Lakeside Wheelers Notes
Upcoming events: I got a text from Katherine Kenny who asked me to mention a few forthcoming events. The Wheelers" quiz night, under the capable direction of social secretary, Seamus Bracken, takes place this Thursday 26th March in Con"s bar at 9.00pm.Come along and impress us with the breadth and depth of your knowledge, it should be a great evening.On 5th April there is the heartbreaker duathlon at Belvedere. And, of course - the big one - the Spring Spin to Sligo on April 18 and 19. For this latter event, if you have not already done so, please get your application form in to Paraic Devine without any further delay.My training for the latter event kicked off with a 75Km spin to Moate and back via Horseleap in the company of several distinguished Wheeler and Wheelerettes. It was lovely to see Arthur Dempsey back out on the road after his recent illness, and he was really flying. Arthur, along with a few others whose names I missed, put in a 105Km stint yesterday morning in very foggy conditions and it looks like he should have no trouble at all with the Sligo outing. And great too to see that Claire Malone has returned safely from a tour of Australia - well done Claire, keeping the Wheelers" flag flying in a distant corner of the globe.Tom Shaw tells me that a few Wheelers from various groups put in a stint in the Slieve Blooms on Friday. Starting in Lilliput, they covered about 120 km and Tom reckons that will give the Wheelers who completed the distance great confidence for the Sligo outing. Pat Gorman and Paul Murtagh got a mention in despatches, having joined the group in Lilliput after cycling from Mullingar, and by the time they got home they must have had a total of nearly 150km.By the way, the clocks go forward next Sunday, so remember to turn up at the dog track at the new time, i.e. an hour "earlier" than usual. I know that when the clocks went back last October, a few Wheelers turned up an hour late. This time, I won"t be surprised if some of them turn up still in their pyjamas or nighties, yawning from the lack of sleep.There"s actually a lot of news to get through this week. Cathy Flynn sent me on a copy of the minutes from the last committee meeting. I had to miss the meeting due to domestic commitments (?) but it looks like they had a busy old time. Katherine Kenny reported that, disappointingly, she had had to cancel a first aid training session due to a lack of interest. Mick Reynolds still has a large stock of club gear, and there is talk of getting hold of some casual Wheelers" clothing such as polo shirts, club fleeces and T shirts. An important item for discussion was the need to maintain sensible group sizes when out on the road. It was felt that group sizes should generally be limited to a maximum of 14 for safety reasons, so larger groups than that will need to be split before leaving the departure point of any spin.Joint Competitions officer, Mark Horohoe, sent me an email listing the major outings for the year. I have attached a PDF of the club diary and the text of Mark"s email is below;A few key points:The 10 stage Club Race League starts on April 9 (More details of routes etc in the next week). There appears to be great interest from A, B and C groups for the league this year.The Underage events will take place on Monday evenings this year and will run for the summer months on alternate weeks to the club race league. Robbie has big plans to build upon the strong foundations of last year success.Mullingar GP is May 17.Tour of the Lakes is on July 19thThe very successful Family Fun Day is July 26The Team Time Trial is always a well attended event, with 48 taking part in 2008. There are often many people who get the bug for more after enjoying the Team Time Trial but are disappointed that the club race league has already ended. So this year on Shay"s suggestion the Team Time Trial takes place on June 10, between round 5 and 6 of the club league.Due to the enthusiastic entry at the Hill Climb in Multyfarnham last year it was decided to include the event again.The dates for the Midlands League have been confirmed and it kicks off on April 16 in Mount Temple. The league is a joint event between our club and Shannonside CC (Athlone), Tullamore, Wolftrap and Laois. As last year the results of 4 rounds of our club league are also points scoring events for the Midlands league. The 16 events are noted ML1 to ML16 on the calendar. (ML1 = Midlands League stage 1)The dates for the popular and challenging Into the West (September 5th/6th) and Spring Spin (April 18th/19th) are listed. Other events listed included are some key open races at which there has been a good attendance by club members in recent years. Key tours such as the Wicklow 100/200, Athlone Heartlands Tour, Tullamore Pat Colgan Tour, are also listed The Cycling Ireland handbook which all paid up members will get with their licence lists all open events (MTB, Tours, Races) so only a selection of the Key events were included on our calendar.Thanks Mark!I"ve been told that the Clonard Road Club has been restarted. I"m delighted to see that the cycling gospel is being spread, and good luck to all the members. I think I may have come across a few of them on the road near Clonard (surprise, surprise) a couple of Sundays ago.Finally, Conor Isdell sent in a report on the B group spin last weekend. It arrived just too late for inclusion in last week"s notes. Take it away, Conorâ¦."While nearly everyone is getting excited and joining the A group, a steady following of B"s are establishing themselves. With the numbers in the group ranging from 10 to 14, we are having to share the burden of work at the front a bit more often thus making us into stronger riders. Watch out members of the A group,when the season gets into full swing in July/August don"t be surprised if the B"s come surging past. The 'Hare and the Tortoise' story comes to mind as is the saying 'there are no prizes for winter champions'. We headed on one of the more frequented routes down to Horseleap, over to Clara, back to Tullamore, Rochfortbridge and home. Alan, a keen mountain biker and friend of Charlie Sheridan, joined us for the first time and I hope he enjoyed the spin and look forward to having him back next week."We stopped at Tullamore and while we don"t need to rest our bones by sitting down, we are rather partial to a cup of coffee and a danish. Probably not great cycling food but what the hell, life has to be enjoyed! From Tyrrellspass onwards on the way home the speed increased and everyone had a go at breaking away. Coming near town we all re-grouped and cycled back to the dog track together. One last thing to note - on returning to the dogtrack I noticed that one of our group was wearing his gloves back to front - i.e. the padded part facing up and not down. He tried to tell me that (a) he could feel the handling of the bike better that way - a zen like thing - 'man and bike all one unit' and (b) in the event of a fall there was gel cushioning to break his fall. Mmmmmmm..... the mind boggles!Care to join us?Would you like to join us for a cycle? Cyclists of all standards are welcome to come along. We usually meet at the Mullingar Dog Track at 9am on Sunday mornings. Up to four groups now leave from the dog track, including one especially for beginners, or those who may have some cycling experience and would like to see if cycling with a group is for them. The beginners" group covers about 30 - 50 km at a fairly leisurely pace, but even to complete that sort of distance would require a basic level of cycling fitness and a suitable bike.Just turn up on any given Sunday, call me on 087 1216 345 or visit our website at lakesidewheelers.ie for information and advice on how to get going. Please remember to check the club message board at http://lakesidewheelers.proboards51.com/index.cgi for details of any last minute changes before setting off.