It is that time of year when we begin to pack up shop and take a few well earned weeks rest before starting up again for next season. As ever we will mark this with our AGM and the infamous end of year swim. In addition, again for our junior and novice members we will be running “Try a tri 2” and details on all these can be found below.

Saturday 2nd September: Try a tri 2

Try a tri 2: starts at 9am in Nenagh Leisure Centre

For our novice and junior members we will be running “Try a tri 2”. This will be starting at Nenagh Leisure centre at 9am and is free to enter for anyone who wishes to take part.

For those who took part in the “try a tri” event in June an application form was included with the pack and this can be dropped to the Leisure centre or to any committee member.

If you do not have an application form all you need to do is send on the relevant details (Name; Address; DOB; Mobile; Estimated swim time for 250m) and send this on the our email at info@nenaghtriathlonclub.com.

As ever we will need the help of a few marshals on the day to help with the Juniors on the course and for traffic etc. so if anyone is free for about 90min on Saturday morning to help out it would be really appreciated and you can let a member of the committee know or put your name on the Viber group.

Saturday 9th September: Tri Leader Course

Tri Leader Course: starts at 9am in Nenagh Abbey Court hotel

As part of the ongoing club development the club have been awarded a Coaching and development grant from Tipperary Sports Partnership and this has been allocated in order to provide a Tri Leader course that will be held in Nenagh. The TRI Leader course is the first step on the TI coaching ladder but it is also aimed at those who help out at sessions and events. At the moment the club have very few members with sufficient qualifications to organise sessions and so this course is vital for the development of both the club and Junior club.

This qualification is the first step in the process of becoming a qualified triathlon coach (to date the club only has one TI qualified coach) and is required for those helping running the club in general.

The cost of the course is covered and it is all undertaken in one day, so with it on our own doorstep we would hope that a number of members  will take the opportunity to attend and help further club development (we are hoping a minimum 6-8 will come or the course will not be able to go ahead).

More information can be found on the TI link below and just let a member of the committee know if you can attend.

http://www.triathlonireland.com/Events/Events-Calendar-Non-Race-/TRI-Leader-Course-Tipperary.html

Saturday 9th September: End of Year Swim

End of Year Swim: starts at 5:30 in Youghal.

We are expecting around 10-15 swimmers at this +/- IronMan Barcelona candidates?? As ever there are 2 swimming options with the overall finish at Garrykennedy. There will be people there in cars to drop your gear over to Garrykennedy. All you have to do is swim over, jump in the shower, get changed and head into the pub for pints.

If someone has a kayak or boat available on the day to provide cover for the swimmers then let a committee member know and come down and join in with us.

Saturday 9th September: Triathlon Club AGM

End of Year AGM: starts at 8pm: venue TBC

Following the swim we will be having our annual AGM and will get back when we have confirmed a venue for this. We would hope that as many members as possible can attend this event as there have been a number of developments within the club over the past year and as ever we would like as many members as possible to come and play a role in the determining the aims and objectives of the club for the upcoming year. This is a pretty informal meeting and will not take too long but it is important that if you are free that you attend.

The club is more than just the committee and at committee level we would like to get the views and opinions of as many members as possible on further club development for the 2018 season.

In Triathlon terms we are a small club and so rely more heavily than other clubs on our members having an active role within the club so leaving the running of the club to the few on the committee is not a long-term viable option for us so we hope that the club will support this meeting! And as ever if you wish to have a more formal role within the club at committee level we are sure we can find something for you!!!!

As with our previous AGMs following the meeting there will be some food and a few drinks on offer for anyone interested…..another good reason to attend!!!!!

Any suggestions or issues that you may want to discuss regarding the club at this meeting then just let a member of the committee know. 

Weekly Update

The official sessions are beginning to tail off and a well deserved break is now well on the horizon!!

Weekly training

Swimming sessions: 2 morning sessions this week.  Tuesday morning will be a technique set while Thursday is a high intensity short interval set.

Shorter versions for the novice lane will be supplied on the morning and will cover 1-1.5k.

Running sessions: 2 The hill running sessions continue on Monday evenings meeting at Coum at 6.30pm and covering 8-10k.

The full weekly schedule:

 Have a good week out there!

This will be the final Nenagh CC post on the Nenagh Triathlon Club website. It has been great while it lasted but we have been asked to move on to pastures new so that’s just what we did. We have built a brand new Nenagh CC branded website, so if you want to keep up to date with what is happening with our cycling club then pop over to the URL shown below.

On a more personal note……… between the old website and the current Nenagh Triathlon Club website I have written close on 1600 updates spanning over 10 years. I have enjoyed my time doing this and like to think that I have led the way in how club websites can communicate with members (club websites weren’t always like this especially back in 2007 when very few clubs had a website and Facebook wasn’t an option). I always put in the effort to make each update readable and entertaining and made sure to highlight the many achievements of our club members over the years. It takes up an extraordinary amount of time for very little appreciation. I think the struggles of the current triathlon committee with the website reflect how tough a job it is. I will continue writing for the Nenagh CC website but my time on this website has come to an end.

Seeing thousands of people reading our race blogs and reports was always the payback. Having some random guy coming up and saying they enjoy reading the website, even though they have nothing to do with the club, was always cool. Giving everyone in the club their few minutes of fame in a race report was rewarding too as well as watching the club expand from nothing to something.

All good things come to and end and we wish the Tri Club all the best in the future.

Word of advice in the future: you need to give people a reason to read a website.

Keep up to date with Nenagh CC @ http://www.nenaghcc.com/

Just two weeks left of official club training before we take our end of season break. We hope everyone can try to make themselves available to attend the End of Year Cycle on Saturday week – details of that are below. This week we hope to have a brand new club website going live. We are just in the process of making it all pretty at the moment (takes a lot of photoshopping with yere ugly mugs!). Will Killackey was the only one in racing action over the weekend and he almost got up into the points in Navan. This coming week is also a big one for two club members who are heading to Ironman Copenhagen. Best of luck to both lads in Denmark.

Training

• Tuesday: club cycle at 6:30 from Stereame
• Thursday: club cycle at 6:30 from Stereame
• Saturday: club cycle at 9:00 from the hotel
  • Racing – Wexford 2 Day – Big 2 days for Will Rymer – no excuses!
• Sunday: club cycle at 8:00 from Tescos
  • Racing: Club Rothaíochta Classic, Shannon – separate A3 and A4 races.

Late training updates – are posted to our Nenagh CC Facebook

End of Year Cycle

Date: Saturday, August 26th

Meet: at the Abbey Court Hotel at 8:00

Route: we are going to finish the year with what has become the classic Nenagh CC training route – the Lake. This route has traditionally been where all the hard effort has been put in on the bike that has brought us quite a bit of success in a few short years. We will only be taking it handy on this spin though; nobody will be left behind so come out and try it with us. One group will be heading home early via Killaloe while another will head for a few extra miles over to Daly’s Cross – building up a thirst for the Club Night Out!

Coffee Stop: the food is on us! As a thank you from the club for all the effort put in throughout the year we will be picking up the bill at the foodstop in Tuamgraney.

Also that evening – we have our Club AGM and Club Night Out. We will give further details of this next week.

Thinking of joining the club?

Tip: Use the next 6 weeks to get yourself up to speed. Build up the distance and speed you travel gradually each week and come join us when we return to action in October. It will be much easier for you if you have a little ground work done first. It will also make you more confident and with that, more likely to succeed.

Club Website

Check back during the week to see our brand new website. It will focused specifically on Nenagh CC activities and branded as such. It has been great to be part of the Nenagh Triathlon Club website for the last 3 years but I think we are grown up enough now to go it alone, we have no doubt outstayed our welcome. I blame Kenneth who turned the place into a pigsty.

Weekend Racing

Will Killackey raced up in Navan on Saturday and Sunday. It’s great to see such enthusiasm and he was almost rewarded for his efforts. The weekend didn’t get off to a great start with a puncture on Saturday forcing him to retire from the race early. On Sunday things went much better. Here is how Will thought it went “Had a good race, legs felt good, sat about half way back for first few laps and moved up front for the last lap, was in the front 4 or 5 bikes for the last few km, was well positioned, sprint came early and found myself with no wheel in front of me for last 500m, rolled in about 11th…very disappointed” So close, yet so far. The big result is only around the corner though so keep plugging away. You could yet be promoted before the season is over!

Tri Tyrone Half Ironman: Also, a belated well done to club member Eoin Buckley on completing the Tri Tyrone Half Ironman race. Eoin has improved hugely over the last few years and finished well up in the results. He looks quite relieved to be crossing the finish line!

Weekly Update

The official sessions are beginning to tail off and a well deserved break is now well on the horizon!!

Weekly training

Swimming sessions: 2 morning sessions this week.  Tuesday morning will be a distance swim while Thursday is a short interval set.

Shorter versions for the novice lane will be supplied on the morning and will cover 1-1.5k.

Running sessions: 2 The hill running sessions continue on Monday evenings meeting at Coum at 6.30pm and covering 8-10k.

The full weekly schedule:

 Have a good week out there!

The weather looks pretty decent for this weekend so we hope to see everyone back out and about on their bikes. There isn’t too much on in relation to racing this weekend with no Munster race on the calendar. Navan seems to be the place to go on Saturday and Sunday if you want to win some points. The usual Saturday and Sunday cycles will be on in Nenagh but we will change the route for Sunday and head for Tipperary Town instead.

Gear Payment: club members can give the gear payment to either Kenneth or Shane on Saturday or Sunday.

Saturday Spin: meet at 9:00 at the hotel.

Route: we will be doing the Broadford route. Split will occur in Birdhill. Racing group will go up the ramp. Both groups will go towards Daly’s Cross before turning for O’Brien’s Bridge.

Sunday Spin: meet at 7:00 at Tescos.

Route: we will mix it up a little bit this week and head for Tipp town instead. It’s a bit longer than usual so we will hit the road at 7:00am. The groups will split after about 40km and meet up again at the coffee stop.

Last week felt like a bit of an easy one. With the absence of the summer leagues and a lot of people hanging up their boots already (too early!), the club training sessions were a little bit more leisurely than usual. Just Mike and Matty in racing action this weekend and you can read about how they got on below. We have news about an upcoming revamp of the website, plus an appeal for club members to try to end the season on a high.

Training: just 4 regular club cycles this week.

• Tuesday: club cycle at 6:30 from Stereame
• Thursday: club cycle at 6:30 from Stereame
• Saturday: club cycle at 9:00 from the hotel
• Sunday: club cycle at 7:30 from Tescos

New Website: over the next few weeks this website will be undergoing a complete makeover. Therefore, from time to time the website might be unavailable to view. All club information will still be available via our Facebook page. Hopefully this revamp will start later this week.

Gear Order: we have a big gear order about to be sent in. Try and give your full payment to Will Killackey asap.

Already looking back at the season: have you accomplished your goals or did you peak at the winter warrior cup? Has another season slipped by where you got distracted or lazy in the spring and summer and ended up doing nothing? This time of the year is usually the time where we get our club members talking up their big plans for the following season. Same guys, same plans = next year will be different!!

Just a little reminder – the 2017 season is far from finished. There are plenty of races left and plenty of time to rescue a season that might not have gone to plan. Stop talking about next year and finish the year on a high. Get back out there on the racing circuit! Come October, we can start talking about plans for 2018!!!

but I hear you say – “sure you haven’t done any races yourself this year Shane!” To that I would just say that I have a different goal for 2017. I haven’t abandoned that goal mid-way through the season; it is still firmly within sight and I am training like a lunatic for it. I still make it out to almost all our club training sessions and I am looking to end the season on a high – just like everyone else in the club should be. For some of the leisure cyclists, that high was the France trip so we will excuse those few winding down already. For those club members that consider themselves racing cyclists, go out there and race – we are supposed to be a racing focused club. This is the time of the season where it’s easiest to score so don’t waste it. Sign-up for a few one day races and look to do the…….

Charleville 2 Day: the club are hoping to finish the season on a high. We are encouraging our members to sign up for this race at the end of the year (Sept 2nd & 3rd). It will give you something to focus on for the next 4 weeks of the year before we take an end of season break in September. Entry forms for this race are already out, but if you fancy signing up, make sure to go on to the club Viber page and let the rest of the lads know. They are trying to put a big team together today. There is no reason why we can’t win this event if we train hard over the next few weeks = no excuses – sign-up – get out on the road – make it happen!

Weekend Racing

Suir Valley 3 Day: Mike Browne took part in this event over the Bank Holiday Weekend. This race is always a very tough one as the standard of cyclist is high. There were 4 stages to do, ending with a gruelling hill-top finish on the last day. Mikey has had a good season so far so it was no surprise to see him doing well here too. Over the first 3 stages Mike finished safely in the bunch. The average speed on the last day was extremely fast as the bunch sped towards the final hill-top finish. From there it was every man for himself up the 7km climb. Mike finish the stage in 60th position and 51st overall (21st in the A2 category). This was an excellent overall performance from Mike at one of Ireland’s top races.

Oldcastle GP: Matty Kennedy was our sole representative at this race up in Co. Meath. Here is how the race went for him “A last-minute decision was made to join the separate A1/2 and Jnr/A3 race and turn it into a handicapped race due to the small numbers, which normally would be fine but was less than ideal on the very narrow,tight, rolling back roads around Oldcastle. A break of 3 or 4 got away on the second lap of 5 and stayed away to win, while nothing else was getting away from the bunch. With 5 km to go on the last lap, myself and 3 others got up the road and pulled out a decent gap, only to swallowed up by the bunch within the 500m mark. Luckily I was on the right side of a massive nasty pile up when the sprint started. No points today but a good workout all the same.”

Training Photos

Weekly Update

The official sessions are beginning to tail off and a well deserved break is now well on the horizon!!

Weekly training

Swimming sessions: 2 morning sessions this week.  Tuesday morning will be a short distance set while Thursday is a stroke power set.

Shorter versions for the novice lane will be supplied on the morning and will cover 1-1.5k.

The full weekly schedule:

 Have a good week out there!

The Summer League is over and the Tipp Champs are out of the way so the club are definitely in wind down territory now. That doesn’t mean we are going to stop cycling; we will all keep tipping away for August up until our final End of Year Cycle. As it’s a Bank Holiday weekend there will probably be 3 club cycles for you to attend. On the racing front, the Suir Valley stage race is the big one to attend and we wish Mike Browne all the best at that one. For those looking to attend big stage races at the end of the year, make sure you keep working hard through this month. Get out with us when you can. Why not try to jump in with the racing group if you are feeling good enough!

Club Gear: final notice: order going in after the weekend so get in contact with Will Killackey asap.

Saturday Spin: meet at 9:00 at the hotel.

Route: we will be heading to Roscrea, Birr, Portumna, Terryglass, Puckaun and back to Nenagh. Newbie cyclists should try and stick with us to Roscrea and then turn back for home at the roundabout in Roscrea.

Sunday Spin: meet at 8:00 at the hotel

Route: we will be heading out on the lake route. Two interval sessions + coffee stop.

Monday: starting time and route will be placed on Viber on Sunday.

Daniel Bresnan is the new county champion after being the first Tipp person over the line in yesterday evening’s keenly contested county championships in Birdhill. After 60km of hard racing and a ridiculous average pace of 44.5km per hour, it was actually Westport’s Con Doherty that crossed the line in 1st place in a bunch finish with Daniel coming in 2nd and TJ Hickey getting up for 3rd place. Denis Allen took home the junior prize and Niamh O’Dwyer was first in the female race. Our A1 champion is Daniel Bresnan, our A2 champion is PJ Collins, our A3 champion is Seán Molloy and our A4 champion is TJ Hickey. Winners of the team prize were Nenagh CC with John Gleeson, Matty Kennedy and Will Killackey the top 3 scorers. Thanks for the huge support on the evening by all the Tipperary clubs. Now let’s have a look at how it all unfolded……..

58 riders descended on Tipperay and Ireland’s cleanest village looking to clean up in the prizes (wow that’s top quality writing and pun creation) and perhaps take home the coveted Tipp Champ plaque. The weather was looking good, the post-race refreshments were looking refreshing, the marshals were in place; all we needed now was some blood, sweat and tears for an hour and a quarter from the competitors. There were 3 large groups on the start line with generous handicaps of 0, 4 and 7. Early on, it looked like the scratch group had their work cut out to reel in the groups ahead, but then this race exploded and became the ‘Tale of the Tandem’.

The A4 bunch was the largest on the road and they set to work straight away and set a good speed into the roundabout in Nenagh. Behind, the A3 bunch weren’t quite pushing it as hard as they could and the A1/A2 bunch were closing in. At the turn the gaps were: A4 bunch – 3 mins – A3 bunch – 2 mins – A1/A2 bunch. There was still a 5 minute lead from front to back.

Previous experience would tell us that this sort of gap would last until very late in the race. However, after the turn, the tandem of Peter Ryan and Seán Hahessy went to the front of the A1/A2 bunch and drilled it. The A1/A2 bunch was lined out behind them. This was like the Rás and it wasn’t long before wheels were being dropped. The 7th man in the line dropped a wheel and the front 6 of Con Doherty, Matty Kennedy, PJ Collins, Dermot Radford, Daniel Bresnan and Aichlinn O’Reilly were away with only Shane Scully managing to bridge across on the small hill outside the nursery.

And that was that; the remainder of the A1/A2 bunch were out of it. They had missed the train and a train it certainly was as the tandem proceeded to break every KOM on the route on the way back to Birdhill (bar the motor paced ones!) and this is a route we use for our Summer League so the KOMs are near impossible to beat. What’s more, this was all done into a headwind!!! The few lads directly behind the tandem were clinging on and didn’t even realise that half their bunch were gone. Needless to say, the A3 bunch were caught (at the Yellowbridge) and the gap to the A4 bunch had come down to a little over a minute by the time we got back to Birdhill and onto the Ballyhane circuits.

The hills and what looked like a puncture took the wind out of the tandem’s sails. It gave others a chance to start plotting their escape routes. Breaks started to go with Ronan Costelloe and Aichlinn O’Reilly the most aggressive. Nothing was sticking and with the A4 bunch still a little bit up the road, the chase bunch settled for chasing them down. It all came together as everyone exited the Ballyhane circuit on to the Montpelier / Daly’s Cross circuit. With over half the A1/A2 bunch around 2 minutes behind, this led to it being an A3 and A4 dominated bunch. There was an upset on the cards if the A3s and A4s could just contain those looking to off the front.

Break after break was thrown in over the last 15km of this race. The Nenagh CC trio of Shane, Matty and Darren Dunne were constantly off the front. They were joined by Con, Aichlinn, Ronan, Denis Allen and Dermot Radford. It was getting very frustrating out there as few breaks even got 5 seconds up the road. The race had entered negative town and it was soon pretty obvious that the race was going to come down to a mass bunch sprint finish.

The two most promising breaks on the way back to Birdhill were first from Shane Scully heading out of Daly’s Cross (tis fair demoralising looking over the shoulder just to see the bunch lined out chasing you – hows about breaking over instead of dragging the bunch back?!). The other promising break was from Ronan Costello who went late and got extremely  close to the line before being swamped by the bunch.

The final sprint was quite deceiving as you could see the flag from a long way out, but it was slightly up hill and a lot of people were going too early and dying before the end. The man who timed it just right was Con Doherty who blasted off the front of the bunch to take a fine sprint victory with Daniel not far behind. It made for a great spectacle for the crowd, but sorting out who came where in the county competitions would prove be a pain in the neck!

Video – Sprint Finish

The remaining A1/A2 bunch came in over 2 minutes later with Bobby Coleman taking victory in the sprint. To say they weren’t overly happy is a bit of an understatement!! It led to some good natured banter at the end as everyone headed in for some tea & sandwiches in Cooper’s Pub, where Daniel Bresnan managed to excel himself again in the chicken and cocktail sausage eating competition.

Thanks to all our marshals and ambulance service for helping out and thanks to Cooper’s Pub for accommodating us. A full list of the results is below. That’s it for 2017 we hope to see ye all back in Birdhill once again in 2018.

Top 12

1. Con Doherty – Westport Covey Wheelers
2. Daniel Bresnan – Tipperary Wheelers
3. TJ Hickey – unattached
4. PJ Collins – Raparee
5. Seán Molloy – Trinity CC
6. Nanno Vuyk – North Tipp Wheelers
7. John Cahill – UDCC
8. John Gleeson – Nenagh CC
9. Matty Kennedy – Nenagh CC
10. Dermot Radford – Tipperary Wheelers
11. William Killackey – Nenagh CC
12. Denis Allen – NWCC

Female prize – Niamh O’Dwyer      Junior – Denis Allen

Winning Team – Nenagh CC 28 points

John Gleeson, Matty Kennedy, William Killackey

A1

1. Daniel Bresnan – Tipperary Wheelers
2. Dermot Radford – Tipperary Wheelers
3. Shane Scully – Nenagh CC

A2

1. PJ Collins – Raparee
2. Matty Kennedy – Nenagh CC
3. Tommy Hanrahan – Nenagh CC

A3

1. Seán Molloy – Trinity CC
2. John Cahill – UDCC
3. Pat Ryan – UDCC

A4

1. TJ Hickey – Unattached
2. Nanno Vuyk – North Tipp Wheelers
3. John Gleeson – Nenagh CC