D Group head for Castlepollard

LAKESIDE WHEELERS CYCLING CLUB NOTES

On Saturday a large group assembled at O’Brien’s. Word had spread a member of the group was celebrating a major milestone so everyone wanted to be in on the act.

For safety and social distancing the groups split into two. The first group under the capable leadership of Ulrika and Tosh headed out towards Ballinafid. Hot on their heels the second group followed.

It was a leisurely spin to Ballinafid and onto Multyfarnham. From here the group took the scenic route to Coole. The customary tea/scone stop was arranged for Tullynally Castle. Elaine and her excellent staff had the tables ready and beautiful homemade scones for everyone.

The birthday boy (Jim Murray) was left speechless when a cake was presented and a rousing rendition of “Happy Birthday” could be heard around the courtyard. Poor Jim, for once in his life had no reply.

Once refreshed the first group headed into Castlepollard and Tosh brought them on the scenic lake road and into Collinstown. From here it was cross country towards Clonkill and home.

The second group headed for Bratty Road and cross country back to town. Both groups had a respectable distance and everyone returned safely.

A warm welcome to the new faces. I hope you all enjoyed your first outing with the Lakeside Wheelers and we look forward to seeing you next week, if we didn’t put you off!

B Group, Sunday September 6

For the second consecutive week there were enough Wheelers out on Sunday morning to make up two groups. It doesn’t really matter if these groups are called B1 and B2 or faster Bs/slower Bs.

The fact is that for the first time in a long time with the Bs we now have enough members coming out consistently on Sunday mornings to be able to run two groups and this is wonderful news for the club group structure overall.

Having two viable and consistent B groups operating allows club riders much more scope to match their fitness levels to the group of their choice. Whether it’s a fast D group rider who wants to improve and start to cycle with the B2 group, or a faster A2 rider who has been off the bike for a while and wants to start rebuilding their fitness and finds the pace of the B1 group more suitable, that option is now there, so please continue to show up for the Sunday morning spin.

The club is very lucky that we have very capable group leaders to safely marshal these different groups every week so keep coming out to those spins.

If you haven’t been out in a while, then now you know that there is a suitable group there for you. If you are not a member and would like to know more about us then email secretary@lakesidewheelers.ie.

National Championships 2020

All the action this weekend coming September 12 and 13 will be around the roads of Castlebar as the 2020 Ireland Masters and A3 road race championships will be held.

There are time trial or TT races on Saturday with the main road races being held on the Sunday.

This year Lakeside Wheelers will have riders competing in all of the road race categories. Our lone A3 rider is Ian Lambden while in the M40 category will be contested by Michael Walshe and David Lally.

The M50 category will have Ronan Bracken, Aidan Daly, Paul Murtagh and Brendan Kiernan representing. It’s Brendan ‘Tosh’ Kiernan's second year to compete in the nationals in the M50s and this year he will be looking to improve on the fantastic fifth place he achieved in 2019.

Finally, there are two club stalwarts in the guise of PJ Carey and Seamus Moran competing in the M60 category with Seamus going in both the TT and the road race.

These are impressive numbers of entries from the club and it’s a credit to everyone that they have put in the training and committed to achieving the fitness levels required to race in the nationals.

We wish all the riders the very best of luck in Castlebar and we’ll have a report of how the weekends racing went in next week’s edition.

Racing notes

Conor T Farrell competed in the A3 Cal McCarthy Memorial Cup hosted by Kilmallock Cycling Club at the weekend. He finished in the bunch just behind the first ten. Spectators were not permitted, and were confined to the car park. Well done to Conor on a great achievement.