How can the roughest, toughest, cobble eating, man mountain of a bike rider like this manage to do something like this to a beautiful Ferrari It just doesn't add up which I'm sure is what Niki 'I just won Paris Roubaix' Terpstra must have been saying to Tomeke at the race track yesterday Now…
1 : Use your gears. Don't struggle in a gear in the middle of the cassette just to have a few gears left in reserve if you get in trouble further up the hill. By trying to 'save' a few gears you will get in trouble. - 2 : Be willing to suffer. Know…
Lance Armstrong is now doing instructional videos on how to fix a puncture as can be seen in this link ; http://www.outsideonline.com/featured-videos/gear-videos/bikes/How-to-Fix-a-Flat--with-Lance-Armstrong.html He is not the first to do an instructional video on how to fix a puncture http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HciZQLXpAjI So, I'm just putting it out there in case Oprah is looking for someone to confess…
Very often when people are buying a new road bike for the first time they baulk at the suggestion of adding clipless pedals such as Look, Shimano, Speedplay, Time or any other variation. This may well be a mistake. The main concern they have is the perception that it will be more difficult to release…
Have you ever found yourself in a situation and thought to yourself 'This is a bit surreal' ? I found myself in one of those situations recently when I was sitting with Sean Kelly and who came along but Sam Bennett. We chatted away and then Sean asked Sam what his programme of races was…
Barry www.thecyclingblog.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WUbAjQFondo This week is the most important week of the year in the cycling calendar. From the Tour of Flanders last Sunday to Paris Roubaix on Sunday next these 8 days can define the entire career of a rider. The Tour of the Basque country in Spain is part of the 29 races that are…
1 . Always sprint on the drops. You will be safer and faster unless it's a steep uphill finish when it's acceptable to use the hoods. 2. Look where you're going. Keep watching where you are going and what's in front of you. 3. Train for sprinting. You will never become good at something that…
Tomorrow morning when young Sam Bennett from Carrick on Suir wakes up and peels back the curtains it will not be the river Suir that he looks out upon. He will not be leaving the house at ten to nine alongside his Dad to line up at the old ESB office between O'Mahoney…
In his book 'Visions of Cycling' photographer Graham Watson speaks very highly of The King Tomorrow The King returns to the cobbles of Flanders to ride the Sportive before enthralling us all with his commentary on Eurosport the following day. Barry www.thecyclingblog.com
Out on the bike this morning with the winner of the 1980 edition of the 3 Days of De Panne, a race that is currently taking place I heard an unusual story about an unusual visitor to the peleton one year during the race. The Belgian race is designed for hard men and good bike…
(This pic was actually taken yesterday on The Vee Valley Challenge between Burncourt and Clogheen) Each and every weekend from now until the end of September there will be Sportive and charity cycles taking place in every corner of the land. Some like the Ring of Kerry will have 9000 people on the 180k…
On my first day in secondary school as I walked into the yard of The High School in Clonmel I bumped into the late Patrick Kennedy, the grandson of a neighbour from Grange. It was good to see a familiar friendly face and he brought me over to meet a few of his friends. He…
Today in the shop Ray, John and I huddled around the small screen of an iPhone hoping that no customer would walk into the shop for the next five minutes. Commercially this is not a good attitude to have, we depend upon our great customers to make a living but normal everyday life was now…
One busy Saturday afternoon these two people walked in separately into our Clonmel bike shop. Whilst browsing through the selection of bikes their eyes met over a set of handlebars and they struck up a conversation. Fast forward a year a half later to September last and a wedding that was initiated in a bike…
Is the Trek Domane (pronounced Doh-Mah-Nay) the perfect bike for Irish roads ? That was the question that I had going around in my head after first seeing one in the flesh last year. The reviews online suggested that it might be. The info and sales pitch on the Trek website were convincing that it…
Cyclists are great for nicknames. The pro's have Fabian 'Spartacus' Cancellara, Tony 'The Panzerwagon' Martin, Bradley 'Wiggo' Wiggins and Mark 'The Manx Missile' Cavendish. Even our local training group has Smiler, Iggy Bock, Nana, Gizmo and of course The King. In the shop we are often an unofficial Tourist information office regularly giving people directions to the…
This week I was fortunate enough to again attend the An Post Sean Kelly Chain Reaction team training camp in Calpe on the coast of Spain. It's always nice to start the year with a taste of some sunshine cycling and to shorten the Irish winter. There are some new faces on the team in…
January first is always associated with fresh starts and new beginnings. For some that can mean resolutions broken by mid-day whilst for others it can mean an entire life changing event. This morning in Carrick on Suir, in a town square named after one of the greatest cyclists of all time a cycling club gathered…
As a child I learned how to check the direction of the wind by sucking my baby finger and holding it up in the air. The side that felt cold first was the side where the wind was coming from. Times change and now I press the accuweather app on the screen of my iPhone…