Nenagh CC are proud once again to play host to the Tipperary Road Race Championships 2017. It is the second year that we have hosted the race and we hope this year’s event can be just as successful as last year’s event. For this to happen we need all Tipperary clubs to try their best to support it. If people keep turning up, we will keep hosting it.

*** Reminder: on Thursday, July 27th the last Nenagh Summer League race will be on the exact route being used for the Tipp Champs. Start at 7:00 SHARP at BIRDHILL. Tea & sandwiches for everyone afterwards too!! ***

Race Details

When? Tuesday, August 1st at 7:00pm SHARP

Where? Birdhill – starts at Nenagh side of the roundabout.

Register: at Cooper’s Pub in the village

Cost: €10

Who can enter? open to all A1, A2, A3, A4, juniors and women. To win county prizes you must be from Tipperary or race with a Tipp club. You can still race and win the cash prizes if you are from outside the county.

**** Facebook: we have created a Facebook event page – please indicate if you are going

Format: the race will be handicapped. The A4s and women will go first followed by the A3 and Junior group. Last will be the A1 / A2 group. The handicaps at the moment are going to be 0, 3, 5, but that could change depending on numbers.

Prizes:

• cash will be awarded for the first 5 finishers across the line
• top 3 in each category get a county medal
• There will also be a team prize (best 3 to count on a team)

Route: most of the course is the same one used in the Nenagh Summer League. However, there are two laps of the Ballyhane hill circuit to do plus a final section that heads over to Montpelier and Daly’s Cross before coming back for the flat sprint finish into Birdhill village. The distance is 60km.

Post-Race Refreshments: get tea, coffee, sandwiches etc at Cooper’s Pub in Birdhill after the race. Prizes will be presented there too.

Weekly Update

Only a few weeks left before our end of season activities and AGM and we will have more information on this in an upcoming bulletin…so keep up the work until then!!

Dromineer Series

This week is the last in the official Dromineer series events so if you have not yet completed an event well get down on Wednesday.

Weekly training

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

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

 Running session: The run session is a continuous Hill run covering 8-10k. Details will be confirmed on the Viber group.

The full weekly schedule:

 Have a good week out there!

We had 6 club members in racing action this weekend and managed to feature in the results. It wasn’t all good news in Athlone though as we lost Eamon to a broken collarbone – all at the club wish him a speedy recovery! Back at home, we had good numbers out training and we got in some good workouts. The Tipp Road Race Champs edge ever closer and this coming Thursday we have our final warm-up event before that race. It’s a dry run of the full course so come and give it a go.

Training

• Tuesday – club cycle at 6:30pm at Stereame
• Thursday – Nenagh Summer League – START FROM BIRDHILL @ 7:00
• Saturday – club cycle at 9:00am at the hotel
  • Racing: in Raparee
• Sunday – club cycle at 8:00am at Tescos
  • Racing: Blarney

Stay up to date with what is going on at the club via our >> Nenagh CC Facebook page

Tipp Champs

Date: Tuesday, August 1st @7:00pm SHARP.

Dry Run: if you want to get a look at the course – join us this Thursday at 7:00 at Birdhill for our last summer league race. Try and figure out where you are going to make that winning break!!!

Marshaling: all club members are expected to either take part or marshal on August 1st. Let us know what your plans are on Viber.

**** Gear Order ****

NCC gear order will be placed with our suppler at the end of the month. Can you please get your order to William Killackey by either viber or text before then. Order details should specify qty, size and type i.e. elite/defend etc. as per the pricelist. Beside each heading on the pricelist is a link if you want to see the different types of jerseys, shorts etc. Also at the bottom of the pricelist is a link to the kit size charts. In addition to regular club gear we are also placing an order for NCC branded Hi-Viz gilets & polo shirts so add these to your order if required.

Once I have all the orders in from everyone I will confirm back the exact cost based on overall quantities – bulk orders gets better pricing – payment must then be made upfront and order will then be placed. Lead time from order placement is circa 5 weeks.

> Click Here to Download the Nenagh CC Gear Price List

Saturday & Sunday Spins

There is no rest for the wicked in the club and those club members that weren’t racing cycled 240km over the weekend taking in the lake and a trip over to Thurles. For once we managed to get through the Thurles route without any knock victims. We welcomed a newcomer to the bunch on our Sunday lake spin. Seán Molloy was well able for the 34km average and 130km distance, rolling through every time without fail. He put some of our more seasoned racers to shame! Our knights in shining armour took an early detour home, escorting a damsel in distress. No points for guessing who those 2 curly haired knights are.

Mike Browne still training away at altitude in France in preparation for the Tipp Champs!

Lands End to John o’Groats: is that a bit of a mad idea?

Weekend Racing

Shannonside GP, Athlone: 6 club members made the trip up to Athlone for this race on Saturday. It was the only race on this weekend so it attracted a lot of big names. In the main A1/A2 race Matty Kennedy and Eamon Hartnett took part. As mentioned already, Eamon’s race didn’t last too long as he came down in a crash. Matty’s had a lot more luck in the race as he managed to get himself into the break of the day off the front. After 130km of racing that break split and Matty found himself in the 2nd small break on the road. He finished in this bunch around 15th place, which was a fine performance.

We also had good performances in the A3 race where Tommy Hanrahan and Kevin Sherlock were taking part. A small break got away near the end of the race but Tommy managed to finish in the points as he got up for 8th place in the sprint finish. Kevin also fought it out in the sprint at the end but finished outside the points. This result leaves Tommy needing just 1 more points for promotion to the A2 ranks.

In the A4 race, the two Wills – Will Killackey and Will Rymer represented the club. It was a quick race but as per usual it all came down to a bunch sprint in the end. Neither lad managed to squeeze into the points on this occasion. It’s great to see both of them in the mix every week now. The results are surely going to come!

Wonderful photo of Will Rymer

5 more weeks of hard slog left before we take our well earned end of season break. It’s great to see plenty of club members still targeting some big end of year races. There are plenty of points to be won and plenty of local races to win them at. The only race this weekend is in Athlone as I think the Sunday race in Fermoy has just been cancelled.  For those too scared to race we will have some good quality training cycles for ye to attend.

Saturday

Training: start at 9:00 at the hotel

Route: we will be heading towards Roscrea, Templemore, Thurles, Kilcommon, Dolla, Nenagh. As it is a longer route, we will try to roll for a long time – from Roscrea to Thurles and from Ballycahill to Dolla. We might split the group in two at Dunkerrin at the start if people want.

Racing: Shannonside GP in Athlone – A1/A2 race (130km), A3 race (99km) and A4 race (66km).

Sunday

Training: starts at 8:00 from Tescos.

Route: we will be doing the lake route; home via Broadford, Daly’s Cross. We might experiment around with a separate tt group for this one, it all depends on numbers. After last week’s tri club vs cycling club showdown we expect training speeds to be a little steadier (especially if you are too cheap to stop in the shop planning on doing the route non stop)

We had a fantastic summer league race yesterday evening. The standard of racing was extremely high with only a select few lasting all the way to the line after 1:15 of racing. It was attack after attack in the scratch group and this allowed the first group to stay away for most of the race. It all came together on the tough Ballyhane circuit and out of a final group of 7 coming to the line, it was Darren Allison from Raparee who got up in the sprint for the win.

Don’t forget – Tipp Champs: Tuesday, August 1st at 7:00pm at Birdhill – the Premier A1, A2, A3, A4, Woman and Junior cyclist in the county will be decided. Also a team prize (top 3 to score). Nenagh CC are the defending team and individual champions from 2016. Come up and beat us if you think your club is hard enough!! As Kenneth Kennedy says “those other Tipp clubs are pure soft and couldn’t even pedal drugs”. Truer words have never been spoken.

Let us know if you are coming via our >> Facebook Event Page.

Please share the event on your own club Facebook page.

We were delighted to see 30 cyclists on the start line for this race. This meant we could have 3 groups on the road at handicaps of 0, 5 and 9. There was a lot of quality on the start line and that meant that the first two bunches were actually quite small and the scratch bunch was very big. This led to a ferocious pace being set all the way in to Nenagh with speeds close to averaging 50km per hour. Group 2 were caught just before the roundabout but group 1 still had a sizeable gap.

After the turn at the roundabout, the co-operation in the scratch bunch stopped. Few people were rolling so the break away attempts started. Alan Buckley, Aichlinn O’Reilly, Con Doherty, Matty Kennedy, Shane Scully and Ronan Costelloe were all heavily involved in the breakaway attempts but every time these breaks were reeled in. There was a short ceasefire as the group neared Birdhill. Most in the bunch had now turned their attention to the upcoming Ballyhane circuit and the hill at Boland’s pub. This allowed Matty Kennedy and Ronan Costelloe to slip off the front and build up a good lead going on to the first lap, but they too would be swallowed up before long.

Group 1 were still out of sight but the Ballyhane circuit can be quite draining so large gaps can be reduced quite quickly on it. Going up the hill for the first time, the race split to bits. Lots of cyclists went out the back and ended up pulling in after just 1 lap. The scratch group were motoring now and they soon caught what was left of group 1 on the Newport rd. Break after break was being thrown in and people were getting more and more tired. It was a war of attrition and with 1 lap to go there was about 10 left.

Video: final ascent of the hill at Ballyhane

The final time up Boland’s Hill saw Aichlinn O’Reilly turn at the roundabout first followed by Con Doherty, Darren Allison, Ronan Costelloe, Daniel Bresnan, Shane Scully, Daniel Yon Hin and Matty Kennedy. Just before Birdhill, Shane and Con put in a big dig and got a gap but with the finish line only over 1km away they were reeled back in. Next to go for glory was Aichlinn and he was soon joined by Darren. This looked like a winning move but Ronan, Matty, Con, Daniel and Shane managed to bring them back to set-up a final sprint finish. Tired legs meant it wasn’t  the fastest sprint finish you will ever see from most but fair play to Darren for getting up for a fine win. He was followed by Con Doherty in 2nd and Ronan Costelloe in 3rd.

Next Up: the last Thursday evening Summer League Race is next week. Next Thursday will be a dry rehearsal of the Tipp Champs route = in and out to Nenagh – 2 Ballyhane circuits – Montpelier / Daly’s Cross route – sprint finish outside Cooper’s pub in Birdhill.

Sign on and race start is from the Nenagh side of BIRDHILL roundabout at 7:00pm SHARP.

Thank you to our 3 Kennedy marshals!

Video Sprint Finish

Weekly Update

Still a number of events on the season calendar so well done to all who keep flying the flag for the club on the triathlon season. We only have a few weeks left on the training schedule before we take a well deserved break so try and make as many sessions as possible up until the end of year swim and AGM!!!!

Monday evening Hill Run

This week sees the return of the Monday special Hill run. It is looking that this will be starting at about 6.30pm and will cover 8-10k with the likely destination up to forests at top of Coum (between the old Limerick road and Portroe). This will be confirmed on the Viber group and will continue for the next couple of weeks so keep an eye on your phone!!!!

Dromineer Series

This week we will have another in the Dromineer series with the usual formats on offer.

At present we have no one available to officially time the event so if anyone is free on Wednesday to do the times from 7pm that would be great!!!!

Weekly training

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

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

 Running session: The run session is a continuous Hill run covering 8-10k. Details will be confirmed on the Viber group.

The full weekly schedule:

 Have a good week out there!

The team covered 250km of road this weekend at training. Cycling took us through Tipperary, Limerick, Galway and Clare; you certainly get to know every nook and cranny of the region when out and about on your bike. We had a crowd of 4 down racing at the local race in Golden organised by the Tipperary Wheelers, read how they got on below. We also have news of a new gear order about to be sent in and a new date has been selected for the big Tipperary Road Race.

Training

• Tuesday – club training at 6:30 at Stereame – if you want to start cycling with our club then this is the best cycle to start off with.
• Thursday – Nenagh Summer League – race 14 – 7:00 at Gooig. 2 lap Ballyhane circuit.
• Saturday – club cycle at 9:00 at tthe hotel
• Sunday – club cycle at 8:00 at Tescos

Tipperary Road Race: NEW RACE DATE = Tuesday, Aug 1st at 7:00 SHARP at Birdhill.

Make sure to pop over to our Facebook event page

• 2 more warm-up dates to get ready for the Tipp Champs
  • Summer League race 14 – 2 circuits of Ballyhane included
  • Summer League race 15 – dry run of the actual 60km circuit starting from Birdhill.

Marshals: all club members are expected to either race or marshal. Will Rymer is in charge of the marshal list so get in contact with him to let him know if you are available. Our preference is for club members to race if possible.

Gear Order: the amount of holey jerseys and see through shorts in the club is at dangerous levels. We are well over due a gear order. Will Killackey has taken up the gear ordering reins and we are sure he will do a far better job than Kenneth. We will be adding a little bit of hi-viz to our gilet design for winter. Full ordering details will be on the website early next week. We will be collecting money with the order = all money has to be paid up front, so go break the piggy bank now.

End of Year Cycle + AGM: there are still plenty more weeks left to the season but a few people have been asking when the official Nenagh CC training season End of Year Cycle + AGM will take place. The answer to that is Saturday, August 26th. After that we will be taking a break for a few weeks before returning for pre-season training in October.

• EoYC: will take place on a local course. We encourage everyone that has cycled with us this year to make a special effort to be there, even if you only cycle half the cycle with us. We will have a food break half way around where the club will pay for everyone’s lunch. The speed will be handy enough at this as it’s just a friendly way of calling an end to the season.

Weekend Racing

Tipp Wheelers GP: well done to at this race. It was a great day for cycling and the lads felt that the Tipp Wheelers put on a great race. None of the lads quite got into the actual points but it’s another race under the belt and more racing experience points won! In the A1/A2 race, Matty Kennedy was in action – here is what he had to say “Bunch finish for me, lots of break attempts from the gun, the one that eventually stuck came towards the end of the first lap containing most of the top lads, tried bridging across with 2 lads, lasted about 10 mins in between and back into the bunch, that was it then, bunch was happy to chase any attempts to bridge across with no proper chase organized. Good safe race though.”

In the A3 race Jurgen Simpson was racing – “No points for me. Came in 15th-ish. Safe and very well organised race”. In the A4 race William Killackey continued his racing education”Bunch finish, rolled in about 15th. A break of 3 went at the start of the 3rd lap in the A4 race and stayed away, bunch didn’t try too hard to reel them as they weren’t far up the road. I went on a break around 55k, one other lad came across but we didn’t stay away long. Need to work on my sprint for the finish!!” He was joined by Donnchadh in the race and he managed to also finish in the bunch but just outside of the top 10.

The weather looks excellent for another weekend of quality cycling so don’t even think about hanging up your cycling shoes for the summer. We are not quite finished yet. Opting out now and taking a 2.5 month break before winter training starts again is a disaster of a plan. There is still plenty more you can achieve; so set yourself an end of season goal and train for it. Maybe it’s the Charleville / Wexford 2 Day or maybe it’s just a training goal of improving your sprinting, climbing etc. Maybe you have taken a year out from the club and are looking to get back out with us. There is no better time to get back out on the road. The work you do now over the next 8 weeks will stand to you next year so make it count.

Club Meeting: a few club members will be meeting up at Matty Kennedy’s house, out near the flyover, on Saturday to discuss plans for the Tipp Champs race on Aug 1st. It takes place at 2:00pm. Feel free to come along and give us your input. There is a free cup of tea/coffee and some biscuits in it for you! As always, we value your input but obviously we will be just going with what Shane and Kenneth say anyway.

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

Route: we will be heading up Dolla (short cuts available to those fearing the climb) and over to Rearcross, Newport, Daly’s Cross, O’Brien’s Bridge, Killaloe, Nenagh. There will be two groups on the road so pick the speed you want to go at. There will also be 2 interval sessions.

Sunday Spin: meet at 8:00 at Tescos.

Route: we will be heading around the lake but returning via Broadford, Daly’s Cross. Two interval sessions. 2nd interval goes from Broadford. Coffee stop in Scarriff as usual.

Racing: our near neighbours the Tipp Wheelers have their big race on this Sunday, July 16th. There is a full program of racing scheduled with an A1/A2 race and separate A3 and A4 races too. Best of luck to all club members who attend. Click to view the Race Facebook Event page

Last weekend was a very proud one for the Nenagh Triathlon Club. Not many clubs in Ireland can claim to have helped train a senior international triathlete. Even fewer can lay claim to having trained two! Both Darren Dunne and Ailbhe Carroll represented Ireland in senior elite international action in Estonia last week. Tis a long way they have come, from listening to Keith Butler spouting nonsense at swimming sessions to lining up with some of the best triathletes in the world. They still have plenty of work to do to truly ‘make it’ but they have time on their side and the right attitude too.

Everyone at the club just wants to say how proud we are of your achievements. Hopefully your success will help inspire our newest batch of juniors to reach for the stars.

“But I could never do that……” well not with that attitude you won’t!! Triathletes aren’t just born, they are made. You have to work hard to make it. Wishful thinking won’t get you there; go out and make it happen just like Darren and Ailbhe did!! With great clubs in town like the Tri Club, Nenagh CC, Nenagh Neptune Swimming Club and Nenagh Olympic there are no excuses for not being able to get to a very high standard in swimming, cycling and running. Show enthusiasm, be consistent in your training & never give up and you too could be representing Ireland in the future.

Numbers were quite small at this week’s league race with just 22 on the start line. This seems to happen every year as people call time on their racing seasons very early and just as the weather picks up too. Cyclists seem to prefer the cold of the winter for their training! We will get twice as many out for training on a dark, frosty October morning. There are still plenty of top events to sign up for this year so don’t throw the towel in just yet. July is very early for putting the feet up. If you want to see improvements next year then focus on finishing out this year all the way to the end. It will stand to you!!!

Even though numbers were small, the quality of racing this evening was absolutely fantastic. Everyone finished in a body bag as it was attack after attack on the longer course. Fair play to Peter Leahy, Paul O’Connell and Derek Cullen for withstanding everything Nenagh CC could throw at them. Well almost everything, Mike Browne did mange to get up for the win in the end so job done!

There were just 2 groups on the road today. It was a tough call with regards to what handicap to give the first bunch. The handicaps from the previous week were 0, 5, 8 but with only 2 bunches now would 8 minutes be far too much or 3 minutes far too little? In the end we went with a 7 minute gap, but this proved to be far too little as the first bunch on the road just didn’t work well together. In contrast, the scratch bunch worked well and they had the first part of the bunch caught on the Yellowbridge drag on the way back to Birdhill.

A very strong head wind on the way back to Birdhill meant that it was going to be tough to break away from the bunch. Thankfully, this didn’t deter the riders as break after break went down the road. The first to break was Peter Leahy. He put in a great burst but was chased down by Nenagh CC riders. Straight away 3 or 4 Nenagh riders broke over the top and joined another 4 or 5 for a large break down the road.

They were gradually moving away while those in the back bunch watched for movement from Peter. 1 by 1 the Nenagh CC riders were getting across. But a big effort from Peter brought him back into the race as the group ahead got onto the first of 2 laps of the Ballyhane circuit. After the first hill climb half the front bunch went out the back. In this race, anyone that ended up out the back just pulled in and didn’t finish the 2 circuits. There was a lot of cat and mouse on the road but at the end of the first lap there were still 8 in the bunch Peter Leahy, Paul O’Connell, Derek Cullen, Declan Foley and the Nenagh CC riders Mike Browne, Shane Scully, Matty Kennedy and Con Kennedy.

The final time up the hill was very tough. By the top, just Peter, Shane and Mike were left. Things looked good for Nenagh CC. However, on the way over to Birdhill the tactical warfare allowed Paul to regain contact. Mike Browne went on a break. When he was caught Shane went. Down the hill they went and the 4 were still together. Mike broke again and was caught and then with 1km to go Shane went. He got a gap but it wasn’t going to be enough. Derek Cullen had regained contact at this stage and so the 4 remaining lads passed Shane on the home straight and battled for the win. In the end, Mike Browne had enough to come around Peter on the line with Derek in 3rd place.

Finish Line Video – can anyone make out the one word response from Peter after getting pipped?

That was some war of attrition on what will be 3/4s of the Tipp Champs course. Fair play to everyone for giving it a go. Thanks also to our marshals Ned and John Gleeson + Donnchadh Floyd.

Next up: Race 14 takes place on the same course next week. Once again, we will do 2 circuits. The week after that we will do a dry run of the Tipp Champs course so that one is not to be missed.

Tipp Champs: new race date of Tuesday, August 1st. County medals to be won in A1, A2, A3, A4, vets, women and junior categories plus cash prizes for top 5 finishers. For the continued success of a race like this we really need the support of all Tipperary clubs. Please spread the message to all your members. Thank you.