This past weekend has been a spectacular success for everyone involved in bringing the Giro d’Italia to Ireland. Darach McQuaid and his team deserve huge credit for attracting the second biggest bike race in the World to our shores. Today there is a subdued feeling as the event has moved on back to Italy yet …
1 : GET THE BONK – At some stage you must go too far with too little food at too high an average speed with too little training done and push yourself so far that you loose all sense of your surroundings and find yourself in a trance willing your legs to keep turning around. …
After a very enjoyable trip to Rathkeale to ride the Southern Heritage Trail last week I was left with a taste for more Greenway cycling adventures. This week I found myself in Galway midweek so decided to head on up to Westport just over an hour and a half further north to try out the most …
Did you know that there is a cycle map designed that would enable you to travel throughout pretty much every country in Europe on specific cycle routes. All of the details can be found here at ‘Eurovelo‘ Ireland has 2 Eurovelo Routes. One called Eurovelo 1 stretches from the border in Donegal all the way …
Yesterday I attended a one day seminar by Gerry Duffy in Dublin. For those who never heard of Gerry he is a Mullingar man who along with Ken Whitelaw has raised over €300,000 for Irish Autism by running 32 Marathons in 32 Days and who won the Deca Ironman event in the UK. That’s 10 …
It is often said that a picture paints a thousand words. There are literally millions of pictures of cycling taken around the world and posted online each day. Many of these can be good, some are great and then there a small few that are exceptional. What does it take for a picture to be …
Today Sam Bennett took another massive win that furthers his journey to the very top of professional cycling. In the Rund um Koln he managed to unleash a massive sprint that saw him catapult himself past Markus Barry, the Belkin sprinter and last years Milan San Remo winner Gerald Ciolek. Sam was also joined in …
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 So, I’m just putting it out there in case Oprah is looking for someone to confess all …
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 …
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 used …
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 …