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

Long Story Short

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

Strava

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

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

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

Short Story Long

Build Up

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

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

Pre-Race

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

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

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

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

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

Race

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Post-Race

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

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

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

What Was Learned

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