Club League Update Rounds 4 and 5

Round 4: Corkagh Park Crit 40 mins + 2 laps

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I got the finish line video though:

Round 5: 10 Mile TT Batterstown

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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