Navan GP June 13th 2010

godihatedehills

Anyone doing it and any details yet?

I found this on the website....150k, can that be right??

Navan Road Club : Grand Prix
June 13, 2010 (11:00 am)
(Races) Underage 11a.m. Cannistown circuit
Main Race 1p.m. Slane Road, using Roadstone Slane/ Woodtown x/Cassidy x / Wilkinstown /Kilberry/ Gormanlough lap.Finish is on Proudstown Rd ... Navan. 150k.

Lumen

From here.

"Mark Quigley rode a grueling 100 miles in the Navan GP to finish in the top 5 of the B category".

DirkVoodoo

Surely there is no A4 race then?

Chips Lovell

There's a Women's National League race there as well? I presume that might be a bit shorter. As for the men's race, it's listed on the calendar as all categories. I guess more details will filter out before the weekend. Still, 150km, a good alternative to the Wicklow 200.

godihatedehills

el tonto wrote: »

There's a Women's National League race there as well?

Yes, and it's actually 80k max. thank god.

shaungil

From Irish cycling. Hopefully seperate.

Navan, has a unique place in in world terms when it comes to-A palindromic place is a city or town that can be spelled either from left to right or right to left identically. An example of this would be Navan in Ireland and of course it is the home of the Navan Avonmore Club.

It's only an hour from Dublin, but the Navan/Avonmore CC can be relied on to put on a top class programme any day of the week and on Sunday they will be out in their best for racing at its best with all categories catered for and they mean all categories. The Rugby Club will be the hub where everything will start cranking up for a day of racing in the environs of the Navan town.

They will have a senior 1 and 2 combined race over 160 kilometres and a 3 and 4 cat race this will be separated depending on the number that turn up but is likely to be two separate races of 2 laps each, here will also be a separate women’s race as part of the national league and the finish is at Simons town in the usual place.

Sign on at Navan Rugby club, Navan Co. Meath. Main race 150km. For details contact John Nolan 087-2238873

Children's racing is on the Cannistown circuit Navan outskirts at 11am.

Main races start 1pm Slane Road, using Roadstone Slane/ Woodtown x/Cassidy x / Wilkinstown /Kilberry/
Gormanlough lap. The finish is on Proudstown Rd . The main race is 95miles (160km) & the supporting race is 45mls. This race is set once again to attract some exciting cycling and will be well attended by cyclists from all over Ireland. People are invited to come out and see some road cycling at its best and support the participants along the routes.

After the enforced break after the FBD Insurance Ras many of the A1's will be back in action. Thankfully, some might say a race just short of 100 miles will certainly be an appetiser for the upcoming National Championships in Sligo at the end of the month. If you are keeping an eye on competition in Europe, you may have noticed that a number of pros are opting out of there respective national championships. Philip Pozzato runner up to Mark Scanlon in 1998 will give the Italian champs a miss.

Adam Armstrong who seems to like racing in the Meath area with his EuroCycles team and seems an obvious choice to put his season on the top rung.

Chips Lovell

Enjoyed this one, even though the weather was lousy and I ended up dropping out. Nice circuit, with a lot of rolling drags on the first half and some very fast roads on the second.

Went into it with zero expectations since I haven't raced properly in about a month and just wanted to hang on as long as possible. The A4 bunch seemed to split on the drags and I stayed up with the front bunch. We got caught by the A3s near the end of the first lap, at which point the heavens opened. Had to take off the shades because I couldn't see a thing, but the rain was so heavy it kept getting into my eyes and dislodging my contact lenses. Not fun, trying to hold a wheel in pouring rain and fiddling with my lenses.

At the start of the last lap I was beginning to believe I was going to hang with the bunch till the finish. Then: Pssssst. Puncture. Race over.

I think Shaungil placed in my race. Two women from Mullingar took first and second in the women's race and Aideen from Orwell was third. No idea about any other results.

jimbo28

what a disaster!

first 2 miles fine.............then, lost my cateye so went back for it, still intact on the road although not sure how, bout 20 cars must have went over it. said id chase back to A4 group..........ya..........sat up for the A3, felt good......bout 20 miles in and punctured.............no broom wagon.............15 mins on the side of the road thinking where the **** is the broomwagon? some guy from navan picked me up even though he had nothing to do with the race, fair ****ing play is all i could say to him. got back to the rugby club.......cold ****in showers...........jaysus wot a day, could it get any worse i thought?? why did i think it! speeding ticket outside Ballyforan on way back to galway. im goin for a blast of pints!! well done to shaungil and any other boards lads that got up. will probably get arrested for drunk n disorderly on me way home:D.

and before anyone else says it...........at least i didnt crash!

E@gle.

What a disaster for me as well, punctured before the race started and the only wheel i could get had a junior block with the biggest gear being a 16, so i was spinning like crazy and pulled out after the first lap

shaungil

First unplaced A4 for me think 9th overall. A4's had a 3 min start and as usual no-one prepared to pick the pace up. I had been told to try and sit up as there was no way the A4's would stay away after Thursday so conserve energy but I got bored so had a few hard-ish goes but no appetite for work really consistently from many others.

Eased up before Slane as the hill was coming and didn't no what to expect. Stayed in top 4/6 and few lads jumped but didn't know the lie of the land so just went at my own pace. Far side of hill started to put in some stints and not much going on. At one stage I went slightly off the front bunch caught me left me there so I just upped the tempo a bit and moved off. It's getting ridiculous lads just will not work at all. We are doing bike racing yes.

3/4's thru fiirst lap 2 A3's caught us and we had a nice up and over going at good pace in torrential rain. tooorrrrreeeennntial rain. No idea how there wasn't a crash. Group caught us and a few lads had digs and a few breaks got going. I had a team mate in one so sat on and actually started feeling cold and the pace was very stop start so all over the brakes which weren't working great in the wet.

Sat on for rest of lap and the break away were always in sight but obviusly couldn't chase it and wasn't confident enough to bridge (didn't think they'd stay away anyway).

Towards end watched 3 wheels (they finished 1st 2nd and 4th). Wasn't too happy with my finish as I didn't get a proper pace going as it was nearer than I thought. If I was on the ball might have made a few more places.

Still happy days Leinster TT on Thursday on the new Photon TT bike. Beast's helmet skin suit overshoes and the whole shebang but will not be shaving legs.

Will throw a photo of bike up when I have it sized.

PS One specail note of mention has to go to a fellow A4 rider (moron) who cycled up the outside of the group to maybe 3 bikes from front beside me when we were tipping along nicely and then decided to take a drink and veer into me , catching his bars under mine. About 5 people shouted at him. close one and totally unnessescary (sp)

Chips Lovell

E@gle. wrote: »

What a disaster for me as well, punctured before the race started and the only wheel i could get had a junior block with the biggest gear being a 16, so i was spinning like crazy and pulled out after the first lap

I was talking to you at the finish. I was the guy in the Orwell gear who'd also punctured.

shaungil wrote: »

It's getting ridiculous lads just will not work at all. We are doing bike racing yes.

I was one of the guilty parties yesterday. Haven't raced a while and was just trying to get around in one piece.

Chips Lovell

Some pics from Brendan Culleton.

Me:





Shaungil:





Godihatedhills:





Some guy who's taking his fashion cues from Gilberto Simoni:

cdaly_

jimbo28 wrote: »

could it get any worse i thought?? why did i think it! speeding ticket outside Ballyforan on way back to galway.

Eeek! Where outside Ballyforan? Just on the approach to the speed limit? Are they strict on the 80kph? (I find I'll be drifting up towards the 100 on that stretch after the crappy surfaces earlier...)

Peterx

did the A3 yesterday, my first road race in along time. My GF was doing the ladies race so I thought I'd head along. It was a fairly quiet and nervous car heading out. Another mate was with us and his mate had warned him about the madness and the crashes and all that. As it happens it was super, very good and safe and not so fast that we couldn't play at the front the odd time.
Great buzz, great fun, loads of lads shooting up the road without a chance of staying away but trying anyway. I had some goes on the front, some goes recovering in the bunch and the bunch seemed really steady, no shouting or roaring or silly weaving. The cars were mostly very good at pulling in and letting us through. The really heavy shower was unbelievable, over 40kph tearing along the road and couldn't see anything at times, it was like being under the water in a pool.
When the A4's were caught I thought there might be some madness but it still felt safe. Great fun chasing down the break (like "real" racing)
The finish seemed to just come and I think a lot of lads were caught out as there wasn't the mad wind-up I had fondly hoped for watching watching da T.V.
Only bummer was sitting in the clubhouse after with nary a sandwich and 6 plates of wrapped up sambo's in a fridge presumably awaiting the A1/2 lads to come back.
Well done to all involved, had a blast. thanks!

DirkVoodoo

Great first photo of El Assos, nearly worthy of a caption competition.

godihatedehills

DirkVoodoo wrote: »

Great first photo of El Assos, nearly worthy of a caption competition.

Almost as worthy as this one....

ROK ON

A cigar after a ride. Says it all really.

Sorry couldn't resist.

Beasty

Congratulations to everyone, and particularly shaungil for another great result.

el tonto wrote: »

I was one of the guilty parties yesterday. Haven't raced a while and was just trying to get around in one piece.

I'm sure that if you and shaungil did come together it would have been a case of the irresistable force meeting the immovable object, and I would have felt the shockwaves down here in Miami:D

shaungil

That would be a nice draft behind the two of us alright, though the cigar smoke might upset some of the delicate lungs behind.

niceonetom

godihatedehills wrote: »

Almost as worthy as this one....

I think changing the policy from "have a cigar if you get dropped" to " have a cigar if you place" might be beneficial - as it stands it's a bit self-perpetuating.

Sounds like a fun day though. Well done to all. I love that study in cornering/concentration above.

godihatedehills

niceonetom wrote: »

Sounds like a fun day though

I can assure you it wasn't.....

Chips Lovell

DirkVoodoo wrote: »

Great first photo of El Assos, nearly worthy of a caption competition.

You'd swear I was doing hard sums by the look of concentration.

E@gle.

el tonto wrote: »

I was talking to you at the finish. I was the guy in the Orwell gear who'd also punctured.

Ha, i wasn't in the best of moods then.