The Irish Veteran Cyclists Association

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.