group which contained teams with 2 or 3 riders in it. They had a huge incentive to keep the break clear and it ended up crossing the line with a 5 min gap. With 1km to go 2 riders broke clear and Ciaran bridged across to them, then attacked alone for the final 500m winning with fresh legs.The day featured heavy rain but it never dampened the teams spirits.

The team enjoyed the evening and watching the Dubs win too. The next day Niall was clearly tired at breakfast from the work the day before where he and Eoin both got a top 20 on the stage. The final stage featured the Ras climb of Long womans Grave which witnessed a huge pull on the front by Eoin dropping the bunch down to 25 riders. We then got to the final climb of the day, the 7.3% 7km climb of Cooley Mtn the lead group had a 4min gap and wouldnt be caught but Ciaran was in the first group of 3 riders at the summit finish, behind the leaders. Niall came in for 18th on the stage having been aggressive throughout and attacking 10km from the climb to have a minute lead at the bottom. Overall UCD finished joint 6th in the team prize and the riders had a great weekend and another trophy for the ever expanding cabinet. We would like to thank Mil for his support on the weekends racing.

the prizes keep coming for UCD cycling

2010-07-20T16:55:00.000+01:00

Ucd had huge success again at last weekend Mullingar 2 day event. Ian finished joint first overall in the A4 category and also won the TT. He went into the final stage with the leaders jersey on his back and Rob helped him defend it even though from lap 1 he had a branch caught all the way through his rear mech causing huge disruption. It was a miracle he stayed in the lead and will be delighted with his result considering it is one of his first ever races.

In the A2 race Anto, Niall, Louise, Fiachra and Ciaran were looking for results also. Ciaran was away in the best break of the day but only stayed away for one lap in a group of 6. It was always going to come together for a bunch sprint but a huge crash happened on the last lap where Ciaran and Louise went down with Louise having to go to hospital and receive treatment. She will make a full recovery soon. Ciaran finished the stage but was now out of contention and a bit battered too.

Anto got a strong 5th place finish in an uphill sprint going out with 300m to go. On the TT Anto rode well into third place and 5th overall. Fiachra who had 2 punctures on the first day got 15th in the TT. The after noons stage looked straightaway that it would be a bunch sprint as the Newry leader on the road had a huge team to keep it together. With Team UCD sitting and waiting till the final laps another accident put Ciaran out of the race but Anto went on to get 6th on the stage and keep his placing of 5th overall.

Another very successful weekend in the clubs history and this was followed up this weekend with Caits defence of her national title.

More success to follow this weekend hopefully.

UCD takes another national title!

2010-07-20T10:52:00.000+01:00

Last weekend was the xc national championships, one of the biggest and
most prestigious races of the year for everyone involved. This year it
was run by Epic and held in Djouce woods in Wicklow it promised to be
one of the best courses and events of the year – and didn’t
disappoint. Although I’d comfortably beaten my competitors in several
races this year, I was feeling the pressure on the start line - I had
a jersey to defend and knew not to get complacent, there’s always a
risk of a bad day, a mechanical or crash ruining things.

We set off up the hill of the start loop and I got squeezed into the
inside line and forced out the back. It took a sprint out of the last
corner to overtake 3 people and get ahead as we hit the singletrack
climbing. From there I just put my head down and pedalled, trying to
catch and overtake the juniors who set off just ahead of us. The
course was brilliant, real mountain biking at its best. It was a long
lap with lots of climbing, mostly on technical singletrack, and each
time followed by the reward of a brilliant descent. There was plenty
of variety, some fast flowy trails, others rooty and steep, all made
slightly more difficult with overnight rain greasing things up a bit.

Into lap 2 and the others were out of sight. I was really enjoying
myself, feeling good and cruising around. Towards the end racing
against the men in masters and vets kept me entertained. The cheering
crowds and clanging cowbells up the last climb and round the
singletrack to the finish made a great atmosphere and took away any
feelings of pain that were setting in. So I finished first with a
decent gap and pretty pleased with my performance. It was a funny
race, more about being composed and riding cleanly than close fighting
and pushing myself as is usually the case. I think the prize giving
and podiums were my favourite part of the day – new jersey, a huge
trophy, a bouquet of flowers and best of all champagne to spray all
over everyone. Great fun!

A massive thanks to Richie Byrne and everyone from Epic involved in
organising the race. The atmosphere, the trails, the onsite
entertainment, the cheering spectators made the biggest and best xc
race I’ve been to in Ireland. Also thanks to Think Bike for the loan
of space wheels and fixing up my bike, and UCD for their support all
year.

Club History 2009/2010

2010-07-07T16:02:00.003+01:00

Eóin Fitzpatrick captained the Club in 2009/2010. Alan Dunne acted as Secretary and Fiachra O’Loughlin took over as Junior Treasurer and leader of the Touring section. Ciarán Ó Conluain assumed the position of web coordinator while Robert Higgins agreed to continue to assist the Club with IT matter for another year. The role of Public Relations/ Development Officer was fulfilled by former Captain, Niall Dwyer, while former Secretary, Niamh Stephens, took over as Safety Officer. Gavin Haberlin took on the role of Equipment/ Clothing Officer and Cait Elliot was responsible for Off-road aspects of the Club. Colin Peirce again acted as League Coordinator.

The positions of Club President and Vice-Presidents remained unchanged from 2008/09 with Maoilíosa Ó Dubhthaigh again being supported by Oisín Boydell and Brendan Kilbride. Ó Dubhthaigh was elected as Honorary Secretary of the Athletic Union Council (College’s sporting body) at its AGM in October and follows in the footsteps of his great mentors Gerry Horkan and the late Dr. Tony O’Neill, the latter a former UCD Director of Sport.

Cait Elliott, a Club Scholarship student in 2008/09, was upgraded to Sports Scholarship status in 2009/10. She will have the use of the High Performance Centre as a result. Her main aim for the season is to test herself in the prestigious races cross channel and to defend her National Cross Country, National Marathon XC and Intervarsity Cyclocross titles.

The Cycling Ireland road squad for the 2010 season comprised of Anthony Walsh, Ciarán Ó Conluain, Colin Peirce, Eóin Fitzpatrick, Fergus Ryan, Fiachra O’Loughlin, Fiachra Rowan, Gavin Haberlin, Ian Richardson, John Treacy, Louise Moriarty, Niall Dwyer, Niamh Stephens and Robert Manning. The off-road team was headed by Cait Elliott. She was joined by XC rider Robert Higgins and Down Hill racers Rory Beirne and new comers Ashley Hemmingway and Colin Keogh.

The Club rented a room of Crunch Fitness and Maria Bienkowska provided weekly spinning sessions which were a thoroughly challenging yet enjoyable workout for all.

The opening round of the 2010 Irish Winter League took place on Sunday 17th January in Bree, Co Wexford with three UCD Cycling Club riders participating. The race took place on a fast but not too technically difficult course in what was described as challenging weather. The UCD contingent was led by last years Club Scholarship student, Rory Beirne. He was joined by newcomers Ashley Hemmingway and Colin Keogh. They all competed in the Senior category. Less than one and a half seconds separated the top three. Bobby St Ledger, from the Cork club 021 Racing claimed the victory in a time of 1 minute 48.870 seconds. Colin O’Leary (Wolf Sport) was the runner up with a time of 1:50.048. UCD’s Ashley Hemmingway (1:50.107) was only a fraction of a second behind in third place of the 32 starters. Seasoned UCD rider Rory Beirne finished 7th in a time of 1:55.067 while Colin Keogh was 11th in 1 time of 2:00.355.

Round one of the UCD CC Time Trial League took place on the 9.85 mile Boot Inn circuit on the 31st of January. Nine riders competed. The race was won by time trial specialist Anthony Walsh in a terrific time of 22 minutes and 56 seconds. Gavin Haberlin (26:13) and Fiachra Rowan (26:23) completed the podium. Ciarán Ó Conluain, Eóin Fitzpatrick, Robert Manning, Niall Dwyer, Ian Richardson and Fergus Ryan completed the line up.

Club Captain, Eoin Fitzpatrick, qualified for the Ireland squad for the World Duathlon Championships in Edinburgh in September on the back of his top 4 finish in the qualifying race which was held at Punchestown on the 1st of February. The course which consisted of a 3.5km run, a 20km bike ride and a 3.5km run attracted 149 competitors in what turned out to be very foggy conditions. Fellow UCD CC rider, Ian Richardson, finished in 5th and there is a possibility that he too will make the international squad later in the year.

The road section of the Club held a very successful 3 day training camp in Carlow in early February.

Sports Scholarship student, Cait Elliott competed in the National Senior Cross Country Championships in St Anne’s Park in Dublin on the 7th of February. The reigning National Cross Country and National Marathon XC Champion was hoping to add to the national titles she has already won to date while competing for UCD, but after a hard fought race had to settle for a silver medal. The race was won by Laois CC’s Francine Meehan in a time of 53:24 who had a 24 second winning margin over Cait. The event doubled as an intervarsity event and defending champion, Cait comfortably retained her title.

A big Easter weekend was ahead for UCD cycling with GOREY AND RAS MUMHUM.

Ras Mumhan; Day one Killorglin Friday 2^nd April 6:30am Raheny

Anto, Fiachra, Gus and Colm Cassidy (who later guested for UCD)ride the race with Stage 1 starting at 3 pm. The gun goes off and the race goes. The race seems like one big long sprint for 4 days. Day 2 Molls gap 140km and its a dry start but after ten mins the wind and wind and rain and rain and cold and cold come flooding in. Anto spent the whole day stopping and starting with no front gears and spent it with the top riders. Fiachra was only a couple of mins down on him. Epic. South Dublin lads reckon it was harder than any Ras stage they have ever done. Stage 3 Somewhere in west Kerry 146km and anto is again in a chasing bunch of 10. All the riders finish the stage and with Anto sprinting for top 10 on stage. Fiachra was sent the wrong way by an official and after a terrific ride was penalized a huge amount of time.

Stage 4 110 K and its raining. Numerous punctures for the team and as the seasons first stage races ends on Monday for all 5 UCD riders involved. This will be huge experience for the Ras to come later in the year.

In Gorey Gav and Ciaran took part in the 4 stage, 3 day event.The race overall was "what could have been" for the UCD team. On the first day Ciaran was feeling very good and tried to get in an early break but couldn't. Finally a strong group of 3 riders got away (Including the eventual winner) and when the race hit the first KOM a short 1800m climb in Hacketstown, Ciaran attacked the bunch and made up the 30secs on the group bridging with about 6 riders making a lead group of 10 with 50km to go.

Sadly only half the group were riding but it was a strong 5 with 3 Isle of Man riders involved. One got a puncture which slowed things down and with the gap at a maximum of 30secs after about 10km the group got swallowed up. The race came to a bunch sprint and Ciaran got 11th but would have been higher had 2 lads in front not sat up. For Gavin it was Ciarans attack over Hacketstown climb that split the bunch into two for the whole day with 70lads coming in 1min 20 down, Gavin included. It was only a question of his position in the bunch that led to him being in the second group on the road. Ciaran finished the day in joint 4th on KOM after getting a 4th and a 2nd on the climbs.On the 2nd day Gavin was excited about the TT and got a time just over 8mins placing him in the top 30. Ciaran was 5 secs slower at about 40th making him 26th overall. Gavin looked very comfortable in the TT position and would have finished higher up if the TT was longer. Anto Walsh has to be thanks for the lend of the gear to Ciaran which shaved numerous seconds off his time.

The new leader, Gareth Enright had the strongest team and on the 3rd stage he let a break go away but chased them down in the closing kilometers to lead it to a bunch sprint again. Ciaran on the second time over the climb tried to attack and get across to the break but couldn't break the bunch or bring riders with him so it all stayed together. Gavin certainly learned his lesson from the day before and was riding in the front of the bunch and looked very comfortable.

With a group away all day taking the KOM points it was assumed that the competition was sealed but Ciaran actually stayed in with a chance of 2rd or 3rd in the competition going into the last day.

On last day he needed to get first or 2nd over KOM to get 2nd overall so he attacked from the gun with it being 26km out and a 3km drag to the top of it. His group of 8 riders got a 40sec gap but again only half the group was working with the rest sitting on. The yellow jersey was with us and we sadly got caught 500m from the top of the hill with Ciaran getting 4th on this and 4th overall and out of the prizes of top 3.

The rest of the Day was fast with a big tailwind and Gavin had a few fans on the course along the way. Again he was in the middle of the bunch and looking strong. Both riders got home safely with some of the fresher lads breaking clear in the final kilometers to finish infront of the main bunch.

A huge thanks to Mil for his great assistance in all cycling events the club partakes in especially the stage racing.

Stamullan GP was one of the first testing races after the Easter weekend with 4 ascents up a steep climb last almost 5mins which split the bunch to pieces. In the end only 5 A1 riders caught the A2 group and they took the majority of the prizes with Ciaran coming home in the A1 bunch for second in the sprint for 11th unplaced A2 in what was (as always) a very generous prize offering by the Stamullen road club. Anto started in the A1 group to test himself fully for the upcoming Ras. and he didnt contest the sprint but was very strong in a tough race where only about 20 A1 riders finished out of approx 50 starters. Anto was happy with his progress for the weekends training and Ciaran was happy to finish a race that he was lucky to still be in after he was involved in a crash where the other riders bike broke in half.

The following week Anthony Walsh travelled abroad and completed the British Premier Calendar race the "Cicli Classic". The 170km race is one of the biggest on the cycling calendar and UCD were represented admirably. A tougher race in Ireland and the UK would be harder to find.

One important focus for the UCD riders was the Team prize in the Corkman stage race. Team UCD arrived down to the 3 day stage race as a firm favourite for the overall prize as well as a good shot for the team prize. Antony Walsh was the agreed team leader after a strong showing in the Ras Mumhun and also the British Premier calendar race a week before and all 5 riders were committed to this task.

Stage one started in torrential rain which turned into driving hail over badly rutted farm roads. So bad in fact that Ciaran O Conluain snapped his handlebars on a fast descent in the closing stages. He did extremely well not to crash. Anto got away with Gav into a group that looked like staying clear. The team rode on the front of the main bunch to protect the lead that they had in the lead group. On the final lap of six this breakaway group was slowly coming back to the peloton. Unfortunately in the final 300 metres the sprinters caught the pair and the stage win was lost. All team UCD finished in the bunch however and no overall time was lost.However, the break was successful in splitting the bunch, with only 54 riders in our group and the next

group in 16 seconds back.

That night a new set of handlebars were sourced for O Conluain and he was back in action for the following days racing which was to consist of a time trial followed by a road stage in the afternoon. A very strong time trial by Walsh put him in the yellow jersey briefly until he was overhauled by the final few riders finishing in 6th place. While this was disappointing it put the team in a very strong position for the afternoons stage as Walsh was only a handful of seconds down on the overall lead. Very strong performances by Haberlin and Rowan put 3 UCD riders in the top 15 a few seconds off the lead. With Walsh still the designated leader but with 2 other riders a few more seconds back, any move by UCD would be a major threat to the yellow jersey.

The tactic was to use UCD riders to attack at every opportunity. Rowan attacked right from the gun and immediately formed a breakaway group of exceptionally strong riders. He decided to come back and help the assault on the overall lead. Indeed the team attacked the race leader every few minutes. He responded very strongly to his great credit and seemed to have help from other teams but eventually O Conluain soloed across to a group of 6 which formed the main chase group riding alone for 85km of the race.

This was the carrot on the stick and the bunch let them out to a 3min gap at one point. Once this was seen the chase group eased their efforts and the bunch raised theirs and when the last time up the climb Anto attacked the bunch with 4 men on his wheel and joining the chasing group.

The yellow jersey could not respond and Anto rode hard with a group of 4 to finish just behind the winners and 6th on the stage with a gap of some 30 seconds on the new yellow jersey the reward for an extremely aggressive days racing.

Stage four and with the team prize looking like a good bet, Walsh had to attack. The tactic was to use the UCD riders again who still posed a threat to the overall to "soften up" the overall leader and then set Walsh up for a once off strong attack. Ciaran and Anto were in a early move on a draggy section and an early crash held up Ryan and soon after O Conluain had the misfortune to crash out also.

Unfortunately Kanturk got 3 riders into an early break that got 35 seconds on the bunch, with a combined time of 1 min 45 seconds on us, making our 1st team position look insecure at the time. This left Haberlin and Rowan to set Walsh up. On a much flatter course this was always going to be a very tall order with the yellow jersey still very strong and all riders motivated for a sprint finish on the final day. Which is how it ended up with the break only being caught 5km from the finish. All three UCD riders rode extremely strongly but could not break the combined strength of the peleton and the sprint finish. Walsh finished 5th overall at 28 seconds with the two other counting riders Haberlin and Rowan in 13th and 15th place respectively.

Overall a great weekend for team UCD. The major goal was to win the team prize and this was achieved. A real will to win and to keep going in spite of crashes, and major mechanical issues bodes well for the Ras team late in May.

NPS Maheramorne

This race was a chance to blow away the cobwebs having finished my thesis the day before. Cait had done this course a few times before so knew what to expect – flat, a few fun kickers and drops, fast hard racing. They set off chasing the juniors, with Mel Spath quickly moving in front. She got behind, fighting her way through clouds of billowing dust that kicked up from the stony quarry, but struggled to hold her wheel and it didn’t take long for a gap to open up.

It was all fast and furious stuff, pushing as hard as possible without much chance for recovery since there were no real descents. She finished second,while also riding Irish NPS 5 – Killaloeso finishing in 2nd.

UCD Cycling team entered the Ras for the first time in many years. The 5 man team was made up of 4 current UCD riders Anthony Walsh, Ciaran O Conluain, Fiachra Rowan, Gus Ryan and one guest rider Colm Cassidy. Colm was the only rider who had previously ridden in the Ras with the other riders having previously only ridden 3 day stage races. The Ras would be 1300km over 8 days, taking in 27 categorised climbs with an average day of approx 160km or 4 hours riding.

The amount of work that went into the preparation of this event, both before and during, couldn’t have been done by the riders alone. They had an equal amount of support staff with Killian the Mechanic, Nic the Masseur, John the team driver and Soigneur and Niall the team Manager. The club president Maoilíosa Ó Dubhthaigh provided valuable Ras experience and was the man who helped put it all together.
The preparations for the event lasted many months and numerous team meetings and when the riders were presented at the start line on the Sunday 23^rd May in Dunboyne in front of hundreds of spectators it was a very proud moment for the boys from UCD.

The Ras is a different event for everyone. The race is made up of Professional foreign teams, International teams and domestic county teams and although each athlete arrives at the same destination each evening, the journey of each is unique. Over the course of the eight days the riders experienced a range of emotions and have stories that will stick with them forever.

One of the most enduring memories from this year’s Ras was that “grand Depart” from Dunboyne for the start of stage one against a backdrop of cheering crowds with the U2's 'Beautiful Day' resonating long into the distance. At that moment UCD were once again participating in a very significant event within Irelands sporting calendar.

Leaving aside the fact that the Ras has become a major event on the international cycling calendar, the team were more enthralled by the historical significance of participation in an event which has lasted the test of time.

The speed was about what the team expected, with pro riders constantly attacking at the front of the race and the peloton containing the 5 UCD riders chasing them down. The riders finished in Dundalk and the journey had certainly begun with 5 separate groups of riders coming in behind the leaders. This showed it had been a testing opening day.

Sadly stage two hosted a crash where 4 Spanish professional riders were taken to hospital and out of the race but all made full recoveries since. The last 50km of the race were neutralised after the mass of riders waited for the paramedics to attend to their duties. All UCD riders came safely into Carrick on Shannon where the crowds were again huge.

The next day saw the riders head for Oughterard where the race split up after what was described as the “fastest day ever” in the Ras by men who had ridden it numerous times. The riders were now going into unchartered territory of 4 consecutive days racing and this time the distances and standard of opposition were far greater than they had ever experienced.

The following days had more crashes with 3 UCD riders coming down in one large crash which caused Anthony’s bike to be completely written off. Ciaran also had to ride with severe bruising and cuts for the rest of the week. Everyone on the team had an incident that would hamper their race but all got on with the job at hand and rolled into the packed Skerries main street for the final sprint to the finish. Testament to the preparation and support the team received that despite huge obstacles being put in front of them all 5 riders came through the toughest challenge of their lives to receive their medals for becoming “Men of the Ras” and adding to the small but very successful list of UCD riders to have completed the toughest race Ireland has to offer.

UCD continued their successful season when they gained 3 separate prizes only 3 weeks after the Ras finishing. Anto started the week off with a great result coming 3rd A2 in the Leinster TT championships adding to his collection of TT medals. It shows the mans ambition when he was actually disappointed not to win the event. He also followed this up with a great ride in the Paddy Flanagan 2 day race feeling very strong in the lead group of 10 riders which would have contested the win until he punctured 10km to go.

Also in that race was a 4th place by Ciaran in the 3rd stage Crit around Kildare village. The roads were filled with spectators as the field got whittled down as the pace started very fast and remained so until the sprint finish. Ciaran placed behind some of the top sprinters and ahead of one of Irelands most talented french based riders Aaron Buggle.On the women's front, Cait had an excellent result showing off the UCD colours in the inaugural Halfords city centre Crit. The race based in the heart of Dublin city centre was a great stage for Cait to show off her road racing skills and she came an incredible 4th place sadly missing out on a podium place. She looked strong throughout and was only a couple of bike lengths from taking the victory from the top riders in Ireland.

Cait was racing again for UCD in round 6 of the mountain bike NPS last weekend on a tough course with lots of short climbs and little chance to recover. Finishing 2nd in the race secured 2nd place in the NPS series for the year.

That same weekend More success came to UCD campus with great performances on both Saturday and Sunday on the bike. On the Track bike on Saturday Anto got a 3rd place and a 4th place in the Sneem Hotel International Track Grand Prix in Eamonn Ceannt Stadium, Sundrive Road. Up against Irelands best, Anto also had to face foreign riders. As always, these are long days and Anto was there from 1030 am-7pm but it paid off with some good results and his preparation is going well for the Track Nationals coming up soon.
On Sunday Anto, Niall, Fiachra and Ciaran were in action again in the Mark Hammond Memorial race in Carlow run over a tough 30km circuit 4 times. The wind seemed to always be facing the riders and it the race blew apart on the second lap with Anto being in a strong chase group behind the 3 leaders and a bunch of only 10 riders chasing behind them. The bunch swelled as riders got dropped from the fast moving chase group and eventually Anto was swallowed by the group having done so much work to get the chasing group moving.

Ciaran rode strong on the front on the last time up the long drag and with another rider opened up a gap and did a "2 up" to the finish line where Ciaran outsprinted the strong Navan rider for 11th overall and first A2 which resulted in him being awarded the Paddy Coleman memorial cup. UCD RAS rider Colm Cassidy continued his strong form getting 5th overall in the race and Anto was unlucky not to be contesting the win and surely would have been fresher if he hadnt performed so well the day before.

Niall rode very solidly in the A3 race and although he missed an early break he was in a chase group that was caught back. He again went away but was caught 1km from the finish which would have gotten him a top 10 prize.

The former skipper was still on hand to give Ciaran his cup for first A2 in the race.
On the Leisure side of things the UCD team spinning instructor and Leisure cyclist Maria Bienkowska completed the annual Ring of Kerry 180km cycle in a time of 7h 20mins. A great feat for someone who just bought their first racing bike 2 weeks ago.

Tough race but great result for Cait last weekend.

2010-07-06T15:10:00.000+01:00

Cait was racing for UCD in round 6 of the mountain bike NPS last weekend on a tough course with lots of short climbs and little chance to recover. Finishing 2nd in the race secured 2nd place in the NPS series for the year.

"We flew off at the start, with Mel Spath quickly taking the lead and setting a blistering pace. The ground was super dry and the course almost all grassy or dusty singletrack, with a few sharp rocks to catch you out. I had to work hard to stick to Mel, and with one short hard climb after another there was little chance for a break. The first half of the lap was mostly climbing and I was able to cling on, but after that it flattened out and I began to drop back.

On lap two I still felt I was going like a lunatic but struggling to keep the pace up, it was such hard work! By the end of the lap I’d lost sight of Mel and had to slow down a bit, my legs didn’t feel like they were firing on all cylinders, and I was stuck out racing by myself for the next lap or so. Between all the nasty little climbs, there were a few nice descents, particularly some super tight dusty switchbacks off the top off the hill that you could take really fast, and a couple of steepish rocky sections. By the fifth lap I’d had enough and couldn’t wait to finish, there definitely seemed to be more pain than enjoyment going on."

Another successful weekend for UCD

2010-07-05T11:07:00.003+01:00

More success came to UCD campus this weekend with great performances on both Saturday and Sunday on the bike. On the Track bike on Saturday Anto got a 3rd place and a 4th place in the Sneem Hotel International Track Grand Prix in Eamonn Ceannt Stadium, Sundrive Road. Up against Irelands best, Anto also had to face foreign riders.
As always, these are long days and Anto was there from 1030 am-7pm but it paid off with some good results and his preparation is going well for the Track Nationals coming up soon.

On Sunday Anto, Niall, Fiachra and Ciaran were in action again in the Mark Hammond Memorial race in Carlow run over a tough 30km circuit 4 times. The wind seemed to always be facing the riders and it the race blew apart on the second lap with Anto being in a strong chase group behind the 3 leaders and a bunch of only 10 riders chasing behind them. The bunch swelled as riders got dropped from the fast moving chase group and eventually Anto was swallowed by the group having done so much work to get the chasing group moving.

Ciaran rode strong on the front on the last time up the long drag and with another rider opened up a gap and did a "2 up" to the finish line where Ciaran outsprinted the strong Navan rider for 11th overall and first A2 which resulted in him being awarded the Paddy Coleman memorial cup. UCD RAS rider Colm Cassidy continued his strong form getting 5th overall in the race and Anto was unlucky not to be contesting the win and surely would have been fresher if he hadnt performed so well the day before.

Niall rode very solidly in the A3 race and although he missed an early break he was in a chase group that was caught back. He again went away but was caught 1km from the finish which would have gotten him a top 10 prize.

The former skipper was still on hand to give Ciaran his cup for first A2 in the race and the team will once again be well represented with 8 riders wearing the UCD colours this weekend in Mullingar.

On the Leisure side of things the UCD team spinning instructor and Leisure cyclist Maria Bienkowska completed the annual Ring of Kerry 180km cycle in a time of 7h 20mins. A great feat for someone who just bought their first racing bike 2 weeks ago. Much will be expected of her next year!

Big racing weekend

2010-07-01T16:31:00.003+01:00

Big events coming up for August bank holiday weekend. Interest should be declared early...

http://www.suirvalley3day.com

or

www.tainteamtour.com

Also there could be a possible training weekend that weekend for active UCD riders and if anyone is interested in this they should get in contact also.

UCD TT success guest reported by Ian Richardson

2010-06-25T13:57:00.001+01:00

The UCD team were out in force with 2 top 10 placings and taking 4 of the top 5 SL spots, at the second of the Inter Club league 10mile TT. 5 riders were competing with Niall, Gavin, Rob, Eoin and Ian. The Batterstown course is slow with a sequence of drags in both Cullmullin and Woodtown and two right hand turns in both Curraghtown and Jenkinstown.

The UCD team were sent off one after the other with Niall Dwyer and Ian Richardson acting as "carrots" for the Team favourite Gavin Haberlin to chase down. Gavin caught both Ian and Niall half way through the course, at the top of the Climb in Woodtown, but was suddenly hampered by leg cramps, causing his blistering pace at the start of the course to decrease. Despite this Gavin managed to come 4th overall and 1st in SL.
Rob Manning put in a monster effort knocking off 3mins from his pb and throwing up twice during the course, a sign of how hard this man can push himself. The last of the UCD limit riders Eoin "mountain goat" Fitzpatrick rounded off the team and came 1st in the Limit group.
The Team looks set to be a fierce competitor at the Interclub Team Time Trial in August.
The Results for the UCD riders are as follows

4 Gavin Haberlin UCD 23'32 1st SL
8 Ian Richardson UCD 24'57 2nd SL
12 Rob Manning UCD 25'11 3rd SL

18 Niall Dwyer UCD 25'59 5th SL
24 Eoin Fitz UCD 26'33 1st L

Great results again for UCD

2010-06-21T16:30:00.002+01:00

UCD continued their successful season when they gained 3 separate prizes last week.
Anto started the week off with a great result coming 3rd A2 in the Leinster TT championships adding to his collection of TT medals. It shows the mans ambition when he was actually disappointed not to win the event. He also followed this up with a great ride in the Paddy Flanagan 2 day race feeling very strong in the lead group of 10 riders which would have contested the win until he punctured 10km to go.
Good pictures of the lads stage 1 can be seen at...
http://www.irishcycling.com/publish/news/art_4989.shtml

Stage 3 pictures
Also in that race was a 4th place by Ciaran in the 3rd stage Crit around Kildare village. The roads were filled with spectators as the field got whittled down as the pace started very fast and remained so until the sprint finish. Ciaran placed behind some of the top sprinters and ahead of one of Irelands most talented french based riders Aaron Buggle.
Along with that was hugely promising signs from Gav and Niall who were riding against one of their most impressive fields of the season but when they attacked out of the peloton and formed a chase group which riders attempted to bridge across to. It was their most impressive ride to date and sets the standard for what should be a great couple of months for them.

On the women's front, Cait had an excellent result showing off the UCD colours in the inaugural Halfords city centre Crit. The race based in the heart of Dublin city centre was a great stage for Cait to show off her road racing skills and she came an incredible 4th place sadly missing out on a podium place. She looked strong throughout and was only a couple of bike lengths from taking the victory from the top riders in Ireland.

more pics of the Crit are here below...
http://www.irishcyclingphotos.com/ladiescrit/
Another successful week for UCD and now we will be represented in the Roche GP crit on Wednesday and in the prestigious Irish National Championships in Sligo on Sunday.

Final UCD Ras report 2010

2010-06-18T11:18:00.003+01:00

The amount of work that went into the preparation of this event, both before and during, couldn’t have been done by the riders alone. They had an equal amount of support staff with Killian the Mechanic, Nic the Masseur, John the team driver and Soigneur and Niall the team Manager. The club president Maoilíosa Ó Dubhthaigh provided valuable Ras experience and was the man who helped put it all together.

The preparations for the event lasted many months and numerous team meetings and when the riders were presented at the start line on the Sunday 23^rd May in Dunboyne in front of hundreds of spectators it was a very proud moment for the boys from UCD.

The Ras is a different event for everyone. The race is made up of Professional foreign teams, International teams and domestic county teams and although each athlete arrives at the same destination each evening, the journey of each is unique. Over the course of the eight days the riders experienced a range of emotions and have stories that will stick with them forever.

One of the most enduring memories from this year’s Ras was that “grand Depart” from Dunboyne for the start of stage one against a backdrop of cheering crowds with the U2's 'Beautiful Day' resonating long into the distance. At that moment UCD were once again participating in a very significant event within Irelands sporting calendar.

Leaving aside the fact that the Ras has become a major event on the international cycling calendar, the team were more enthralled by the historical significance of participation in an event which has lasted the test of time.

The speed was about what the team expected, with pro riders constantly attacking at the front of the race and the peloton containing the 5 UCD riders chasing them down. The riders finished in Dundalk and the journey had certainly begun with 5 separate groups of riders coming in behind the leaders. This showed it had been a testing opening day.

Sadly stage two hosted a crash where 4 Spanish professional riders were taken to hospital and out of the race but all made full recoveries since. The last 50km of the race were neutralised after the mass of riders waited for the paramedics to attend to their duties. All UCD riders came safely into Carrick on Shannon where the crowds were again huge.

The next day saw the riders head for Oughterard where the race split up after what was described as the “fastest day ever” in the Ras by men who had ridden it numerous times. The riders were now going into unchartered territory of 4 consecutive days racing and this time the distances and standard of opposition were far greater than they had ever experienced.

The following days had more crashes with 3 UCD riders coming down in one large crash which caused Anthony’s bike to be completely written off. Ciaran also had to ride with severe bruising and cuts for the rest of the week. Everyone on the team had an incident that would hamper their race but all got on with the job at hand and rolled into the packed Skerries main street for the final sprint to the finish. Testament to the preparation and support the team received that despite huge obstacles being put in front of them all 5 riders came through the toughest challenge of their lives to receive their medals for becoming “Men of the Ras” and adding to the small but very successful list of UCD riders to have completed the toughest race Ireland has to offer.

More success for UCD's Cait

2010-06-08T11:01:00.002+01:00

NPS Maheramorne

This race was a chance to blow away the cobwebs having finished my thesis the day before. I’d done this course a few times before so knew what to expect – flat, a few fun kickers and drops, fast hard racing. It was good to see a few girls in the Elite race in roasting hot sun.

We set off chasing the juniors, with Mel Spath quickly moving in front. I got behind, fighting my way through clouds of billowing dust that kicked up from the stony quarry, but struggled to hold here wheel and it didn’t take long for a gap to open up. I felt like I was pushing hard but wasn’t getting anywhere.

I got a bit bored on the second lap, stuck riding on my own, but it improved after that when some of the guys caught up from behind and I had some good battles with them. It was all fast and furious stuff, pushing as hard as possible without much chance for recovery since there were no real descents. I finished second, further back than I’d have liked but now intend to make the most of more training time to get up to speed.

Irish NPS 5 – Killaloe

MBUL hosted the 5^th round of the NPS in Killaloe on Sunday, they’d put a lot of work into making the singletrack more weatherproof than previous years and the course was great - one huge long fireroad climb that was very exposed and hot, followed by lots of damp woody singletrack, mostly downhill with a few steep kickers.

As ever I was attempting to keep up with Mel Spath who was pushing the pace at the front. I managed to keep her in sight until the top of a long steep climb, and when we hit a section of off-camber, rooty singletrack through the forest I was able to gain some time. I almost got in front as she dabbed on a steep kicker but resigned to following as closely as possible.

Each lap I lost sight of Mel as we descended a narrow switchback trail towards the finish, thinking I’d lost her, but once we hit the climb I could see her again 20 seconds or so ahead. This gave me all the motivation I needed to push hard and stop her getting away, with the hope of making up time on the descent. The climb was a killer though, long, hot and painful!

On the last lap I managed to close the gap slightly, going all out on the climb, but this left me pretty wrecked and it was hard to get enough composure to ride the decent smoothly. Any chance to catch up was lost when my chain got tangled somehow as I tried to climb the last kicker and I couldn’t turn the pedals. I stopped to sort it but lost about 30 seconds, so finished in 2nd. My last half lap could have been better, but overall I was happy with the race, to be close enough to put Mel under pressure is a big improvement! Thanks to UCD for their support and to MBUL for putting on a great race.

UCD completed Ras with all 5 riders finishing

2010-06-03T14:28:00.005+01:00

An action packed Ras was completed by all 5 UCD riders on Sunday in skerries.

There were 6 crashes, 3 punctures and a 1st Cat 2 placing so the highs and the lows were all encountered.

Here are some pics of the race from a UCD perspective and a blog report will follow from Gus Ryan as soon as he recovers to write one.

Thanks again to all those who helped make it all possible including Mil, Niall, Nic, John and Killian who all supported us and made our lives so much easier. We wouldnt of got to the finish without it and from some of the stories i hear from other teams we were incredibly well prepared.

Whats a team... part 2

2010-05-13T17:13:00.002+01:00

With 10 days to go till the Grand Depart and following on from our previous profiles we drop down the pecking order to examine the workhorses in the team.

The "Gent" of the peloton, Fiachra Rowan, will leave his sick and dying patients for one week to attend to the biggest challenge of his sporting career. In reality it was Fiachras dream of riding the Ras that started this project off late last year. He is a man known for honesty and a willingness to help anyone in need. He drove on a 100km round trip to pick up spare handlebars for Ciaran in the Corkman.

He is a strong TT rider and strong and determined team rider. To be an A3 and decide to take up the challenge of the Ras shows his incredible determination and desire to succeed. Recently married, he will leave family life behind to live life as a pro cyclist for 8 days. Will he ever go back? Only time will tell.Colm Cassidy is the only guest rider on the team and is an ex Pro who has returned to study. He studies the art of pedalling a bike fast and is on his way to a first class honour. A Veteran of one Ras he has already showed the usefulness of his experience and his presence calms those around him. It isn't the first time he has ridden in UCD colours as can be seen below cresting the Sarenne in the french Alps. Bicycling magazine called him a "guerrilla on the flats" but its clear he has a talent in the mountains and has his trademark Hulk Hogan celebration prepared for Seskin Hill.

Colm realised at an early age that he was given the gift of healing hands and he puts these to use on a daily basis working on injured sports stars including almost all of the UCD team. Competing at international level is not something new to our Colm. He wore the Green of Ireland as a Triathlete and lets hope he doesn't "run" into, hot "water" during Ras week.

Countdown to the Ras

2010-05-10T15:21:00.004+01:00

With the FBD Insurance Ras staring on the 23rd May and with UCD having 5 riders in the event, the UCD blogging team based in Belfield in the School of Blogs building thought it was about time we unveiled the team to the Public.
We can now for the first time give the fans an in depth insight into these 5 talented riders who will go to battle with some of the most talented cyclists to have thrown their leg over a cross bar.
Fittingly we will start with the key cog in the machine. The starting point for all success. Quoted this week as saying...

"The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather a lack of will"

Niall Dwyer aka "Skipper," will lead a team into the Ras as Team manager for the first time. Already this year he has led a team (with little success) into the Gorey international Stage race over Easter. Niall had a promising career ahead of him as a talented cyclist until he was taken down on way to victory in the renowned Bohermeen one day A3 classic. With a collarbone that now looks like spaghetti his own personal ambitions have had to take a back seat and he has focused solely on his teammates needs.
Niall is a man who knows how to organise. At age 12 he ran a 3km race for charity raising £26 and competing the course in a PB of 28mins. He has taken a week off work to support his teammates when they need him most. His attention to detail can be seen in the UCD rider handbook designed specifically by him outlining every bit of information our riders could possibly need to know each day. Niall will be waiting at the end of each stage making sure the UCD riders have the best recovery and increase their chances of competing in the toughest race Ireland has to offer.

The first rider we will look to cover has an old head on old shoulders.
Fergus Ryan (seen on left) enters his first Ras with a wealth of experience on his side. A multiple Iron Man he has beaten some of the best testers in Ireland on the TT bike and his strength was clear for all to see in the Corkman Stage race when he kept the race together riding constantly at the front. Most importantly Gus brings a calm head and BBQ organising skills that will be tested to the max in his home town of Skerries on the last day of the Ras May 30th.

Its always been an ambition for Gus to ride the Ras and he will fulfil that dream in just under 2 weeks time.

Later in the week we will give a further study into the other 4 riders that complete the team.

Corkman 3 day

2010-05-07T16:53:00.004+01:00

Team UCD arrived down to the 3 day stage race as a firm favourite for the overall prize as well as a good shot for the team prize. Antony Walsh was the agreed team leader after a strong showing in the Ras Mumhun and also the British Premier calendar race a week before and all 5 riders were committed to this task.Stage one started in torrential rain which turned into driving hail over badly rutted farm roads. So bad in fact that Ciaran O Conluain snapped his handlebars on a fast descent in the closing stages. He did extremely well not to crash. The team tactics were to attack from the start and see who the main competitors were. Nothing really got away until the halfway point when Anto was in a small group and then Anto got away with Gav into a group that looked like staying clear.

The team rode on the front of the main bunch to protect the lead that they had in the lead group. On the final lap of six this breakaway group was slowly coming back to the peleton. Just before the catch, Gus Ryan jumped away in the final 600 metres with Walsh glued to his wheel.

Unfortunately in the final 300 metres the sprinters caught the pair and the stage win was lost. All team UCD finished in the bunch however and no overall time was lost.However, the break was successful in splitting the bunch, with only 54 riders in our group and the next
group in 16 seconds back.

That night a new set of handlebars were sourced for O Conluain and he was back in action for the following days racing which was to consist of a time trial followed by a road stage in the afternoon.The help of the commisaire in this respect is much appreciated as travelling almost 400km for a race is a challenge in itself.
A very strong time trial by Walsh put him in the yellow jersey briefly until he was overhauled by the final few riders finishing in 6th place. While this was disappointing it put the team in a very strong position for the afternoons stage as Walsh was only a handful of seconds down on the overall lead. Very strong performances by Haberlin and Rowan put 3 UCD riders in the top 15 a few seconds off the lead. With Walsh still the designated leader but with 2 other riders a few more seconds back, any move by UCD would be a major threat to the yellow jersey.

The tactic was to use UCD riders to attack at every opportunity. So we did. Rowan attacked right from the gun and immediately formed a breakaway group of exceptionally strong riders. He was then faced with a dilemma. Continue riding or come back to the bunch and attack the yellow jersey. A break is unlikely to stay away from such an early stage. He decided to come back and help the assault on the overall lead. Indeed the team attacked the race leader every few minutes. He responded very strongly to his great credit and seemed to have help from other teams but eventually O Conluain soloed across to a group of 6 which formed the main chase group riding alone for 85km of the race.

This was the carrot on the stick and the bunch let them out to a 3min gap at one point. Once this was seen the chase group eased their efforts and the bunch raised theirs and when the last time up the climb Anto attacked the bunch with 4 men on his wheel and joining the chasing group.
The yellow jersey could not respond and Anto rode hard with a group of 4 to finish just behind the winners and 6th on the stage with a gap of some 30 seconds on the new yellow jersey the reward for an extremely aggressive days racing. The yellow jersey however came from Fiachra Rowans initial break that had against all the odds stayed away, in most part, till the end.

Stage four
Only one thing to do. With the team prize looking like a good bet, Walsh had to attack. The tactic was to use the UCD riders again who still posed a threat to the overall to "soften up" the overall leader and then set Walsh up for a once off strong attack.

Ciaran and Anto were in a early move on a draggy section and an early crash held up Ryan and soon after O Conluain had the misfortune to crash out also.

Unfortunately Kanturk got 3 riders into an early break that got 35 seconds on the bunch, with a combined time of 1 min 45 seconds on us, making our 1st team position look insecure at the time.This left Haberlin and Rowan to set Walsh up. On a much flatter course this was always going to be a very tall order with the yellow jersey still very strong and all riders motivated for a sprint finish on the final day. Which is how it ended up with the break only being caught 5km from the finish. All three UCD riders rode extremely strongly but could not break the combined strength of the peleton and the sprint finish. Walsh finished 5th overall at 28 seconds with the two other counting riders Haberlin and Rowan in 13th and 15th place respectively.

Overall a great weekend for team UCD. The major goal was to win the team prize and this was achieved. A real will to win and to keep going in spite of crashes, and major mechanical issues bodes well for the Ras team late in May.

A new racing website

2010-04-29T12:09:00.001+01:00

Please see details below on a race info website just started.

Press release,
A new website called "Race Starts At" ( http://racestarts.at ) has been created to help cyclists and race organisers. I'd greatly appreciate it if you could please inform your members of this new website and also put a link on your own website to RaceStarts.At.

Background
From a cyclist's perspective it can be very hard to get detailed information on events. Often the available event details only contain the name of a race, the province in which it is on and a mobile phone number. So it can be hard to find out what the course is like, how long the race is, what categories are catered for, parking & changing facilities available etc.

From a race organiser's perspective it can be frustrating getting lots of phone calls asking the same questions. The event details are given to Cycling Ireland very early in the year, well before the details are known. Exact course details are often only decided upon a few days before the race so it's also difficult to get this information communicated back to the cyclists.

Overview
RaceStarts.At is a website designed to help solve the problems mentioned above. The site contains a page for every Cycling Ireland race and leisure cycle. Each page allows people to add more information to the page by using comments. Cyclists can ask organisers questions by creating comments, organisers can answer queries or provide new event details by creating a comment. It's easy to use and doesn't even require registration.

Benefits
RaceStarts.At allows cyclists to easily discover information about events they are interested in. They can ask questions, answer questions and after the event they can post the results, link to reports, photos or videos. Event organisers can easily add event details themselves and hence reduce the number of phone calls from cyclists before the event. Additionally, new races or leisure cycles which aren't contained in the Cycling Ireland calendar can easily be added to RaceStarts.At

RaceStarts.At is a bit of an experiment, it may work, it may not. But if you are frustrated by the lack of information or tired of being inundated with phone calls please try and use the site so the we can help solve the problem.

Any comments or suggestions are greatly appreciated.

Regards,
RaceStarts.At
http://racestarts.at

UCD compete in major British cycling event

2010-04-27T11:06:00.003+01:00

Anthony Walsh on Sunday completed the British Premier Calendar race the "Cicli Classic". The 170km race is one of the biggest on the cycling calendar and UCD were represented admirably which should give great confidence to the whole team heading into the UCI 2.2 FBD "RAS".

Anto returned Monday night and as can be seen in the picture above the roads were far from normal racing conditions with some incredibly steep hills thrown in for good measure.

Back on these shores Gus, Fiachra and Ciaran rode at the front of the Coombes Connor race in Drogheda over a flat 112km circuit. The three lads were more focused on a hard workout than getting in the break and they kept the bunch together till after the halfway point when a crash split the group. Fiachra was stuck behind it but got back in to complete the race. Gus performed incredibly and will be one of UCDs stars in the coming races. Especially with the Corkman coming up this weekend.

6 UCD riders will take the start line for what will be their best attempt yet at a stage race. Follow @lovecycling @anthony_walsh and @ucd_cycling for race updates on TWITTER.

Good luck to all involved and lets hope for some good results in the coming weeks.

Pics courtesy of British cycling federation (antos new team)

updated after round four of club leage

2010-04-23T12:15:00.001+01:00

	Club TT1	Club TT2	League 1	League 2	League 3	League 4	Total
4		Anto	14	10	12	0	14	0	50
5		Gavin Haberlin	10	0	8	0	12	14	44
6		Ian Richardson	5	12	0	14	10	0	41
7		Ciaran	8	8	14	0	0	0	30
8		Fiachra Rowan	12	14	0	0	0	0	26
9		Colin Pierce	0	0	0	0	8	12	20
10		Niall Dwyer	5	0	10	0	0	0	15
11		Robert Manning	6	7		0	0	0	13
12		Eoin Fitzpatrick	7	0	0	0	0	0	7
13		Gus Ryan	5	0	0	0	0	0	5
14		Fiachr O Loughlin	0	0	0	0		0	0
15		John Treacy	0	0	0	0	0	8	8
16		Al Dunne	0	0	0	0	0	10	10
17		Cait Elliot	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

TT success last Thursday fro UCD riders in Inter club league

2010-04-20T14:58:00.003+01:00

Congrats again to UCD riders Anto (who won the overall and Semi scratch group), Gav (who won the Semi Limit) and Ian (who won the Limit). Great performances by all. Colin also excelled on his first race back of the season.

Please find enclosed the details of all the races for the Inter Club league supplied by league cordinator Niall.

The prize fund this year has been increased for our inter club league top three UCD riders

1st 100
2nd 75
3rd 50

We will be having a Hill Climb race between UCD riders on Howth Hill at a date TBC. Last years champion Ciaran will be hoping to get a top 3 this year due to the increased competition amongst the UCD team riders.

UCD Leaderboard

	Club TT1	Club TT2	League 1	League 2	League 3	Total
Anto	14	10	12	0	14	50
Ian Richardson	5	12	0	14	10	41
Gavin Haberlin	10	0	8	0	12	30
Ciaran	8	8	14	0	0	30
Fiachra Rowan	12	14	0	0	0	26
Niall Dwyer	5	0	10	0	0	15
Robert Manning	6	7		0	0	13
Colin Pierce	0	0	0	0	8	8
Eoin Fitzpatrick	7	0	0	0	0	7
Gus Ryan	5	0	0	0	0	5
Fiachr O Loughlin	0	0	0	0		0
John Treacy	0	0	0	0	0	0
Al Dunne	0	0	0	0	0	0
Cait Elliot	0	0	0	0	0	0

Date	Location	Time	Race Description	ORG
10/01/2010	Boot Inn	1100	10 mile Time Trial	UCD
15/02/2010	Boot Inn	1100	10 mile Time Trial	UCD
21/02/2010	Black Bull	1200	Handicap	ICL
Date to be Confirmed	Howth Hill	1030	Hill Climb Time Trial	UCD
08/04/2010	Brittas	1900	Handicap	ICL
15/04/2010	Black Bull	1900	10 Mile TT	ICL
22/04/2010	Brittas	1900	Divided Mass Start	ICL
29/04/2010	Black Bull	1900	Handicap	ICL
06/05/2010	Brittas	1900	Handicap	ICL
13/05/2010	Bohernabreena	1900	Hill Climb Time Trial	ICL
27/05/2010	Black Bull	1900	Handicap	ICL
03/06/2010	Brittas	1900	Handicap	ICL
10/06/2010	Black Bull	1900	Divided Mass Start	ICL
17/06/2010	Brittas	1900	Handicap	ICL
24/06/2010	Battestown	1900	10 Mile TT	ICL
01/07/2010	Brittas	1900	Road Race Champs	ICL
08/07/2010	Black Bull	1900	Handicap	ICL
15/07/2010	Brittas	1900	Handicap	ICL
22/07/2010	Battestown	1900	25 Mile TT	ICL
29/07/2010	Brittas	1900	Divided Mass Start	ICL
05/08/2010	Brittas	1900	Handicap	ICL
12/08/2010	Black Bull	1900	Divided Mass Start	ICL
26/08/2010	Black Bull	1900	Handicap	ICL

Another Prize for UCD

2010-04-19T15:37:00.002+01:00

With Ciaran riding Friday night alone and with teammates Anto and Gav on Sunday, UCD had a great chance of getting another prize to follow up the inter-club TT success from Thursday where UCD won every category they had a rider in Including Antos overall victory.

Fridays race had an avg pace of 43kmph and was very fast from the start. Ciaran made numerous attempts to get away but with a flat course with everyone so fresh it was impossible and he came one place outside the unplaced A2 prizes making the mistake of not moving far enough up coming into the final corner.

Sunday was a very different story with 6 ascents of a steep climb out of Stamullan village. Gav would represent us in the A3 race (80km) with Anto and Ciaran turning out for the main race (120km).

Anto kept his RAS preparations up by doing 6h on Saturday and cycled the 35km out and back to Sundays race. He also started with the 90sec handicapped A1 riders. Glutten for punishment!

Ciaran led the A2 group up the climb on the first lap and was feeling very strong of his chances but was taken out on a corner which resulted in the snapping of the other riders carbon frame. Luckily for all involved both riders were ok and apart from a minor buckle, Ciaran was able to fix his saddle and quickly jump into the fast approaching A1 group.

The pace was very jumpy with constant attacks but Anto was always seen on the front when the road went up. He was climbing with the best in the country and should be very happy with his performance. IN the end only 5 A1 riders caught the A2 group and they took the majority of the prizes with Ciaran coming home in the A1 bunch for second in the sprint for 11th unplaced A2 in what was (as always) a very generous prize offering by the Stamullen road club.

Anto didnt contest the sprint but was very strong in a tough race where only about 20 A1 riders finished out of approx 50 starters. Anto will be happy with his progress for this weekends training and Ciaran will be happy to finish a race that he was lucky to still be in.

In Gavins race he was active again by riding hard on the climb and pictured coming across the line on lap one stringing out the peloton. He was away for a half lap but no one came to join and he was outside the prizes as a breakaway formed. After his super effort in the club TT and with his second stage race fast approaching its time to recover for comeback Gav.

Pictures of UCD riders can be seen being very active in the race on http://www.irishcycling.com/publish/news/art_4769.shtml

Also a video of a small crash and the race finish can be seen below thanks to the people who posted these.

Cait brings more success to UCD this weekend

2010-04-13T12:36:00.002+01:00

Irish xc NPS 1 – Slade Valley

Sunday was the first round of the xc NPS series, hosted by IMBRC in Slade Valley. The recent schizophrenic weather worked in our favour with hot sun making for an incredible days racing on dry, fast trails. Cait was representing UCD against a strong field in the elite female race.

“We set off up a fireroad climb, and coming to the top I put in a burst of energy to get into the singletrack first thinking this would give me a bit of control. Conditions made it very quick, but there were a few sly slippery roots to catch you out if you weren’t careful. Out of nowhere Mel Spath (cycleways) came from behind and somehow managed to get past me and two junior riders in front in one manoeuvre. Before I knew it i was chasing but got stuck in behind the two lads. Eventually I managed to get by but she’d pulled quite a gap and I couldn’t quite get back. I knew she was very strong having done a lot of international races this year, so it was a bit annoying, it’s much more difficult to keep up once you lose the wheel. I kept her in sights most of the first lap and people kept shouting that she was only round the corner so that spurred me on.

The heat was unbelievable, it felt like the Alps again, with sun beating down on dry dusty trails making it really hard work. I’m not complaining but I did start to feel a bit sick because of it at one stage! The course was great, a couple of longish steady climbs, a few steep kickers, and loads of fun singletrack that flowed really well. I finished second, 2.5 minutes behind Mel so happy enough with that.”

Exclusive Ras Mumhun race report from UCD veteran of the peloton

2010-04-12T15:13:00.004+01:00

Ras Mumhan; Tales from the Broomwagon by Gus Ryan

Day one Killorglin

Friday 2^nd April 6:30am Raheny

Meet Anto W, Fiachra the Gent and Colm Cassidy who’s hitching a ride down.

Stage starts at 3 pm. Pick up team Manager in Newbridge, the vastly experienced and dryly witty Jason O Callaghan of Swords CC. He takes over the driving thankfully so I sleep in the back. Arrive in B&B, sign on, clip numbers on bike and we're off to the start. Jason warns us. "Lads this one goes straight from the gun." The gun goes off and the race goes. "Jaysus this is fast! 96 more km’s!" Its lashing down, puddles the size of countries litter the roads, no time to worry if they are craters or not just barrel through. The race seems like one big long sprint. Having started in a bad position near the back I seem to remain there no matter how many I pass. Its my third race back and at 60 k they line it out again and for the third time Im dropped. Feel sick, cant eat and that’s that. Im out the back for good today. Tip home and get ready for tomorrow. The marshals tell me to sit up and wait for a few coming up behind. At least I wasn’t the first to be dropped I tell myself. Melanie Spatt?? Arrives and leads me home. She is one strong rider. Arrive back at B&B to find the two boys in buoyant mood. Great day for them finishing comfortably in the bunch. Doesn’t help my confidence

Day 2 Molls gap 140km

Dry start. For ten mins then wind and wind and rain and rain and cold and cold. Fiachra is going for shorts again. Tough cookie. 60 flat k’s before we hit the first climb. Ah that’s grand. Well prob do what the big tour riders do and warm up to the foot of the climb and then let the climbers go. Long rollout. Anto appears on my shoulder

“Eh, Gus. My front derailleur just fell off.”

It had!

“Drop back and see if they can do anything lad”.

He does, they can’t.

Now most people would use this as a sign, an excuse if you will. Anto reached down with his fingers (not for the last time today), flipped it onto the big ring and pressed on.

Flag drops and the race is lined out for 60 k. Im in the cars again. Im back in the bunch. Im back in the cars then back in the bunch. The third time I get dropped takes ten mins to get back on. Then I concentrate on holding the wheel in front. The weaker lads have all gone I tell myself. The wheel in front is my sole focus point. Concentrate. Look up. Concentrate, look up. Concentrate look up. Damn. He’s lost the wheel in front. Im slipping. Sprint around. Concentrate. Look up. Wheel wheel wheel. Damn he’s lost it now. Sprint but that’s it. We hit the climb! What happened to the gentle warm up??? I see Fiachra and Anto dance up the first cat 2 and around the corner. The race teases me for a while then disappears over the horizon. Im in the cars. Then its silent. A few more drift back. Then Mel (first name terms now) appears on my shoulder again. I hold the broomwagon off till the foot of the Healey pass then I climb off. Im cold and hungry. The south Dublin lads in the back persuade me to keep going. I borrow a wheel and keep going. Up, over, through the tunnel. Descent, Kenmare. Molls gap. Finish. Lads in car. Hurricane winds. Anto spent the whole day stopping and starting with no front gears and spent it with the big boys. The biggest boys. Fio only a couple of mins down on him. Epic. South Dublin lads reckon it was harder than any Ras stage they have ever done.

Stage 3 Somewhere in west Kerry 146km

Christ even the map looks hard. Wind. Seaside. 2 mins before the rollout I get a tap on my shoulder.

“Son you’ve no number on”

an official says to me.

NO, I’ve left it all in the car, with all my food!

“You cant start without a number”

Frantic search. No sign of the boss. Head drops, lads ride away.

“Start”

I tell myself.

Im in the cars and the flag hasn’t even dropped!!

Jason arrives at my side

“where’s your bottles”

I threw them away

Hands me up a bottle of water and two gels. Get your head together and stop moaning. He’s right

I press on. Pick up a few heads (Terry from Bantry). And Mel. We go everywhere. As I head out to Valentia the leaders are heading back. First time all weekend I’ve seen them. Delahaye away on his own, Spectacular. Chasing bunch of 10, Anto sitting right in the middle. Spurs me on a bit.

I finish the stage. One bottle of water, a gel and a magic banana handed up from Hugh in the broomwagon (I introduced myself). Anto sprinted for top 10 on stage. Disapointed. Should have been up for 2^nd! Christ. Fio sent the wrong way by an official and after a terrific ride was penalized a huge amount of time. V V V unfair.

Surgery

That eve Anto complained of a tingle from his toe that had got worse. Much worse. The doc in the opposite bed diagnoses an ingrown toenail. He operates. Much much pain. No anaesthetic.

Anto is officially nails.

Stage 4 110 K

Im here, its raining. Were off. From the gun. Move up. Move up. Cat 4 climb. Move up. Sprint. Move up. Two big loops of 40 K then ten laps of the town to come. Break goes. Headwinds, so pace is more polite. Will I bridge across. I must be last man on GC. They’ll let me go right?

Forget it just enjoy yourself.

Relax and enjoy. It really is great to be amongst an experienced peloton. Less nervous. More efficient. Watch the good guys. Learn. Town arrives. Sprint up hill beside yellow jersey. Lap 2. Lap 3. Lap 4 puncture. Quick change and applause from crowd. At least I have witnesses. Lap 5. Leader catches me im pulled from the course. Not unhappy about that. Anto is chasing the break himself. Chain drops. Twice! Nearly there and then Hissssssssss puncture. Fio rolls in with the bunch

Job done.

Stage race weekend round up

2010-04-07T14:50:00.003+01:00

The seasons first stage races ended on Monday for all 5 UCD riders involved. First we will look at Gorey where Gav and Ciaran took part in the 4 stage, 3 day event.

The race overall was "what could have been" for the UCD team. On the first day Ciaran was feeling very good and tried to get in an early break but couldn't. Finally a strong group of 3 riders got away (Including the eventual winner) and when the race hit the first KOM a short 1800m climb in Hacketstown, Ciaran attacked the bunch and made up the 30secs on the group bridging with about 6 riders making a lead group of 10 with 50km to go.

Sadly only half the group were riding but it was a strong 5 with 3 Isle of Man riders involved. One got a puncture which slowed things down and with the gap at a maximum of 30secs after about 10km the group got swallowed up. The race came to a bunch sprint and Ciaran got 11th but would have been higher had 2 lads in front not sat up. For Gavin it was Ciarans attack over Hacketstown climb that split the bunch into two for the whole day with 70lads coming in 1min 20 down, Gavin included. It was only a question of his position in the bunch that led to him being in the second group on the road. Ciaran finished the day in joint 4th on KOM after getting a 4th and a 2nd on the climbs.On the 2nd day Gavin was excited about the TT and got a time just over 8mins placing him in the top 30. Ciaran was 5 secs slower at about 40th making him 26th overall. Gavin looked very comfortable in the TT position and would have finished higher up if the TT was longer. Anto Walsh has to be thanks for the lend of the gear to Ciaran which shaved numerous seconds off his time.
The new leader, Gareth Enright had the strongest team and on the 3rd stage he let a break go away but chased them down in the closing kilometers to lead it to a bunch sprint again. Ciaran on the second time over the climb tried to attack and get across to the break but couldn't break the bunch or bring riders with him so it all stayed together. Gavin certainly learned his lesson from the day before and was riding in the front of the bunch and looked very comfortable.

With a group away all day taking the KOM points it was assumed that the competition was sealed but Ciaran actually stayed in with a chance of 2rd or 3rd in the competition going into the last day.

On last day he needed to get first or 2nd over KOM to get 2nd overall so he attacked from the gun with it being 26km out and a 3km drag to the top of it. His group of 8 riders got a 40sec gap but again only half the group was working with the rest sitting on. The yellow jersey was with us and we sadly got caught 500m from the top of the hill with Ciaran getting 4th on this and 4th overall and out of the prizes of top 3.

The rest of the Day was fast with a big tailwind and Gavin had a few fans on the course along the way. Again he was in the middle of the bunch and looking strong. Both riders got home safely with some of the fresher lads breaking clear in the final kilometers to finish infront of the main bunch.

It was a tough weekend but nothing compared to what the Ras Mumhum riders faced. Overall it was filled with good racing but nothing really to show for it. The miles will see both riders coming into form soon for sure.

The real miracle of the weekend was the fact that Ciaran made it to the finish line on the Tubular below despite the fact its filled with holes. New one fitted this week. Niall must also be thanks for the incredible work in taking time away to help his team mates when not being able to ride due to injury. His help along with Gavins fathers driving meant the lads could focus on the racing only. Final thanks to Mil for his great assistance in all cycling events the club partakes in.

First prize of season for UCD

2010-03-29T11:23:00.003+01:00

UCD put the finishing touches on their Easter weekend racing preparation with Anto and Gus racing on Saturday. Anto was off his bike all week with exams and didnt feel his best in the handicapped race where the scratch group never caught the A4 riders. Gus was one of the most aggressive and strongest riders in the race and was the first across to the A3 group but couldn't solo to the leaders. It was his best ride to date with the club.

At the same time Gavin and Ciaran were out doing some TT practice with Gav looking incredibly comfortable on his TT bike. He will be in contention in Gorey with the progress he has made so far. Ciaran will be using Gavs clip on bars and will be more aiming at road stages. Sadly the hopes of a UCD team prize are out the window with only 2 fit riders now riding the event with Niall injured.

The Munster lads will be resting up this week with 4 serious days of cycling from Friday- Monday. This will be the toughest test in some years for the UCD club and it will be great to see us represented at the very highest level of stage racing before our reemergence in the RAS this year. Anto will be one of our strongest hopes in the race and Fiachra and Gus are using it as prep for the tough 8days of racing in May. It will be an epic weekend and will really show how each riders preparation has gone so far this season.

On Sunday, UCD had 3 riders in the A1+2 race of 120km and Gav in the A3 race. Above you can see the preparations starting for the race ahead.

Sadly once again the A3 race ended in a horrible crash and Gav came down but no damage was done. He was riding strong throughout and climbing in first place on the seriously hilly course. He should feel confident about his chances for the upcoming Des Hanlon where if we could get our captain Eoin "mountain goat" out for the A4 race we would be in with a chance in both races.

In the top race Gus was positioned well in the pack but got caught out on the second ascent and was quoted afterwards as saying"today just wasn't my day". Fiachra was incredibly strong throughout and at times i was thinking to myself this man is not human, he is a piece of Iron.

After 1000m climbing in the race and coming into the final descent he was in a beautiful position for a prize but when the road tightened he got on a bad wheel and Ciaran went up through a tight gap then descended on the wheel of a rather large man and came 4th A2 overall which was a good result and his first of the season despite a few close placings.

Fiachra came home comfortably in the bunch. He will surely figure in the races ahead and is fast becoming one of the strongest A2 riders in the pack.

Roll on Easter weekend where the Gorey and Munster lads will be taking pics and snaps for next weeks blog.

Racing Saturday and Sunday

2010-03-25T11:37:00.001Z

For more info go to http://www.balbriggancc.ie

And best of luck to all UCD riders taking part.

Next week we will look at how the easter stage racing teams heading to Gorey and Munster are feeling.

Sad day for Cycling Ireland

2010-03-22T17:01:00.005Z

Yesterday was a very sad day for UCD cycling club as "The Skipper" Niall Dwyer broke his collarbone in a nasty bunch sprint accident. The race had gone well for him and he was riding up the front throughout. Having previously tried to get away in the final km's of early season races he decided to contest the bunch sprint and was very well placed in the top 10 to go on and get a much deserved prize.As can be seen in the pictures (see below) a dangerous move by a rider on Nialls left shoulder brought the whole of the front of the bunch down leaving Niall with nowhere to go but into the ditch...HARD.
Luckily for him there was medical treatment available and as a club we are very lucky to have Fiachra Rowan surgeon extraordinaire who operated on Niall at the scene using a tire leaver and old tube and some recovery drink. Niall is going to miss this weeks Tuesday night club but the rest will do him good and they have decided to put back Gorey and Easter holidays for 8 weeks until he is riding again.
In the A2 race it was the first outing for the experienced Gus Ryan "the professor" who as expected sat in the bunch comfortably and even attacked near the end of the race. The race was a strange affair with many many attacks but with an equal number of willing chasers. After 4 laps of 6 it was clear this was going to end in a bunch sprint. Anto had some gear issues again so led out the group which had Ciaran and Fiachra in strong positions. In the end a 3 man group stayed away and in the bunch sprint Ciaran was only inches outside the prizes beaten into 9th place.
Any result would have been clearly overshadowed by the sad demise of our esteemed colleague Niall.

Here are some photos of the event taken by the incredible photographer that is Ben Arent
http://www.flickr.com/photos/benarent/sets/72157623544964667/
and here...
http://www.irishcycling.com/publish/news/

UCD solid again

2010-03-15T12:06:00.002Z

There was a good showing of UCD numbers this weekend for 2 races. On Saturday the racing was in Clonard for a all cat handicap race over 70km which Gav was the highest finisher being just outside the prizes but in one of the lead groups on the road breaking away from his A3 compatriots. this is a great sign and his form is coming on well.

Anto and Ciaran finished in the bunch but the 9min handicap over 70km made the race over before it begun.

On Sunday the attention turned to Newbridge where there was hopes of a separate A2 race but in the end they combined with the A1's who swallowed up the prizes once again. Anto and Ciaran were very active and got in some good moves especially Anto who was unlucky for his one to not stay away. Sadly for Ciaran when he and Anto jumped clear of the bunch on the second last lap in a 3 man chase group, his saddle broke with 17km to go and had to abandon leaving anto to still finish ahead of the main field. A brave and strong ride and Fiachra once again stuck in without problem and stayed out for another lap to get some miles into the legs for the longer races coming up.

Niall once again was aggressive in his A3 race and went on a solo attack from the gun which amazingly didn't stick. He rode strongly again and finished in the bunch. If he could work on his sprinting positioning he would be close to an upgrade surely. Cait once again appeared on the road racing scene and hopefully she will be as successful at this form of pedalling.

Some good pics of the race,

http://www.flickr.com/photos/cilldara/sets/72157623623524414/

Race accross america Video

2010-03-09T16:58:00.004Z

Very interesting trailer for a documentary where riders try to race solo 3000miles in 10days. That's shocking! But something UCD should be looking at entering ;)

Solid showing from UCD this weekend

2010-03-08T13:18:00.004Z

This weekend had two races for the UCD team to tackle. Saturday had Ben making his seasonal racing debut alongside Anto, Ciaran, Niall and Gav in Dunboyne. No prizes for the team this week but Niall was seen to be very active in the race and made several attempts to get away to the lead group. In the end the group stayed away so the lads had to wait 24hrs to have another go.

In the S1+2 race there was one of the strongest fields seen in a long time with many riders coming back from abroad to put up a fine spectacle of racing. UCD were seen in many moves with Anto and Ciaran combining well at times together. Sadly they werent strong enough to stick with the big guns and finished in the first of two big groups on the road. Pictures of the finish can be seen below along with pictures before the race.

full race report of both races can be seen here
http://www.dublinwheelers.com/forum/viewthread.php?thread_id=162&pid=803#post_803

This weekends second race had the Lazarus like comeback of Fiachra Rowan who rode incredibly well to show great promise for the season ahead. He finished in the main bunch of about 70 riders coming about 10th in the sprint finish. Considering there were about 120 starters in this 120km classic it was an incredible performance from the new S2 rider making his first venture of the season. Ciaran finished in a 3 man chase group just outside the prizes but it was good to have a strong presence for the club this weekend in many moves.

Gavin and Niall worked tirelessly to get some joy in their race but they couldnt get up in the bunch sprint. Gavin in particular was said to be riding at the front for alot of the day which shows promise for the Gorey 3day event in 4 weeks.

Looking forward to seeing you on the bikes this week.

Racing season under way for UCD

2010-03-01T14:27:00.006Z

The Irish racing season got under way for UCD on Sunday in Dundalk. Results were mixed with Anthony (seen here with the offending bicycle) having a mechanical on lap 1 of 6 and having to pull out and watch from the finish line. Gav also had to pull over with a lap to go with cramp but was riding well within himself in the bunch.

Niall rode solidly as always and finished comfortably in the bunch and was seen at the front of the S3 group on many occasions. The highest UCD finisher was Ciaran who got 10th but missed out on the prizes. The racing continues with a double racing weekend in store with the much anticipated return of the Gent to the cycling fold after his 2 week solo training camp.

The sprint finish can be seen below (watch in full screen and HD)

Last training weekend of pre-season for UCD

2010-02-23T11:48:00.006Z

So thats the last weekend before the season starts in Dundalk this weekend. It started out very well with Anto, GAv and Ciaran going out on a very sunny Saturday for a hard effort round the boot Inn.

Then on Sunday the first club race of the season was snowed off but was replaced with a training race and UCD performed well with ben finishing in the Limit group with no Problems. Anto and Ciaran finished with 3 strong Usher riders just ahead of the main group which had Niall and Gav sitting comfortably in it.

Here you can see the start of the race and then below the cycle home. Our bikes may never be the same again.

Heres to UCD having a good showing in this weekends racing.

UCD riders out in force

2010-02-18T11:06:00.004Z

Its time to speed things up now that the winter training has finally ended.

This has certainly been the case with great turnouts this week for UCD training sessions.

So far this week we have had almost all the racing team from UCD out up howth hill wearing the club colours.

With Niall, Colin, Fiachra, Anto, Ciaran and Eoin training up the North county Col, things are looking good for this weeks first club race.

Riders will be meeting on Sunday at the Phoenix park and heading to the race at Black bull for 12pm start.

UCD TT part 2

2010-02-15T11:09:00.002Z

So the 2nd UCD TT of 2010 took part on Sunday at the same course the Boot Inn again. There were some casualties this time round with a bout of sickness hitting the team since the training weekend last week but as they say "the show must go on".

Here is a full list of times courtesy of the one and only, Gus Ryan.

1st Fiachra Rowan 24:47
2nd Ian Richardson 25:41
3rd Anthony Walsh 25:55
4th Ciaran O Conluain 26:48
5th Robert Manning 27:24

Kev Donagher (guest+friend of UCD CC) 26:57

Fiachra ends the TT season as the UCD TT champion, knocking 2 mins off his time 2 weeks earlier, much to the disappointment of the sickly Anthony Walsh who was magnanimous in defeat. "If they had a TT in the Ras this year that Fiachra lad would win it. Sure isnt Delahaye coaching him."

"Our greatest glory is not in never failing, but in rising every time we fail." Niall Dwyer (ex UCD Captain)

Ucd on Mt. Leinster

2010-02-12T12:00:00.002Z

Team UCD crest Mt Leinster in during last weekends training trip.

National Xbike champs

2010-02-10T12:14:00.002Z

Race report provided by Cait Elliott

The Irish nationa championship race was held in St Annes park in dublin on Sunday.
Over 50 riders too part but unfortunately only 2 females so it wasn't classed as an official championships for us.

'It was a really enjoyable race, I had a really close battle with the other girl, Fran Meehan. After a chaotic mass start we ended up wheel on wheel and there were only seconds between us for the first four laps or so. It was really tight, you had to work hard all the time and concentrate to avoid mistakes since every split second was important. The course was brilliant, faster than last year and less bits to run. There was loads of singletrack that was slightly muddy making it more fun - loads of out of control sliding around corners on skinny tyres and cantilever brakes. Towards the end I just couldn't quite hold on and started to slip back, ending up 2nd, 30 seconds down - still very close for an hour long race. I did the race for training more than anything, and lack of anaerobic preparation showed by the end - I'm only starting that this week to prepare for the mtb season.'

full results are here:
http://sites.google.com/site/irishcxchamps/results

Carlow training Feb 2010

2010-02-09T11:29:00.003Z

"A great success" was how the UCD cycling team training weekend in Carlow could be described.

The weekend began a little later than expected with people struggling to get away from committments but on Friday night everyone arrived to the lovely surroundings of the Mt Wolsley hotel guesthouses. "Spag Bol" was made by Ben for all and they even snuck out for a quick pint just to calm the nerves before two big days of training.

The house was fantastic and very warm and comfortable. Enough room for everyones bike!!

On Saturday team UCD headed out into the hilliest terrain Carlow has to offer, Mt Leinster. As you can see belowit was sunny yet misty on the high ground. An epic view was seen by all as the road twisted up the nemerous hills and after 5 hours in the saddle we decided to call it a day. The pace was incredible and everyone was looking forward to the best the hotel restaurant had to offer. It has to be said that Fiachra chose well with the seafood chowder.

On sunday spirts were good until after 20km Fiachra came down heavy on an oily roundabout and had to turn back. Riders minds were with him and the pace was definitely less than the day before. Sadly Anto continued to celebrate Fiachras demise by raising his hands up and cheering "finally the gent is gone off the front". Alomst 4 hours were still achieved and everyone had some serious miles in the legs.

With racing just around the corner a UCD team hasnt been this well prepared for the season ahead in some time. Lets hope the training and dedication pays off.

"A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single peddle stroke." - Niall Dwyer ex UCD Captain

Thanks to President Mil and the support of the club for the weekend away and to all those who helped organise.

UCD triathalon success

2010-02-03T15:10:00.003Z

UCD cycling club members had a great result in their triathlon this weekend.
Club Captain Eoin Fitzpatrick (pictured above on left next to previous legend Niall Dwyer) managed to make the Irish Duathlon Age Group squad for the worlds in Sept and there is a possibility that our other rider Ian will get selected too. They had to finish top 4 in our age groups to qualify, and Eoin got 4th in his age group with Ian a further 2 mins behind and 5th in the Age Group (20-24).

Eoin was 6 mins down on the leader and was about 30th out of 150 participants. A great result and we will be hoping for more success in the coming races.

Full race report on here...
www.triathlonireland.com/article.php?story=20100201122234626

See everyone in Carlow this weekend where the team will meet for a training camp and some relaxation also.

Gorey 3 Day

2010-02-02T15:18:00.002Z

Entries are now open for the 2010 Gorey 3 Day. The event will take place over Easter Weekend 3rd - 5th April.

The event is open to A2/A3 riders ONLY and is restricted to a maximum of 180 riders.

The Cycling Ireland Road Commission have informed us that the categories riders were advised of were advisory categories. Anybody can still apply for a licence above the recommendation but licences below the recommendation will require representation to the National Grading Officer.

No entry will be taken without the application form and appropriate fee.

Application forms also be downloaded from www.irishroadclub.com

All further details including accomodation are included on the application form.

Best Regards,
Gary McIlroy
www.irishroadclub.com

THE RESULTS

2010-02-01T12:23:00.005Z

So firstly well done to all who rode the UCD TT on Sunday and a special thanks to Colin, Maria and Fiachra for helping with the running of the event.

Congrats to the now current UCD TT champion Anthony Walsh for breaking the course record on way to taking the title from the Gent, Fiachra Rowan. (pictured celebrating below)

Below is a list of times by the Commissaire

NAME	POSITION	TIME	LAP 1	LAP 2
Anthony Walsh	1	22.56	11.34	11.22
Gavin Haberlin	2	26.13	13.08	13.05
Fiachra Rowan	3	26.23	13.00	13.23
Ciaran O’Conluain	4	26.24	13.17	13.07
Eoin Fitzpatrick	5	28.31	14.23	14.08
Robert Manning	6	28.37	14.00	14.37

Niall Dwyer	Can’t give official position	(27.52 – multiply correct lap x 2)	Incorrect course	13.56
Ian Richardson	Can’t give official position	(27.54 – multiply correct lap x 2)	Incorrect course	13.57
Gus Ryan		DNF	15.44	DNF

UCD Time Trial Number 1 – January 31^st^{2010 – Boot Inn, 9.85 miles}

^{Colin Peirce}

^31/1/’10

^{Head Commissaire, UCD}

The race of truth 2010

2010-01-28T12:21:00.005Z

ITS TIME!!!!

This Sunday the racing season begins with the UCD 2010 10mile TT being hosted at the Boot Inn.

The big winner from last year was Fiachra Rowan who swept aside all competitors on the Newtown Mount Kennedy circuit to take first on 2 occasions. He will surely be the man to beat this time round especially seeing as he is riding a new steed in the shape of a Felt TT bike.

UCD Club road racing champion, Anthony Walsh, has been doing all he can to usurp the Gent at the top of the standings and the bookies have him ahead for this weekends battle. He has been showing incredible form both before and after Christmas and will certainly pass one or two riders on his way to a sub 25min time.

Anyone who does pass this time limit will have rode well as the Boot Inn is a notoriously slow course with head winds guaranteed. Gus Ryan is a new member of the club who has a pedigree others could only dream of with victories over many of the countries top testers. Facing UCDs best will not phase him and a strong ride is guaranteed.

Newcomers to the race will be Robert, Ian and Gav who is showing great form and is constantly showing the UCD colours on the Dublin roads. A jump to S2 is certainly on the cards with his new road and TT bike.

Niall as always will put in a strong showing as the old skipper finally has a bike to be proud of and the current captain Eoin will be returning to racing with lots of expectations placed on him this year.

I was lucky enough to ask Peircy last night at spinning class for his opinion on the race of truth, "i think you would have to fancy Walsh being a full timer and Gus to battle him close being such a strong time trialler. But you can never rule out the Gent who will be eager to push his new bike to the max. Its gonna be Walsh, Gus then Fiachra in my book with Gav running them close."

Wise words from the Marmotte man. (pictured here seated left, on top of Alpe D'Huez)

Full Start list starting at 11am at one minute intervals.

Ben Arent
Al Dunne
Niall Dwyer
Eoin Fitzpatrick
Gavin Haberlin
Robert Manning
Ciaran O Conluain
Fiachra O Loughlin
Colin Peirce
Ian Richardson
Fiachra Rowan
Fergus Ryan
Niamh Stephens
Anthony Walsh

Best of luck to all and Tailwinds...

Great weeks training for UCD

2010-01-28T12:12:00.002Z

This weekend had 2 very tough spins for UCD riders. This picture is of an attack by Niall and Gav on the road back into the strawberry beds at the end of what would be a 4 hour spin of over 100km. The pace throughout was good and all riders were starting to show some good form including Rob.

On Saturday the pace was even higher with 120km done in 4hours with this time Anto being the culprit and Gus riding as always very strongly. Gav again impressed and is showing some great form and is expected to show the UCD colours at the front of the S3 pack this season.

Again this week good turnout was seen on Howth with Fiachra and Colin appearing on Tuesday and Gav and Anto on Wed which turned out to be a battle royale with Anto putting everyone in trouble and showing once again who is the King of UCD CC.

More pics from Spinning tonight and from the 10TT on Sunday will be posted when we get them.

Until them, keep pedaling!

Compare the weather in Torino from last week to today!

2010-01-08T16:43:00.003Z

Here are some videos of my Torino cycling trip.

Here is a video only 15mins from my house and was taken on 30th Dec 2009 on a lovely sunny day. You can compare the same climb with the next video when i tried it on 7th Jan 2010 in the snow.

Grand on the way up but a bit nippy on the way down! 25min climb here is about 90secs of it. (apologies for heavy breathing as hard to not breath when cycling up a mountain fast)

So no excuse really to not get out and hit wicklow in the snow! Luckily enough no ice though so it was grand. No slips but took it handy on the descents.

Il lash the SanRemo videos up when i get online again.

Keep pedalling

A few days in SanRemo...

2010-01-08T09:28:00.010Z

Well since i last posted the weather seems to have taken a turn for the worse in Dublin but in Italy the bad weather was about 4 weeks ago and some of the snow is still visable in shaded areas but the roads are dry and perfect. The pic on the right shows Piazza Vittorio which is where i am staying. Its amazing but also too good at nighttime so Niall would like it alot.

On the coast of Liguria it was fantastic especially the first day there. It was so warm i went out in shorts and a gillet.

Was bit chilly on descents but was really amazing

to be out Jan 2nd in this gear! And the scenery was incredible. This is the finishing area for the classic Milan SanRemo race won by Cavendish this year.

The weather wasnt always like this though and was cloudy the next 2 days but perfectly fine to ride in in legwarmers and the showers pass jackets came in handy on descents. The real interesting riding came on my second last day there when i was doing a really long climb of over 1hour and after 800m vertical ascending it was covered in a freezing fog and snow everywhere. Up until that it was perfect warm day but then i was soaked and frozen but i kept on going to feel like a tough guy. I totally regretted this on the descent when i was frozen alive and soaked!

Felt like gorey again! Pics and Vids of this to come...

Training in Italia

2009-12-30T14:19:00.004Z

Having looked at some of the UCD Twitter posts about the weather i thought id post some shots of my last 3 days cycling in Torino. Its been wonderful here with temps ranging from 14degrees on Monday to about 6degrees out early this morn but always sunny and dry. There was lots of snow 2 weeks ago (as you can see from a pic from the train from Milan with mountains in background) but so far so good.

Its very hilly everywhere as you can see from some of the shots. Only doing 2h a day but will build on that next week when im heading to Imperia and San remo for a few days.

Enjoy Dublino...

HO HO Spinning!

2009-12-18T16:40:00.003Z

A great class was had by all on Thursday night. Festive mood was in the air and some humorous costumes were worn but non better than bens (photo to follow!)

Ben won rider of the week following on from Nialls success the week before and Ciarans impressive ride the week before.

Anto has been struggling to break a sweat possibly due to incredibly high fitness levels or some new sweat wicking technology.

Looking forward to more fun on the spin bikes with the wonderful teacher Maria in Jan!

Have a great Christmas and see you on the road...

UCD Cycling Club Scholarships

2009-12-10T22:25:00.000Z

UCD Cycling Club offers two types of scholarships:

for detailed information on their nature and how to apply, follow the links.

To view the profiles of previous Scholarship Recipients go here:

Scholarship Recipients Through the Years

Club Awards

2009-12-10T15:07:00.002Z

Club Awards by Year:

2006 2007 2008 2009

Summary of Categories:

Hall of Fame

Brian Lennon Memorial Rider of the Year Award

Club Volunteer of the Year Award

Special Achievement Award

Mountainbiking Achievement Award

Ladies Achievement Award

Club Honours 2009

2009-12-03T11:57:00.014Z

On the 6th November 2009 in the UCD sports centre, the UCD Cycling club awards night took place. It was well attended by current and past members as well as friends of UCDCC. In particular the club was very grateful to Lynn Foster, for attending and presenting the Brian Lennon Memorial award.

The award was created in his honour in 2007, to take the place of the 'Rider of the Year' award. Brian Lennon joined UCD CC’s FIC team in 1996/97 having previously helped UCD win the 1996 Inter-varsity Road Race Team Championships by claiming an individual bronze medal.

In 1997, the 1st Category rider won both the Newbridge GP and Stage 2 of the Dublin Bus 5-day and was runners-up in another three - the Beggan Trophy, the Dick Comerford Memorial and the M.E.R. League race at Ballymun. He won a bronze medal in the M.E.R. RR Championship and took the Overall Runners-Up spot in the M.E.R. League. He finished an incredible 6th in both the Senior National Road Race Championship and the National Under-23 Championship a week later. Brian finished the season ranked 8th in the country and was unanimously voted ‘Club Rider of the Year’ for 1996/97. He received a Sports Achievements Award from UCD’s Sports Governing Body for his exploits and served as Club Captain the following year.

Sadly Brian passed away in 2004. His funeral mass was packed with his former UCD CC team mates and his peers from the wider cycling community who were present to show their final respects to a rider whose performances and attitude did much to enhance the reputation of the Club as well as promoting the sport in general.

Brian Lennon was posthumously inducted into the Club’s ‘Hall of Fame’ in 2007. His endearing, genuine, easy going personality will forever live in the memory of those who had the pleasure of knowing him and it was fitting that the Club’s top award was renamed in his honour in 2007.

The club is delighted that Lynn Foster, Brian’s partner at the time of his passing, was in attendance and kindly agreed to make the presentation to this years award winner.

Brian Lennon Memorial Club Rider of the Year: Cait Elliott

Club Scholarship student, Cait Elliott, was voted ‘Best domestic lady’ by her peers at the Cycling Ireland awards in December for her exploits over the course of the 2008 season, A week later she claimed victory in Round 4 of the Super Cross Cup which took place in St. Anne’s Park in Dublin. Her talent was recognized by the Athletic Union Council who agreed to purchase a new bike for her so as to help her to add to the two national titles she had already won for the Club.

Cait, who was on erasmus in Liechtenstein from April to June, finished narrowly outside the top 20 in a number of top class international races in the Racer Bikes Cup Series, which is the national XC race series of Switzerland. Cait returned to Ireland to successfully defend her National Elite Cross Country Championship title. She followed that up by winning the opening round of the 3-race K-Capital Challenge Series finishing ahead of most of the men in the process. In August, Cait took the UCD jersey to the UK to take 1st place in the Brighton Big Dog. She returned to win round 2 of the K-Capital challenge in the Carrick Mountains in Co. Wicklow. In September, she finished an impressive 8th in the final round of the British National Points Series, which was held in Plymouth. The star studded field included a former Olympic, World and European Champion and seven nationalities were represented in all. Her season came to a successful conclusion as she comfortably made it a hat-trick of K-Capital Challenge wins and thereby wrapping up the series overall.

The reigning National Cross Country and National Marathon XC Champion was a recipient of an Athletic Union Council Sports Achievement Award earlier this year and she was later awarded a Sports Scholarship for the 2009/10 college year. Cait becomes only the second rider in the Club’s history to have won the ‘Brian Lennon Memorial Club Rider of the Year Award’ on more than one occasion.

Special Achievement Award: Ciarán Ó Conluain

Ciarán Ó Conluain competed with distinction in the Gorey 3-day claiming a top 10 placing on Stage 3. He was upgraded to S2 during the season based on a series of impressive results.

He was a runner-up in the Des Hanlon Memorial, 2nd B in both the Phoenix Park race and in the Brendan Carroll Memorial in Stamullen. He was 4th in both the Betty Darcy and O’Rourke road races and was placed 8th in Ballivor. In all, he has competed 46 times in UCD colours this year.

Ciarán comfortably claimed the top placing in the UCD Road Racing League, which consisted of a 17 race series. However he had to settle for the runners-up spot in the Club Road Race Championship.

Ciarán Ó Conluain received an Athletic Union Council Sports Achievement Award earlier this year and is a very deserving and popular victor of the UCD Cycling Club’s Special Achievement Award.

Mountainbiking Achievement Award: Rory Beirne

Rory Beirne was the Club’s sole competitor on the national Down Hill circuit during the 2008-09 college year. The senior category competitor was granted a Club Scholarship based on his fine showing for the college over the previous 12 months.

Unfortunately, his early season was effectively put on halt after he separated a shoulder in a pre-season training incident. His comeback race saw him compete in round 3 of the National Points series in Rostrevor, Co. Down in May in which he finished a creditable 16th. Round 4 of the NPS took place in Cahir in June and Rory demonstrated some fantastic form to finish 3rd. He followed that impressive ride with a 4th place in the Senior category at the National Down Hill Championships in July. He was 6th in Round 7 of the NPS in Rostrevor in late September despite suffering an untimely puncture. His season closed in White Horse Wood, Co. Waterford in October with the final NPS race. However there was no let up in his bad luck as he suffered a sprained ankle in a high speed collision with a tree during his practice session.

It was without doubt a testing season for Rory. Yet he can be proud of his efforts and has the honour of becoming the first member of the down hill section in the history of the Club to be awarded the Mountainbiking Achievement Award.

Ladies Achievement award: Louise Moriarty

Louise Moriarty retained her Sports Scholarship status again this year. Her early season plans evaporated due to a mixture of final year pressure and a freak commuting accident in which she broke her wrist. However, she returned to competitive action in June and claimed 9th in a bunch sprint finish in the National Road Race Championships in Dunboyne.

The following month she competed in the National Track Championships in the knowledge that her lack of condition would hamper her chances of successfully defending the 4 titles she won the previous year. Louise took a bronze in the sprint competition. She was also 5th in the 3km pursuit, 4th in the 500m TT and 8th in the 12km scratch race. Later that month, Louise was runner-up in the 12km scratch race for the Eamon Ceannt Trophy.

Louise returned to the winners’ enclosure in Donore in August by claiming victory in the Brendan Campbell Memorial.

In September, she travelled to Kerry to defend her Rás na mBan title. She finished 7th overall and was 3rd in the Points classification. She was 2nd and 4th on stages 4 and 1 respectively.

She received an Athletic Union Council Sports Achievement Award for her sporting endeavors for the college during the year.

Louise is the deserving winner of the Ladies Achievement Award for the second year in succession.

Volunteer of the Year: Niall Dwyer

Niall Dwyer Captained the Club in 2008/09. He was successful with his bid to have UCD reinstated into the inter-club road racing league involving St. Tiernan’s CC, Lucan CRC, Orwell Wheelers and the Irish Road Club.

He finished in the top 20 in the Brendan Carroll Memorial in Stamullen. Niall competed in the Gorey 3-day, Kanturk 2-day and in the Ballinrobe 2-day. He was 16th in Stage 1 in the latter and finished a very respectable 31st overall.

Niall Dwyer finished 3rd in the UCD Road Race Championship and was overall runner-up in the Club Road Racing League.

UCD Cycling Club finished close runners-up (out of 62 UCD clubs) in the 'Elite Club of the Year' category at the annual Athletic Union Council Awards. Niall was ever present at Club training spins and acted on the needs of his senior riders while always taking the time to encourage new members. He has contributed enormously to the success of the Club both on and off the bike and is a very deserving winner of the 2008-09 Volunteer of the Year Award.

Photos:

Niamh Stephens (l) presenting Ladies Award to Louise Moriarty (r)

Rory Beirne (l) receiving the Mountainbiking Award from Club Vice-President, Oisín Boydell (r)

David Lane (l) receives Hall of Fame Award from Club President, Mil (r)

Andrew O'Carroll receives his Hall of Fame Award

Lynn Foster (l) presents the 'Brian Lennon Rider of the Year Award' perpetual shield to Cait Elliott (r)

Club founding member, Cormac Ó Dubhthaigh (l) presents the Special Achievement Award perpetual shield to Ciarán Ó Conluain

Club Captain, Eóin Fitzpatrick, presents the Volunteer Award to his predessessor, Niall Dwyer

John Walsh receives his Hall of Fame Award

Spinning week 1 a success!

2009-11-30T15:14:00.002Z

SO the first UCD team spin class was a great success.

There was a great turnout and 1h of intense spinning was followed by 20mins of stretching. This was clearly a new feat for Peircy who couldnt touch his knees even with bent legs.

Maria our instructor was fantastic and i think everyone is looking forward to this weeks class. Payments are due to Maria or Fiachra OL and we have 3 classes before the xmas break.

Rider of the class was given to Anto (lean mean) Walsh. Niall (skippy) Dwyer was given the the Henry greatest cheat award for soft pedalling. The awards were chosen by our instructor Maria.

Quote of the week "your trying to kill us" from Colin Peirce.

The doc is back...

2009-11-19T11:25:00.003Z

Doctor Colin Peirce was back out in UCD colours up Howth on Tuesday night. I had heard previously that he was out with the club but this is the first time i saw with my own eyes that it was true.

Its a very blurry shot, bringing back memories of people seeing big-foot but it is actually him. Long may it continue.

Everyone is looking forward to Marias spin classes starting hopefully next Thursday. Great to see so much interest in it.

On a side note it does appear that cheating is not just solely located at the tour the france but also in the Stade de France. Shame on you Thierry.

Sunday 15th Nov

2009-11-16T12:13:00.005Z

What a beautiful day. So beautiful we diceded to turn the standard 3h spin into a speedy 4h 30 spin door to door and 125km!! It was a great ride and no one had a bad word to say. We took the long and winding route to trim via dunboyne and was dry clear and sunny throughout!

The king was out.
Our old skipper showed us all how its done and with a smile on his face throughout! an inspiration!

More to come over the coming weeks with Spin classses starting soon and sunday spins leaving from UCD sports centre at 930am and Phoenix park for 10am. See you there.

UCD train rain and shine

2009-11-02T13:09:00.005Z

A tough morning of rain and wind faced the UCD cycling team with groups venturing out on the lovely sunny Saturday morning and also on the most definitely unlovely Sunday morning!

The spin was good fun though and made all the easier with the good company. Nialls unwillingness to wear a rain jacket for the first 1h of the ride was impressive in itself!

U.C.D. C.C. President elected as Honorary Secretary of A.U.C.

2009-10-27T11:13:00.003Z

U.C.D. Cycling Club’s Maoilíosa Ó Dubhthaigh (a.k.a. Mil) replaced Gerry Horkan as Honorary Secretary of the Athletic Union Council (A.U.C.) – college’s sports governing body - at the 2009 A.U.C A.G.M which was held in October. Mr. Horkan took over from Dr. Alan O’Grady as A.U.C. President after the latter stepped down after years of distinguished service.

Ó Dubhthaigh has been involved with sport in U.C.D., both as an athlete and administrator, for the past 18 years. He was a founding member of 2 of U.C.D.’s clubs and served as Club Captain and Secretary of both which is a unique achievement in itself. In 1992, he formed a very successful Pool & Snooker Club and during his playing career with the college won honours at every level from college to senior international. He was President of the Higher Education Snooker & Pool Council (H.E.S.P.C.) from ’94-’99.

However, cycling was his passion and he co-founded the U.C.D. Cycling Club with his brother, Cormac, in 1994/95. He held the role of Club Vice-President from 1994 to 2000 before taking over the Presidency in 2001. He initiated the Sports Scholarship programme in cycling in 1997/98 and has acted as Club Senior Treasurer since 1996.

Over the years he has been an active voice on many committees such as being an executive member of the Athletic Union Council, Student Consultative Forum and the Freshers’ Week Committee. Outside of U.C.D. Maoilíosa also served as Chairperson of G.A.A.’s Cumann na mBunscol (which is by far the biggest schools sporting association in the country) from 2006-2008, and he has been an executive member of its central council since 2003. Furthermore he has been a member of the Steering Committee of St. Olaf’s G.A.A. Club in Sandyford since 2006.

Ó Dubhthaigh has collected numerous U.C.D. awards. He received the prestigious U.C.D President’s Award for excellence in student activity in 1997 and he remains one of the few sporting administrators to have done so. He has also won 7 U.C.D. Sports Achievement Awards and 5 inter-varsity team titles and 3 U.C.D. ‘colours’ during his time as a student. He won the U.C.D. Cycling Club League Championship in 1995/96.

I have little doubt that Maoilíosa will see his new post as a great honour to both him and to the Club. He has spoken many times in the past of his respect for the late Dr. Tony O’Neill (U.C.D. Director of Sport and A.U.C. Honorary Secretary from 1991 to 1999) and Gerry Horkan who succeeded ‘the doc’ after his untimely death. Maoilíosa regards the before-mentioned as the two people who have had the greatest influence on his sporting life and it is therefore fitting for him that he should succeed them in this role.

I don’t doubt that he will wish to retain his strong ties with the Cycling Club, but his latest challenge will be to champion the needs of all 60 plus college sports clubs. Having acted as Vice-President since 2001, I would like to take this opportunity, on behalf of U.C.D. Cycling Club as a whole, to wish Mil every success in his new post.

Brendan Kilbride

DH End of Season

2009-10-11T13:16:00.005+01:00

Rory Berine finished up a difficult season recently. Some photos from this year and his final two race reports follow:

Rostrevor NPS 7 27th Sep 09
I wasn't expecting much seen as i hadn't had a chance to practice the track before the race and the track was very fast and dusty. however it was my kind of track with very little pedaling required so i found it to flow very well. I had 2 punctures on the Saturday and sure enough one puncture in my first race run. I managed 6th position with a puncture so I felt good for my second run. I had a good second run but blew out a couple corners and missed out on 3rd place by less than a second. oh well, it was a great weekends racing on a fun dusty track.

Whitehorse NPS 8 4th Oct 09

I went to Whithorse with high hopes after the weekend before and because i won there in 08. However after driving over 4 hours on Saturday morning, on my first practice run, I went a bit too fast and slid into a tree after a tricky drop off in a steep off camber section and sprained my ankle pretty bad. That was my racing weekend over before it started. I'm back able to walk now so I'm happy enough not to have done more damage to my ankle. Roll on 2010.

K Capital Challenge

2009-10-07T11:45:00.004+01:00

The final round of the K Capital Challenge series took place on Sunday at Kippure house in Wicklow. A lot of work went into making a great course, taking in a combination of open moor and woodland trails in another area not usually visited by mountain bikers. There was a short and long course on offer with 110 people lining up in a mass start for the full event. Cait was representing UCD taking the female win and placing 13th overall.

"it was a great event, proper technical Irish mountain bike trails with several long climbs and plenty of fun singletrack. I was happy to finish so high up the field since my legs weren't feeling that great on the day and I had a slight over the bars incident too!"
Full results here.

Cait Elliott in British NPS

2009-09-29T13:03:00.002+01:00

Cait Elliott reports from Plymouth:

"I was over in England at the weekend along with a group of Irish mountain bikers at the final round of the British NPS series in Newnham Park, Plymouth. A C1 classification meant the race attracted a big field of top class riders from all over the world. The course was hilly with some nice woodland singletrack, but nothing particularly technical. Recent good weather made for very dry, fast racing.

In the Elite female race there were riders from 7 different countries including former Olympic and multiple world and European champion, Gunn-Rita Dahle Flesja of Norway and several girls just back from the World Championships in Australia. It was a great race, tough with the fast conditions and top competition but I really enjoyed it. I felt pretty good, battling hard all the way through to beat Jenn O’Connor and Lilly Mathews. The single track was good fun although a bit more technical stuff would have been nice! I was happy to finish in 8th place ahead of some experienced riders and not too far off the winners."

Results are here and a report on the Irish exploits at www.irishcycling.com too.

UCD Team Rides with Lance

2009-08-28T13:30:00.003+01:00

Ciaran O'Conluain reported from the Pheonix Park earlier this week:

"Hey all a great day in the park yesterday. Al, me, Aanto, new skipper, Ben and even Fiachras wife Claire were all there representing UCD!"

first picture credit: sportsfile.com

Cait Elliott Podiums at Brighton Big Dog

2009-08-18T12:54:00.005+01:00

Cait reports from the UK:

"On Saturday I competed in the solo category of the Brighton Big Dog, a new endurance race in the south of England. There was a strong field of competition with over 200 riders on the course at a time.

The race was awesome, full of really cool singletrack trails with plenty of technical climbs and fast, swooping descents. It was a real test of endurance and as my first race of this length I had to take care to pace myself. I got into the lead early on and was able to hold on to win, completing 7 laps in 5.30.33. (results here).

The atmosphere was great and an after party on Brighton beach made a perfect
end to it!"

Ballinrobe 2 Day

2009-08-17T11:10:00.003+01:00

Club Capitan, Niall Dwyer reports:

"One hundred and one riders across all categories signed on for last weekends testing Ballinrobe 2 day stage race. Stage one was a tough 90km circuit taking in two sprint primes and five KOH primes. The Combined C, Vet, Junior and ladies bunch were give a 5 minute handicap over the B bunch who were given a further 3 minute head start over the A bunch.

Coming over the final climb the C pack still held a 1 minute lead. The climb proved too tough for most with the bunch splitting in two with 16 riders escaping up the road thankfully I had the legs to make the split. Good work from South Dublin, UCD and West Clare, meant that we managed to stay away and finish the stage 35 seconds ahead of the main bunch. Unfortunately my sprint let me down and I finished in 16th place. Ciaran came home well up in the main bunch sprint.

Stage two was the 8km time trial. Riders were sent off at 1 minute intervals according to their placing in stage one. This meant UCD were off among the last few riders. The absence of the experienced tester Colm Cassidy meant that the TT was won by Mark Dowling from engrave.ie in a time of 9:17. Ciaran finished in a time 11:02 and Niall with 10.58.

Sunday afternoon's stage 3 was a 2 lap circuit adding up to 85km of racing. Taking in two KOH primes and a further two sprint primes. The handicap was reduced in an attempt to allow the A and B riders bridge the gap and make the race more competitive. Despite the handicap reduction the C bunch were successful in holding off the chasing riders. Niall placed just outside the top 20 in an aggressive sprint finish with Ciaran finishing 15 seconds back in the combined A, B bunch. The overall winner was former Meath inter county footballer Colm Laverty the points jersey was won by local veteran Gerard Hack with the mountains jersey going to South Dublin’s Nick Cosgrave."

Picture courtesy of www.picsure.ie.

K-Captial Challenge Rnd1

2009-07-31T11:35:00.004+01:00

Last Sunday was the first of a series of 3 ‘challenge’ races run by Team WORC with an emphasis on fun mountain bike racing and great trails. The event took place at Kilruddery Estate just outside Dublin – a place with some really cool riding that is normally off limits for bikers.

180 riders, including UCD’s Cait Elliott and Rob Higgins, lined up in a chaotic mass start for 2 laps of a 17km course. Although the weather was quite good, really heavy rain overnight meant most of the trails were super muddy. There was lots of sliding around, out of control bike surfing at its best!

After a congested singletrack at the start, a 10 minute fireroad climb up the Little Sugarloaf began to spread the field out a bit. From there was a new descent, fast and rocky then into slippery steep switchbacks. After that was a mixture of short fireroad climbs and long sections of fun singletrack twisting through the forest.

Cait had a strong ride to win the Female category in a time of 2hrs 27 and Rob came in at 3hrs 11, 73rd overall. Next round will be August 23rd on Carrick Mountain in Wicklow. Details here. Cait's full report here.

XC National Championships

2009-07-23T11:44:00.003+01:00

Cait Elliott represented UCD in the Elite Women's category at this years XC Champs, here report follows:

"he Irish xc National Championships took place this weekend at Dunmore Mountain in the north. The course was cool but really tough. 100% singletrack, much of it on thick grass with a few schlompy patches to power through and lots of sharp rocks. It was full of short, steep kickers with 2 slightly longer steep, rocky climbs each followed by some nice descents. There were a couple of steepish, rocky chutes but overall nothing super technical.

I had a good warm-up but a 10 minute delay at the start left meant I’d really cooled down and struggled to get going for the first few minutes. The ladies race became an open championship, a combination of the Elite and Masters category – a great idea to make sure we had a competitive race despite the low numbers competing. Four of us lined up at the start, with masters rider Beth McClusky posing my main threat.

We started with Ciara McManus going off like a rocket and getting ahead to set a ferocious pace. I managed to hold on to her and sneaked ahead a few minutes in as she slid out on an off camber section. Beth was right on my back wheel and later pulled ahead on one of the short climbs. I had to really go flat out to hold her within easy sight for the next two laps. I really had my work cut out, she was flying up the climbs but I found myself lacking power and struggling to keep up – give me a long, steady climb any day!

On lap 3 Beth began to pull away, I totally blew up, just couldn’t keep the pace up and dropped nearly a minute on lap time. The course was so intense, there was no chance to recover at all, straight from a hard climb into a fast, physical decent and then repeat! Getting chance to drink was nearly impossible.

On the 4th lap I really dug deep, trying to find some extra energy so that I could work back and raced the Masters men to help keep pushing. No matter how hard I tried I just couldn’t go any faster. With no sign of Beth in front of me and I began to realise there would be little chance to catch her but kept going just in case. By the last lap I nearly had to give up braking as I was getting finger cramps every time I pulled the levers and was pretty happy to cross the line just before a torrential downpour began. I finished in second place, 2.5 minutes down (full results are here)

So a bit of a frustrating and disappointing day, although I was going ok, I know that I haven't hitting the best form recently, I think all the racing in June is still taking its toll. I would have loved to win, but congratulations to Beth, she was really strong on the day. I certainly enjoyed having such a hard, close fought race and it’s another experience to learn from."

National Track Championships

2009-07-20T19:23:00.003+01:00

Two UCD riders competed at the the Track Nationals last weekend. Louise Moriarty won bronze medal in the Sprint. In the scratch she went all out to win - attacked a lot, but got beaten by team-mates working together: "I was caught 300m from the line. At least I dared to try and win, fit or not!" She also notes, "My results in pursuit (5th) and 500m (4th) were also pretty ok considering I hadn't been on a track bike since October!"

Congratulations to her for the bronze medal.

Anthony Walsh also lined up for the Scratch, 1K TT and 4K Pursuit, getting respectable positions in all.

Results:

National Track Championships July 17th-19th

Women's Pursuit 3km

1. Heather Boyle (Finglas Ravens)
2. Roisin Kennedy (Lucan CC)
3. Caroline Ryan (Garda)
...
5. Louise Moriarty (UCD)

Women's Sprint

1. Jennifer O'Reilly (Finglas Ravens)
2. Kate Rudd (Wolftrap)
3. Louise Moriarty (UCD)

Women's 500m TT

1. Jennifer O'Reilly (Finglas Ravens)
2. Joanna Hickey (Usher IRC)
3. Kate Rudd (Wolftrap)
4. Louise Moriarty (UCD)

Women's Scratch Race 12km

1. Jennifer O'Reilly (Finglas Ravens)
2. Kate Rudd (Wolftrap)
3. Orla Hendron (Orwell)
...
8. Louise Moriarty (UCD)

Men's Pursuit 4km Qualifiers

1. Simon Coughlan (Dynamon) 5 mins 1.57 secs
2. Colm Cassidy (Usher IRC) 5 mins 6.81 secs
3. Stephen Barrett (Fermoy) 5 mins 9.32 secs
4. ConorMcAlister (Ballymena) 5 mins 14.08 secs
...
8. Anthony Walsh (UCD) 5 mins 24.98 secs

Men Standing Start 1km TT:

1. Stephen Barrett (Fermoy) 1 min 12 secs
2. Paul Doyle (Sundrive) 1 min 12.12 secs
3. Ivan Casey (Cycling Pursuits) 1.13.41 secs
...
8. Anthony Walsh (UCD) 1.14.45 secs
= Dave Peelo (Murphy Surveyors) 1.14.45 secs

Senior Men 20km Scratch:

1, John Lynch (Bray)
2, Stephen Barrett (Fermoy)
3, Conor McAlister (Ballymena)
...
10, Anthony Walsh (UCD)

UCD Club Championships

2009-07-07T12:02:00.002+01:00

A beautiful night followed a terrible morning of rain and general dullness. The club championships were a interesting affair with riders racing against their teammates not the other riders so with only 4 UCD riders racing it was a strange experience.

Ciaran, Ben, Niall and Anto raced and the group split on a whopper of a climb with Ciaran and Anto at the front of it and Niall and Ben at the back of it.

During the race Anto made many attacks to try and cross the line first in a group of about 20 riders mostly from Lucan with some Usher and Orwell in there too. The pace was steady but fast on the short climbs and as expected it came down to a sprint and Anto came strong at the end coming about 5th and half a wheel ahead of Ciaran. It was well deserved as Anto was constantly trying to get away on his own or with one other.

The main group came through about one minute down and the skipper came flying in well up the front out sprinting many of them with Ben following close behind. A good race on the toughest course so far in the club league. The points have now been adjusted in the league table with Ciaran in 24th and Ben in 28th overall. Anthony the new club champion is lying in 146th place.

Current 2009 DH Racing Review

2009-07-07T11:10:00.004+01:00

Rory Beirne reports:

"My competitive return to the bike following my shoulder injury was on the 24th May in Rostrevor, Co. Down. The track was very tough and physical so I found it hard to get up to race speed. I finished in 16th position after my first run and had a crash in my 2nd run. I was disappointed with that placing but it was to be expected given the rough course and my lack of fitness and race conditioning.

The 2nd race I did was on the 21st of June in Cahir, Co. Tipperary. My shoulder had greatly improved since the Rostrevor outing and the track suited me better with lots of technical corners and barely any pedaling required. I finished 3rd after my first run and was on course for the win in my second run before blowing the damping and cracking a leg in my front suspension forks near the top of the track. I kept riding as I was having a great run until I hit a tree at full speed with my bad shoulder approx 50m before the finish line. My second run time was only 0.023 seconds slower than my first run and only 2.8 seconds off the win, even though I had a big crash and lost damping in my forks. I was annoyed at first, especially since my shoulder was in agony, but that time proved I have the speed to win which is good.

I'm going to train hard now in preparation for the National Championships in Wicklow on the 19th of July as I feel that I'm in with a realistic shot of winning the title. After that, I will be aiming for podium finishes in rounds 6, 7 & 8 of the National Points Series in Laois (9th of August), Rostrevor (27th of September) and Whitehorse (4th of October)."

Women's National Champs RR

2009-07-06T09:19:00.003+01:00

Louise Moriatry reports from the Road Race National Champs:

"I rode my first race of the season Saturday 27th June, with little training in the legs (due to a hectic final year of architecture and an untimely broken wrist). 40 girls lined out in the sunshine in Dunboyne for the 84km National Championship road race with 6 small hills.

There were lots of attacks, but the large bunch and the up and down nature of the course meant that it was difficult to get free and stay free. This, incidently, was fine by me. I went with a number of attacks (perhaps not very intelligent given my lack of fitness!), and was able to recover from those efforts because the average speed wasn't fast. We even had time for a fifteen minute tea break in the middle of the race when we were stopped to allow the faster-moving vets race ride by us!

On the last hill I cramped really badly. Not just a calf muscle, but all of my leg muscles decided to go on strike. A combination of the heat and lack of training I guess. I drank as much as I could, but struggled to keep pedalling and definitely couldn't put any pressure on. The finish was made for me - straight road, bunch sprint - but sure I couldn't even get out of the saddle! Some other riders were watching me and Siobhan even tried to box me in, which was quite funny since I knew they were looking at the wrong person. I was afraid to get out of the saddle and sprint as my legs were locking up and if I fell off it would cause mayhem, so I rolled in in 9th place. Not bad with no training!

Next up is the International Track Gran Prix (July 11th) and the National Track Championships (July 17-19th), then I'll try to get fit enough for the National time trial championships and Ras na mBan in September."

Pictures can be seen here

Cait Elliott's Bundesliga and Racer Bikes Cup Results

2009-06-29T10:52:00.004+01:00

In anticipation of Cait's final race result from the Racers Cup, which we should hear about soon, the following is some of her reports from the last few weekends (see also: here and here).

22st June: "The international fun continued yesterday at the Racer Bikes Cup in Winterthur. I had an early start, leaving home at 6.30 to catch the train to meet Richie Felle and James McCluskey who were already there.

The starting line-ups are getting tougher each time, today 42 Elite Females, with 12 nationalities including the British, Dutch, USA and Argentinian national teams. We were lucky that the course was in good condition despite really heavy rain over night.

I was gridded 32nd and a really tight tarmac start loop at the usual ferocious pace meant it was hard to get into a good position. I waited until a nastily steep climb before starting to make up some places. The course was good, a real mixture with something for everyone. Steep climbs on tarmac/fireroad, fun sliddery switchback descents, and long flat fireroad sections (too long if you ask me, I haven’t trained to go fast on the flat!). It meant the racing was really close with different people making time on different sections.

I certainly feel I’m getting stronger, especially on the climbs I was really able to make up time, but didn’t quite feel as fresh as last week (too much training in the week I reckon!). It was a long race, nearly 2 hours for me, and the last lap was tough, I kept seeing the bright orange kit of a Dutch rider closing in on me, but managed to hold her off in the end. I finished 25th (again!) but no getting lapped this time and if I can get 13.8% faster I could win these things!

Afterwards it was fun hanging out with some girls I met at last week’s race and then watching Richie in the men’s race. He wasn’t as lucky with the weather as we were, it started to rain and the course looked super greasy. It was cool to watch Absalon do his thing too, blasting up the hill in the big ring where I was in the granny by the end!"

------

15th June: "Yesterday I travelled to Albstadt along with fellow Irish rider Richie Felle of Think Bike to compete in a German Bundesliga race. Ranked UCI Hors Category, this offered the toughest challenge yet featuring 12 different nationalities and a standard comparable to a World Cup.

I got off to a good start getting up to 16^th place and was feeling really strong. The course was amazing, long steep climbs but really fun technical descents. The 30C heat made it hard but 15,000 spectators and an incredible atmosphere helped spur me on. On the 3^rd lap a puncture forced me to run over 3km to the tech zone, loosing 7 minutes and dropping to 30^th. After a quick wheel change bike I rode hard on the next lap to get back to 25^th and into the UCI points, but had to finish early after getting lapped by winner Sabine Spitz.

Although I was gutted to get the puncture I’ve gained a lot of confidence from the way I rode, a big improvement from last week. I was on target to finish on the same lap as the winners and to finish in the top 25 is a great result regardless. I'll look to build on this performance at Swiss Racer Bikes Cup next weekend in Winterthur."

Swiss Racer Bikes Cup

2009-06-15T15:04:00.002+01:00

Cait Elliot reports from her racing base in the Alps:

The 4th round of the Swiss Racer Bikes Cup took place in Granichen on Sunday. The course was a mixture of fireroad climbs and technical singletrack descents through forestry, and a dusty, steep section through a disused quarry. Being a UCI C1 event there was a very high standard of competition lining up in the 8 lap Elite ladies race, including the olympic champion, several national teams and many regular world cup riders.

I found it a tough race, the pace was ferocious from the start and a very short lap meant there was little recovery time between climbs. I finished in 25th place, one lap down on the winner. Not as high as I had hoped but the field was larger and stronger than previous races so I'm reasonably happy. It moves me up to 19th place overall in the series.

I'm now looking forward to next weekend when I will compete in the German Bundesliga in Albstadt. As a HC classified race it will be the toughest yet but should be great experience.

Cait's progress in the Bundesliga is also covered here. She seems to be making a great return to racing after a forced interruption.

Kanturk 3-Day

2009-05-05T13:59:00.000+01:00

Niall Dwyer and Fiachra Rowan made the early morning journey to Kanturk on Saturday for stage one of the Corkman 3-day stage race. One hundred riders filled the narrow, almost cobbled roads such were the number of pot-holes for three laps of 30km circuit. Although the route had one climb, the race stayed together until the final sprint. This was perhaps owing to the control Dan Morrissey CC exerted over the group! Fiachra placed in the top 20 sprint finish and Niall finished safely in the bunch.

Stage two was the 9.6km time trial. UCD were off as the last few riders. While this meant the roads had dried from the overnight rain, it also meant that the building windy conditions would play a significant role in their times. The TT was won in a time of 11:49, Fiachra finished in 13:31 and Niall with 14.56

Sunday afternoon's stage 3 was a 6 lap circuit adding up to 80km of racing. The roads were narrow and with Dan Morrissey occupying the top 4 places, no breaks were allowed away. Fiachra came 8th in the aggressive bunch sprint that had a number of collisions in the final 2km. Niall had a technical early in the race and was given a standard time penalty of 35 minutes.

The final stage on Monday was, once again, a bunch affair with yellow firmly in the control of Dan Morrissey. In a comical incident, the whole peleton was held up at a level crossing as the Mallow commuter train passed through. Unfortunately, this was within 5km of the finish and the high speed of the bunch was effectively neutralised by the affair. The restart was fast but finished shortly afterwards just outside Kanturk. Fiachra was disappointed with 22nd. Niall finished in the bunch.

Overall, the weekend was a good exercise with Fiachra finishing 30th and Niall further back due to his time penalty in the only S2/3/V/J/L races in the country. Unfortunately, no showers at the race finish coupled with Bank Holiday traffic made for a long journey home!

Next racing is the club league on Thursday night and the Hammond races on Sunday.

Cait Elliott’s bravery sees her complete international race with fractured collarbone

2009-04-25T14:43:00.001+01:00

After a promising start to her season a fortnight earlier, UCD’s Cait Elliott stood at the start line in the hope of recording a top 15 finish in this pro-am race in Switzerland on Sunday 19th of April. Unfortunately due to a clerical error, she was forced to start from the back of the race as opposed to about 20th given that she had finished 21st in round one. On what was mostly a tight single track course, overtaking opportunities were few and therefore the administrative error cost her dearly.

Cait’s report is as follows:

“There wasn’t much space but I managed to move up a few spots on the first climb and then lost any advantage as I got stuck behind a huge group when we hit some super steep wooden steps that everyone was running up. I spent the whole of the first lap working like hell to pass people, it was tough, warm weather and steep climbs left me breathing like a donkey and the course was mostly single track so passing opportunities were limited. I got into the back of a group of 5 or 6 people (some of whom I know were ahead of me in Schaan) and it was wheel on wheel stuff with no chance for recovery. By the end of the lap I was in 22nd place (last time I was 27th at that stage so an improvement).

I really enjoyed the course but it was hard work, a 7.2km lap with a mixture of steep climbing and descending (260m total climb per lap) and a lot more technical than last time. The ground was mostly dry but it meant that the few wet parts were super greasy. Into the 2nd lap I’d moved to 2nd in the group and was feeling ok until on a descent someone shouted ‘achtung!’ and next thing I know WHAM, I rammed my shoulder into a tree at full speed and then hit my head and knee as I fell. I got up feeling disorientated, straightened my bike out and hopped back on but I’d lost several places and was passed by a couple of others as I struggled to fight pains every time I hit a bump.

It took a couple of minutes to put the crash out of my mind and get focused again but I pressed on trying to catch the group. We actually all got a split up - a girl 2 places behind me crashed at the same place and couldn’t go on (they taped that line off on the next lap). By lap 3 I’d settled into a good rhythm and kept getting glimpses of people in front. Unfortunately using the upper body was really important with lots of rocks and drops to negotiate, and I wasn’t able to go as fast as I’d have like on the descents. I kept thinking I’d caught the girl ahead and then she’d pull away again.

On the last lap I was chasing hard, but also being chased. As hard as I tried I couldn’t make up another place and was really annoyed to be caught from behind on a descent. I can partly put it down to my shoulder but I would have like to have been strong enough to stop it happening - mentally as much as physically.

I finished in 20th place, some 14 minutes behind the winner. Not the best race ever but I definitely learnt a lot from it, both good and bad. In fact I’m almost happy to have had a bad race so that I know I can deal with it”

Post race, Cait felt the pain of her exertions. Her damaged shoulder was so sore that she was restricted in lifting her arm. She also had to contend with removing stones and cleaning away blood from her leg. She got an x-ray taken the following day which revealed that she had fractured her collarbone and would have to allow 3-4 weeks for it to heal. Everyone involved with UCD CC wish her a speedy return and congratulations on finishing a bike race with a fractured collarbone, which shows how determined and brave Cait really is!

Women's Racing Update In Brief

2009-04-25T13:25:00.003+01:00

Great result for Niamh: 5th in Boot Inn League race

UCD Club Secretary Niamh Stephens produced her best result of the season in finishing 5th against strong opposition in Round 2 of the Boot Inn League on Wednesday 22nd of April. The race was hosted by the Irish Road Club and was won by Orwell Wheeler's Michelle Geoghegan. Niamh was 11th in the 10 mile time trial the previous week. Round 3 takes place on the same circuit on Wednesday 29th at 7pm.

Club members – regardless of experience – who are interested in sampling a league race should contact Niamh at niamhstephens6 [at] gmail [dot] com for further details. There are four remaining races in this league series.

Cait completes international race despite fractured collarbone

UCD’s Cait Elliott crashed in a professional/ amateur race in Switzerland and fractured her collarbone. Remarkably she still managed to complete 2 more laps after her crash and finish the race in 20th position. Her race report is available on the blog.

Scholarship student in road traffic accident

UCD Sports Scholarship student, Louise Moriarty was knocked off her bike by a careless driver while commuting to UCD for lectures on the morning of Friday 17th of April despite her being in the relative safety of a cycle lane. Due to the continuous discomfort of her wrist, she got an x-ray on Tuesday 21st to discover that it was broken resulting in her leaving the hospital in a cast.

Boot Inn Women's League Rnd #1

2009-04-17T10:26:00.005+01:00

Round one of the six race Boot Inn League was held on Wednesday this week with Niamh Stephens competing as the first U.C.D.C.C. lady in open racing on Irish soil this season. Conditions were tough for a Time Trial, but Niamh put in a respectable time.

The league continues every Wednesday (bar Ras week) until May and is a great way for ladies to get into racing, with coaching on hand next week and handicapped starts. A full report is up on irishcycling.com. Photo copyright Brendan Cullenton.

Cait Elliott in Swiss Power Cup - Round 1

2009-04-07T10:36:00.003+01:00

Cait Elliott was flying the UCD colours yesterday in the first round of the Swiss Power Cup in Schaan. She finished 21st of 35 in her category. Cait commented: "I was fairly happy with the result since most of the top 10-15 were full time pros including the Olympic and World Champions!"

Cait is on Erasmus in Lichtenstein, ideally placed to compete in highly competitive European MTB racing. Her full report can be found on her blog.

Des Hanlon Memorial Classic Race Report

2009-03-30T18:33:00.001+01:00

The Des Hanlon Memorial Classic Road Race was hosted by Carlow road cycling club on Sunday, 29th March 2009. A large UCD CC contingent was divided amongst the three races on offer: Anthony Walsh raced the 145km Des Hanlon Memorial, Colin Peirce rode the 103km combined race and Ciaran O Conluain, Fiachra Rowan, Brian Sugrue, Jevon Newman, Niall Dwyer and Ben Arent raced the 62km course.

In the 62km race, an experienced veteran rider established an early lead and broke free of the bunch. Despite the best efforts of UCD riders to close the gap, other riders failed to help in the chase and the race was now on for second place. The first major split of the bunch occurred at the steep climb leaving the main Castlecomer road. After some undulating terrain, the group came together again temporarily before fracturing once more. Brian, Fiachra and Ciaran worked hard to drive the pace along the drag at the half-way stage. Further splits occurred where Fiachra attacked coming out of a bend. The road went up again and Ciaran got across. Both riders worked hard to open and establish a lead on the final climb of the day. With only a 20 second lead after a fast descent, 8km of flat, exposed road remained. Three chasing riders failed to pull back the two UCD riders that were sharing the work until the final 200 metres. Ciaran crossed the line to take second place. Significantly, five Cycling Ireland points were awarded and Ciaran has now been promoted to Senior 2 status. Fiachra finished third.

The weekend provided tough race conditions for all UCD riders. With only two weeks remaining before the Gorey 3-day stage race, this was welcome exercise. Racing resumes in North Dublin with the Harry Reynolds Memorial on Saturday afternoon and the Ben McKenna/Jazzer Wherity on Sunday morning.

Finally, congratulations to Ciaran O Conluain who joins Anthony Walsh in the S1/S2 bunch. Ciaran started road racing one year ago and rapidly accumulated the conditioning and skills necessary to excel in his sport. He has set an example that we should all be eager to follow.

Rás Luimní Classic #1

2009-03-25T11:38:00.003Z

No less than 150 riders signed on for the combined race at South Liberties GAA club on the outskirts of Limerick city last Sunday. Among them, one UCD rider: Niall Dwyer. His report follows:

The race consisted of four laps of a fast flat 23km circuit. After finishing poorly in Dundalk I was determined to ride well. The race stared at a frantic pace, early on I found myself toward the back of the bunch struggling for dear life. I realised if I didn't move up the bunch now my day was over. I was lucky enough to find a pace line behind the lead motorbike and move slowly up the bunch.

By the start of lap two a group of about ten or fifteen riders had gone clear. By lap three their lead had increased to over two minutes. It was a case of now or never for the main bunch, Martin O'Loughlin gathered his troops and the chase was on. The break must have split at some point resulting in the majority being caught before the start of the final lap. With only six riders managing to stay clear and 18 prizes on overall there was still something to fight for.

With about ten kilometres to go I began to work my way up to the front of the bunch. I was in unfamiliar territory but I liked it. With only three or four riders making any efforts at the front it was clear it was going to be a sprint for 7th place. I decided to make a go for it at the 3km sign. I attacked but my efforts were short lived and I was reeled in very quickly. One km to go I was completely cooked and watched as the heavies powered up for the sprint. Rolling in at the back of the bunch I was pleased with my days work but disappointed that my lack of experience had let me down. 'Til next week DES HANLON.

Niall can be seen putting the club on the map in the gallery of irishcycling.com.

Traders Cup - Dundalk

2009-03-24T12:06:00.001Z

The highest turnout of the year saw Niall (the skipper), Anto, Ciaran, Colin, Fiachra, and Ben turn up in Dundalk to race. The race was open and handicapped with the C pack starting 4 min. behind the juniors and 4 min. ahead of Bs. The A riders caught Anto's group early on, they had slowed to a crawl waiting for them. This meant that by the time we had caught the Juniors, about lap 3 of 12, we had opened up the gap on the chasing A/B riders. The C and Junior pack stayed together at a steady pace but the good lads of the A/B group split after many attacks and started chasing us down.

With about 3 laps to go we were caught by about 20 riders some of whom came straight through us with Fiachra managing to join the back of the break but at the front it split again with about 8 top riders getting away and keeping a 40sec gap till the end. Fiachra rode especially well after coming back from the break he stayed riding at the front and contested the sprint. With only one unplaced C prize the organisers were chasing in and making it very difficult to get anything.

The skipper rode his best race in the UCD colours riding at the front until about 2 laps to go. Anto rode well in the chasing group (groupetto) and Colin and Ben used the race for training purposes.

A good start to the racing but still no prizes. You cant expect perfection, all you can expect is progress.

Club Hill Climb Champs

2009-03-24T12:00:00.000Z

The results of the H.C. Championships are as follows:

Ciaran 9:04
Fiachra 9:19
Colin 9:33
Jevon 9:46
Ben 9:51

The weather was lovely if not slightly windy. Sadly the club captain was saving himself for the rigours of Sunday's race and Anto had his own training plan to follow so the 5 riders rode the course at 1 min. intervals without a hitch! All riders posted what were good times and closely bunched with no one catching anyone on the day.

The Howth record holder Kevin Donagher who will be driving the team car in Gorey inspired the riders and also helped with the timekeeping. Chapeau!

A 2nd H.C. race will be run in July on the same course.

Road Racing League Info

2009-03-13T15:39:00.000Z

Information about the Inter-club league that U.C.D.C.C take part in and the internal U.C.D.C.C. League championship is available at the following links or via the League label.

2009 Road Racing Inter-club League

2009 Inter-club League Calendar

UCD Cycling Club Road Racing League Championship

UCD CC Road Racing League Championship Calendar

UCD CC Road Racing League Championship Table

2009 UCD Teams

2009-03-01T18:11:00.004Z

Winning Ladies Inter-varsity team of 2008

2009 Interclub League 2009 Team. (L-R) Fiachra O'Loughlin, Fiachra Rowan, Ben Arant, Anthony Walsh, Niall Dwyer, Ciaran O Conluain, Niamh Stephens.

2009 MTB Team (L-R) Robert Higgins (XC), Rory Beirne (DH), XC National & NPS Champion Cait Elliott and her club sponsored race bike.

Calendar

2009-03-01T17:48:00.014Z

Large individual calendars available at the following links:

Road
XC
DH
CX

2009 Road Racing Inter-club League

2009-03-01T15:31:00.001Z

General:
The Inter-club League is made up of University College Dublin Cycling Club, St. Tiernan’s CC, Lucan Cycling Road Club, Orwell Wheelers & Irish Road Club.

The league consists of 21 league races. There will also be Christmas hamper race.

Race Rules:
- The UCD CC jersey is compulsory in each race.
- All competitors must have a 2009 Cycling Ireland licence.
- You must be a fully paid up paid up member of UCD CC.
- You must have paid the league entrance fee.
- All riders must sign on at the start of each race.
- All competitors will be on the matrix to marshal a race.
- All riders must follow the instruction of race organizers and marshals.

Safety:
- Hard shell helmets are compulsory.
- Riders must obey the rules of the road and officials at all times.

Failure to do so may result in instant dismissal from the race, and a minimum 3-race ban.

Grading:
- Riders are graded by ability and not by licence category.
- Riders can be promoted or demoted during the season.

Semi-scratch: Anthony Walsh
Semi-limit: Louise Moriarty, Ciarán Ó Conluain, Colin Peirce, Brian Sugrue
Limit: Ben Arant, Niall Dwyer, Jevon Newman, Fiachra O’Loughlin, Fiachra Rowan, Niamh Stephens

Points System:
- Your best 11 races out of 15 races & 6 bonus points count for the league.
- The top 7 riders in a given race must return to the finish to confirm placing.

Road Races & Team Time Trial
Winner: 11 points
Runner-Up: 10 points
Third: 9 points
Fourth: 8 points
Fifth: 7 points
Sixth: 6 points

Individual Time Trials Points
Group Winner: 8 points
Group Runner-Up: 7 points
Third in group: 6 points

All finishers in all races receive 5 points.

Prize Fund:
There will be prizes on offer for the first 25 overall ranging from €90 for the winner to €25 for 25th place.

Organiser:
Brian Hayden, Chairman of St. Tiernan’s Cycling Club, is the Overall Inter-club League Coordinator. Maoilíosa Ó Dubhthaigh, President of UCD CC, will deal with all issues concerning UCD CC riders’ participation in the league.

UCD CC Marshal duty:
09/04/09 Brittas: Ciarán Ó Conluain, Fiachra O’ Loughlin & Louise Moriarty
07/05/09 Brittas: Colin Peirce
28/05/09 Black Bull: Fiachra Rowan
25/06/09 Batterstown: Brian Sugrue
13/08/09 Black Bull: Ben Arant & Anthony Walsh
27/08/09 Black Bull: Niall Dwyer

All riders competing in the 2009 Inter-club League have been assigned one event to marshal. It is the duty of each individual to know when and where s/he has to marshal. If you are unable to marshal, for whatever reason on a given date, the onus is on you to organize a replacement. Failure to do so will result in you being disqualified from further competition until such time that you finally marshal.

2009 Inter-club League Calendar

2009-03-01T15:30:00.001Z

also in pdf format.

UCD Cycling Club Road Racing League Championship

2009-03-01T15:29:00.000Z

General:
The ‘UCD CC Road Racing League’ will run in conjunction with the inter-club league. It will consist of a minimum of 14 road races and 3 time trials and it is hoped that it will add an extra incentive for UCD CC members in each race inter-club league race entered.

Safety:
- Hard shell helmets are compulsory.
- Riders must obey the rules of the road and officials at all times.

Points system:
The points system to be used throughout is as follows:

Winner: 14 points
Runner-up: 12 points
Third: 10 points
Fourth: 8 points
Fifth: 7 points
Sixth: 6 points

All competitors will receive a minimum of 5 points per race entered.

Where 2 or more riders finish in the same bunch (or on the same time in a TT), they each receive the points of the first finisher in that group.

UCD CC riders are forbidden to sprint for non top 6 finishes in the inter-club league.

Prize Fund:
Overall Winner: €60
Overall Runner-up: €50
Third Overall: €40

Bonus:
There will be a bonus of €50 to the first UCD CC rider to win a league race outright.

Organiser:
Colin Peirce will act as League Coordinator and he has sole responsibility to allocate the points in each race and to update the League Table.

UCD CC Road Racing League Championship Calendar

2009-03-01T15:28:00.000Z

also in pdf format.

UCD CC Road Racing League Championship Table

2009-03-01T15:26:00.000Z

also in pdf format.

UCD Time Trial 2009, part deux

2009-02-23T10:25:00.004Z

The second club time trial was held on the 14th of February. Organised to help members view their training improvements and pit themselves against eachother. The first TT had been held on the 10th of January allowing a full month of training in between.

Fiachra Rowan remains the victor in the 2nd club TT. Weather much more favourable than for the last one. Thanks to Mil for coming out and recording the times.

Positions:

1. Fiachra Rowan 24:10
2. Anthony Walsh 24:33
3. Ciarán Ó Conluain 26:09
4. Niall Dwyer 26:35
5. Brendan Dalton 27:20
6. Niamh Stephens 31:16
7. Fiachra O'Loughlin 32:05

Results of TT1 below. Improvements for all.

Positions:

1. Fiachra Rowan 28:23
2. Colin Pierce 29:51
3. Ciarán Ó Conluain 30:33
4. Niall Dwyer 31:16
5. Ben Arent 33:11
6. Niamh Stephens 35:21

More photos from TT 2 can be found here.