Author: phil ormrod

A miserable cool, wet and breezy morning greeted 19 starters at Mother Hubbards.
Thanks to the full compliment of marshals and Harry and Paul on the watches.
Congratulations and kudos to Hugh Davis on a fine 2:07:23 for a plus 26:16 and another Gold Medal to add to his tally.
Pat Byrne with a 1:58:23 for +23:09 takes the Silver Medal.
Joe Sheehy with a 1:59:34 for + 20:29 takes the Bronze Medal.

Adrian Byrne, 2:07:50, +20:17. Tony O’Malley, 1:58:26, +19:11 and Peter Raftery, 2:10:48, +17:19 take the minor places.

First on Handicap Rodney Joyce making a massive improvement on last year  followed by Colm Cassidy also with a big improvement and equally Pat Byrne in third. Peter Raftery, Ed O’Brien and Ian O’Hara took the minor handicap placings.

Fastest on the Day, Pat Byrne, followed by Tony O’Malley and Joe Sheehy.

Jimmy Murphy fastest of the two road bikes the other being Bernadette O’Brien, both making their first attempt at the 50 mile test and now with handicaps to shoot at next time.

The Options 25/50 is just two weeks away, on the 27th, providing the last chance for 2017 BAR / FAR qualifying times. Is it to much to ask for clement conditions 🙂

Tuesday 8th sees the last of the midweek racing. Be nice to see a good turn out from the road men.

The final Saturday League TT is at Johnstown Bridge on the 19th.

I’m short on current TT photographs so Tony gets the honour this week for making the fifty his first TT of the season.:-)

ttcom@theivca

Phil.

The shift to Kilcock seems to have been a good move with 50% of the starters beating handicap. We were blessed with a fine morning though not a float one, nevertheless the wind was in the most favorable direction for the course.
Best on Handicap ( and first and only road bike ) was William Parnell who smashed his handicap out of the park. Well done William.
Incredible close competition over the next six places, Ian O’Hara and Sean Darragh in second and third respectively.

Best on age standard and the fastest time of the day went to Joe Sheehy with a super 22:03 and an age standard plus of 3:55 which is up in Ian Cassidy class. First and only lady Ciara Kinch on plus 3:18 in second place on age standard, another elite performance. Third on plus 2:37 was Ian O’Hara then just 22 seconds on age standard separating 3rd to 8th place. Super close competition.
A down side to the day and a story becoming frighteningly common in cycling  is Noel Guinan being, apparently deliberately, run off the road by a tractor / trailer . Thankfully Noel did not suffer injury but his bike did.
It’s for incidents like this that I recommend the use of the Fly6 rear light / video camera. They are not cheap but in a case like this, invaluable, as the whole incident would have been available for a complaint to Gardaí.
Thanks to Harry and the full compliment of marshals ( maybe we need one on the junction of the incident in future ) . A late Friday phone around was needed to get the marshal cover. I think next season we will need to consider making a roster of the known Saturday riders pre the start of competition to make marshal cover more predictable.
So, just one more Saturday TT left, Johnstown Bridge on August 19th. Competition is close in the league tables so there is room for changes down at the wire.
ttcom@theivca
Phil.

Apologies. An error on Ed Hogan’s handicap necessitated a reprocessing of the result.

On what was one of the few decent days for TT’s this season a few fine balmy but breezy evening produced twelve beatings of handicap ( from a field of 25 riders ) with Ed Hogan taking the prestigious Al Fresco Shield and Ed. O’Brien and Pat Byrne in second and third places. Ed was way ahead with a magnificent improvement in form whilst the next three on handicap were covered by less than 1% difference in net improvement.
Similarly the next seven riders on handicap were also coved by less than 1%. Now that is what you call close competition!
Hugh Davis was winner on Age Standard with +11:36 followed by Pat Byrne
( +10:53) and Joe Sheehy +10:53 also the two being split in Pat’s favour by just 0.25 sec.
Fastest on the night was first time TTer with us, Fergal May, Welcome aboard in high fashion Fergal 🙂
A let down by three of the eight scheduled marshals without swaps being arranged was the only setback to the evening. In fact we should have had twelve for this course but the change of venue was the cause of that oversight .
Thanks as ever to Harry on the watch and also to Mrs Mongey who helped out as finish marshal, and of course to the five scheduled guys who did turn out.
Next TT, Saturday 29th July at Kilcock and hoping for a float morning. I live in unfulfilled hope !
Phil.

PS. Apologies for late result posting, bit of a medical crisis at home. All OK now.

Sorry for error guys, picked a wrong copy of the results file.
Sorted now.
Phil.

Our last visit to the Hatchet for this season, always a good test but today turned out to be the best conditions of the season so far. Even so the light westerly made the return trip a gruelling ride as usual. In spite of this we have four beating handicap with the top spot going to William Parnell who we were pleased to see back at another TT. A near 4% improvement is a very commendable one, kudos. Also a special mention of Patsy Fitzsimons who shaved 8 seconds off his handicap. Never to old to improve eh? Youngsters take note 🙂
Although on a rare off day ( for him that means a long 21 !! ) Ian Cassidy is still away in a hack over a minute ahead on actual time. followed by Ken O’Neil, Joe Sheehy and Noel Conway, all with 22 minute rides,
On the age std. category it’s great to see competition so close, 37 seconds covering the first four, all with 3 minute plusses and the next four with 2 minute plusses. And riders from age 42 to 73 in the spread.

Best road bike Lenny Carrigan. Good to see that we had three or four road bikes there.
Thanks to Timekeeper Harry and marshal Deanne. No pusher off today so we had to make do with one of Harry’s road cones but it does work ok ( although I had a bit of a wobble with a chain slip on take off ).
Our next Saturday TT on 29th July will now be a 10 TT, held on the Kilcock course, in preference to the Rathcoffey course which saw only a very few out to ride.
Next TT in the calendar, Tuesday 18th July, is the Al Fresco 25 which, as previously announced has been moved to Moy Valley.
Please all make note of these changes.
Make the best of ten day TT’ing break now, plenty of R & R and some quality taper and peaking. 🙂
Phil.

Yet another tough day for the TTers. Only two of 36 managed to beat handicap and as a major surprise when processing the result I found that yours truly took the top spot. Ian O’Hara took second handicap and Ed O’Brien third. Noel Guinan, Noel Conway and Joe Sheehy filling in the top six.
Ian Cassidy was fastest, way off his best, with Joe Sheehy second, Noel Conway third.
The major prize, Age Standard, was again taken by Ian Cassidy but this time his winning margin was squeezed, in comparison to recent results, to just 36 seconds back for second placed Joe Sheehy and third placed Adrian Byre just a further 24 seconds back. Hugh Davis took 4th, Phil Ormrod 5th and Peter Raftery 6th. A healthy mix of 40’s, 50’s, 60’s and 70’s in the result.

The special prize to the fastest Road Bike Rider goes to Sean Curtis with a 1:04:32. All the road bike finishers are awarded 4 points to their respective leagues tally, names will be notified to R Race comm.

A very encouraging turnout of 36 riders and a full compliment of marshals, timekeepers and Medic made for a smoothly run, safe and socially pleasant morning with refreshments in Mother Hubbards after the event. Without doubt our best HQ. Also our best 25 TT course albeit with the road surface deteriorating a lot. ( any one got an inside track to the council out there ? 🙂 ).
I’m a bit jaded so if anyone has any E & O E’s to report please do so.

Phil.
PS. Those I have spoken to are in favour of shifting our last 25, the Al Fresco, from Batterstown to Moy Valley as we all consider it the best course. TT com.. will discuss this and send out confirmation or otherwise.
Phil.

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Sunday 25th June, 2017.
HQ is at Mother Hubbards truck stop, Moy Valley, where we have ample parking space, toilet facilities available and also refreshments after the event. See courses link above.
First man of is at 0900.
Hoping for a good turnout and fine weather.
Phil.