Club League Update Rounds 6 - 8: Deja-Vu Part 1

Setting the Stage

Time is a flat circle. Everything we've ever done, or will do, we're gonna do over and over and over again.

This round up will tie neatly into a sense of Deja Vu, I've been having. Sometimes Deja Vu lasts for seconds, for me it lasted for 5 weeks. This is the story of a man haunted by the demons of his past. Demons who will now become his future tormentors.

Round 6: Brittas

I put my finger behind my ear. This wiped the last of The Green away. I may not be able to grow a beard, but I was wiser than 12 months ago. 364 days and 23 hours had passed since my first taste of Open Road Racing. Last time, I had been badly positioned on almost every corner. I had made an ill-fated bid for glory. I also got credited as Luke "Socks" Potter.

I visualised the victory that I would have. I would race smart. Hang back and move up for corners. Attack on the mid-point of the hill. Semi-Scratch and demotion pleas to Damien Long beckoned. Of the 11 corners on the course, I was excellently positioned for 7 of them and in a good position for another 3 of them. The one remaining corner, I was very far back, as in Dropped "far back".

We started, and I hung out at the back fo the bunch. The first corner was at 2.9km into the parcours. I waited until 2.2km to start with the Up-and-Overs. I was on the front going into the corner. Perfect placement. I would not be sprinting to keep in contact, the accordion effect and all that jazz. I kept up with the Up-and-Overs, and by sheer dumb luck I was at the front for the next corner, the one at the top of the circuit.

I missed a few turns, but started in the Up-and-Overs again midway down the back straight. I was nearing the front as we neared the bridges. When it was my turn to be at the front, I rode hard, to maintain my position going into the first 90 degree corner. I lost a few places on the bridge, but this was intended, so I would have shelter along the home straight.

On the first pass of the finish line hill, I was still fresh. I was riding on the outside, moving up in the group. At the crest, I was on the front. I attacked over the top and sat on the top tube on the way down, Sagan-style. With my legs rested I set about attacking the corner at the top of the circuit. This corner was assigned to me, two days previous, when marshaling the Women's crit league. I knew that it was freshly road-swept. After losing some positions, I was fifth going into the corner. I needed to sprint, but not too hard.

Nothing much happened for most of lap two. I think we caught the Limit group on just after the bridge. One thing was really pissing me off, one rider was riding in the middle of the two lines. "Are you going to take the position, or just pulling the piss?"

On the second climb to the finish, I was sheltered by Robbie Dolan. I switched off my brain and went into a meditation state, just focusing on maintaining distance to Robbie's wheel. Romano was beside me on the descent, there was a gap behind him. I said to him. Let's move out to the opposite side of the road just before the corner. We did, we made up lots of places with this wide line. I found myself on the front with a two man escape fifty meters ahead. I absolutely drilled it to make the catch. my head and body were extremely low to avoid the wind. After catching them I was shot to shit.

It soon became very clear that the Scratch groups would not be gaining on us. Last year a Limit group, containing Connolly and Potter, stayed away from a Semi-Limit group, containing Stevens and Rowan. This year would be no different.

Something happened at the front, and the Up-and-Overs stopped happening. This caused lots of compression on the narrow roads. Someone braked and that compression came backwards like a tidal wave of Sharks. I had to brake hard and almost took out Paul Kane. Someone took charge of the race and the compression stopped happening. Going into the bridges, I was near the back. After the bridges, I was dropped. The gap was widening, I cannot sprint my way out of a wet paper bag. Luckily, there was a JCB (For Townies: it's a brand of digger) ahead, this caused the group to slow. I caught up to the last of the peloton as they passed the JCB.

My momentum carried me to the front of the race, and past it. Holy shit, I was in the lead at the foot of the last climb. I was not thinking clearly. A rational person would've taken stock and convinced themselves "all I had to do was give everything for the next two minutes and I'll win".

Nope, I looked back and seen that my gap was big, but not big enough. As the peloton came by me, I could not respond to their speed and I was dropped. The finish was a hard uphill one. John won the race. Garret was overhauled with fifty meters to go, to finish fourth. Monica won the women's classification.

Finish Line Video (shit gets real at 40 seconds)

Results Men

1. John (SL) 
2. Alan (SL) 
3. Conor (SL) 
4. Gar (SL) 
5. Simon (SL) 
6. Romano (SL)

Results Women

1. Monica 
2. Orla 
3. Louise 
4. Aideen 
5. Ciara

Round 7: Corkagh Park

I went to Canada on the Thursday morning, so see my brother. It was my mother's Christmas/Birthday/Mother's Day present all rolled into one. I was in the Ripley's Aquarium when I checked the forum for the results. One Broken Collar Bone and one Wrist Bone. Bad Buzz and a speedy recovery to the two lads. It was nice to see Richard and Matt getting points from the race which was won by Paul.

The Deja-Vu continued here, as the crash mirrored the one I had the previous year before this race. That Corkagh Park track is like a cheese grater.

Results Limit/Semi-Limit

1. Paul (SL) 
2. Conor (SL) 
3. Richard (SL) 
4. Arek (SL) 
5. Brendan (SL) 
6. Matt (SL) 

Results Limit/Semi-Limit Women

1. Monica 
2. Rachel 
3. Breda

Due to the crash the Semi-Scratch/Scratch race was not run.

While I was away, I lost my GitHub Commit Streak of 52. It was 49 days when I left. When I arrived and got settled in Toronto, I set my Mac's clock to the current timezone, which gave me an extra 5 hours to get in some commits. I then lost it on a busy day over there. I felt a sence of calm after losing something that had comsumed me for the best part of two months. It gave me license to implement more time consuming features, which needed research. Such as Spring-Data-JPA vs. Spring-Data-JDBC. RIP the Streak.

Round 8: Sally Gap

I was still in Canada, can't remember where I was when I got the news. Who was this Paul Burgess? It was all over TV, even in Canada. Did I mention I was in Canada? Luke in Canada, is the new Dan Lloyd riding for Cervelo Test Team.

Deja-Vu Update: I missed this race last year due to injuries sustained in the previous week's crash.

Results Men

1. Paul (L) 
2. Eoin (SS) 
3. Eric (S) 
4. Brian (S) 
5. Greg (SL) 
6. Odhran (S) 

Results Women

1. Rachel (L) 
2. Monica (SL) 
3. Aideen (SS) 
4. Louise (L) 
5. Charlotte (L) 
6. Helen (L) 

Rachel stopped Monica's winning run in the women's classification.

I met a guy on Three Rock hill. We talked about the InterClub League and the Orwell one. He had won the Sally Gap finish from Semi-Scratch. Upon hearing about a Limit rider winning our one, I followed it up with "We all know the story. Some unknown lad appears. Gets put in Limit. Turns out he was a Tour De France domistique". The guy didn't laugh, so fuck him. And fuck the other guy who was there too, who was taking 30 seconds off his PB every week up Three Rock. The secret to his success was probably not eating a packet of Tesco "Free From" Triple Chocolate Cookies on his way from Dundrum Town Centre to his house, 10 minutes away AKA the Chubby Luke training method.