I entered the winter of 2013/2014 in great spirits and having finished the season of strongly I began focusing heavily on preparation for the 2014 road race season. It was at this point that I joined the West of Irelands latest racing team "Liquidworx Fitscience". The Team was put together by Derek Bowyer whom was owner of the Liquidworx Company and was backed with the coaching advice and testing facilities of Simon Walsh of Fitscience. Together we built up a strong team which consisted of some very strong riders Myself, Jason Prendergast, Chris Reilly, Gareth Mc Cormack, Eddy Barry, Mike Storan and Brian Canty. We all worked collectively with Simon our coaching began putting the building blocks in place over the winter which was to prove to be a solid foundation for the team. As the season approached we attended a pre season training camp in Lanzarote where we fine tuned our bodies in preparation for the racing season ahead.
From the start of the 2014 season I proved to be riding strongly taking a number of great results all shown below.
(1st Race & 1st win of the season in WCW Race)
(7th Place in the Cycleways cup got me off to a good start in the large national races)
After the Des Hanlon I rode the Tour of Connaught where I managed to get a solid 3rd place behind Eddie Dunbar and Dylan O'Brien
This was quickly followed by what was my best performance of the season so far acquiring the yellow jersey in Ras Mumhan on the 3rd stage and in the end finishing 2nd overall by a mere 10seconds.
From Ras Mumhan I proceeded to the Shay Elliot, After Initiating The days break away I rode strong until the climb of glenamure from which I was distanced by 2 riders, in the end I managed a solid 4th place.
After the TOU my next stop was the An Post Ras, I raced for the Mayo Centre Ras team alongside Sean Mcenerny, Derek Joyce, Padraig Marrey and Paul Brady. After the 8 days I placed in the top 50 overall and managed to get some decent stage placings.
Upon completing the ras my next goal was to win the newly founded Connaught Crit Series. First round was in Claremorris where I placed 4th and my team mate Jason Prendergast won. The next round was in Galway where I took the win. Next was Sligo where I defended the yellow jersey for the series with team mate Gareth Taking 2nd. After Sligo was Westport where Jason won, Our other team mate Chris Reilly was 2nd and I finished off the podium by taking 3rd a Fitscience clean sweep. with only one round left I was guaranteed the win in the series bar a disaster, with Tuam being the final round I rode strong to take second behind Daire Feely and in turn I won the overall series.
(Claremorris Crit)
(Galway Crit)
(Tuam Crit)
During the weeks that the Crit Series was in progress I managed to sweep up a few other victories such as the T Bourke Memorial in Westport and Then I managed to win the Connaught road race champs for the second time running by riding clear of the field from the drop of the flag and hold the lead by over 3mins at points right to the finish.
(Driving the break in the T Bourke 5km to go)
(Winning the sprint from the break in the T Bourke)
(Winning the Connaught Champs from my break away companion Sean McEnerny)
After the large bout of Connaught racing it was time once again to hit the national scene and this time take on the Suir Valley 3day, having had good form for this race in years past taking 9th,3rd & 2nd overall in consecutive years I was keen to show good again. on the first stage I got into the days break along with team mate Chris Reilly where I managed 6th on the stage. after the second stage and the evenings crit, I was sitting in 7th overall. On the final stage I helped Chris keep the KOH jersey and managed to move myself up to 6th, all in all it was a good success.
(Stage 1 Break away in Suir Valley)
(Stage 1 Break away working in the break)
(Crashing During the Evening Criterium)
(Driving the pace for Chris on the Cat1 Vee Climb to help get the vital points he needed to get the KOH jersey)
(At the finish ontop of the Nire Chris maintained his King of the Hills jersey and I moved up to 6th on GC)
The following weekend after Suir Valley we raced in Ballinrobe, this time it was myself Derek & Gareth. we rode strong the first day and I took 6th on GC. I then finished th on the following mornings mountain time trial up lallys mountain which moved me up to 5th on GC. On the final stage I managed to get into the break which stayed clear to the finish where I managed to gain enough time to slip into 3rd on the GC.
(Stage 2A Hill Climb TT Catching a few of the riders ahead)
(Attacking the bunch on the final stage)
(A few quick words with local journalist Martin Aires at the finish)
As it stands Ballinrobe was my last race, I am hoping to take part in the Bog Man 2day this weekend in letterfrack hopefully I can ride strong there. A lot of my training as of recent has been on the Mountain bike which I have being slowly working with the fast approaching Connaught league coming up.
I will shortly be doing a nice blog post on my preparation for the MTB/Cyclocross season and the equipment that I will be using and the training techniques I will be implementing and skill work that will be involved in it. Also for anyone who may be interested in the up and coming winter training season don't be afraid to get in touch with us here at Fitscience (096-24782) or on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/fitscienceltd?ref=hl We will be running scheduled winter training classes on our Watt Bikes to help improve base fitness as well as strength and conditioning for anyone who may need help in these areas. But as I said above Ill be going more in-depth into this in the next blog.
Another point to note is the fast approaching Andy Walsh Fitscience Memorial Crit on September 6th here in Ballina, Poster is below.
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Bye for Now
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