*Pass the Bubble Wrap Please*

BennyMul

Sorry to hear about the crash, did see the pictures on Stickbottle and looked nasty, it is usually a common occurrence at the start of the season as people are nervous.
don't let it deter you from racing unfortunately its part and parcel of the sport, (if it was easy everyone would do it).

do you know Brian O'Neill from out that way?

Solobally8

Victor Wet Sunspot wrote: »

Make sure you change bandages regularly on any areas of road rash, I remember last year when I crashed out in Clonard I ripped my elbow to shreds and left bandages on too long. Painful taking them off.
Speedy recovery.

I'm lucky in that I dont have any serious road rash thank god, it's mainly bruises except for my knee, shoulder and face.

BennyMul wrote: »

do you know Brian O'Neill from out that way?

I sure do, he actually gave me a lift to the race in Loughrea recently. Small world

Solobally8

So I didn't write up a race report on the race in Loughrea two weeks ago because I was so disappointed with myself. I had a great day, traveling up with the lads from my old club, the North Tipp Wheelers , but I found the pace of the A4s way too fast for me and was spat out the back after 8kms. I pulled out after the first lap and sulked for the rest of the day. I even talked about getting rid of my bikes and giving up on this crazy plan to race!

Then I went out on the following Tuesday night for my first night time cycle with the Wheelers and bloody loved it! Fast and furious with sprints. I was dropped after the third of 6 but it didn't matter I was back in love with cycling! The rest of the week followed suit, all my spins felt great, including the Pakie Ryan Memorial Sportive in Clare on Saturday. So I decided what the heck, I'm going to head to Slane on my own to enter my first woman's race.

Race Day - Sunday 16th March Boyne GP
I left home at 7am slightly sleepy but very excited. This was totally unknown territory for me. I had no idea what the standard in a women's only race would be like and I was eager to find out if my long hard winter of training was going to pay off. The aim for the day was to try to keep up with the bunch, finish in one piece and get 5 points for the National League.

After a 2.5 hr drive I arrived at the muddy field to park and sign on. It was weird being there on my own but there were many welcoming people to have little chats with. After a short warm up it was time to line up behind the A4 boys and get ready for our start. It was great to see such a large turn out of women. Close to 50 I heard.

The race started all of a sudden and it took me a few seconds to clip in. I didnt panic though and sprinted off to get myself back in the bunch. The pace was very fast and I found sitting at the back was not a good idea. Little gaps kept appearing and we had to work hard to catch on so I decided to move up the bunch towards the front. After that I felt so good. Really strong, really confident. There seemed to be a lot of movement in the bunch and at times I had to hang back a bit as girls crossed in front of me. Way more movement than I experienced in the 2 mixed races I've done. I was trying to be clever and save my energy for later in the race so I positioned myself in about 10th place but as we came down a hill and round a corner on the main road I saw a tight corner up ahead.

Im very poor at cornering, so I was concentrating on moving in for a tighter angle so I wouldnt be left behind when the sprint out of the corner happened when next thing I saw two girls go down in front of me. I heard someone shout and before I could do anything I was going down too. I had no time to take my hands off the breaks, I just went over my handlebars and ended up on my face. When I came to a stop I was lying in a pool of blood still clipped in to my bike with one foot. I really though I had broke my teeth and had no idea what I looked like or what damage I had done to myself or the bike.

I knew I wasnt the worst off though as I was able to sit up after a while while some others were still on the ground. It seemed like ages before I was taken into an ambulance but it wasnt, time was going really slowly for some reason. I ended up in Drogheda hospital and was treated by some very kind and generous paramedics on the way and some very friendly nurses in the hospital. As I said before I got 9 stitches to my upper lip. Xrays showed no damage to my jaw thank god. And after 6 hours in the hospital a very kind man dropped me to my car and arranged for me to collect my bike from wav1.

My poor husband was working and spent the whole day trying to figure out how to get me home from Drogheda. I being the slightly nutty woman I am, drove my car with only one eye working and one leg to Kill on the Nenagh side of Dublin and waited for him there. It was kind of dangerous to be driving but I just wanted to get to the N7 so it would be easier on him to get to me.

Eventually got home and was contacted by stickybottle to get my permission to show the photos on their site. I said yes at they were already circulating around facebook and I was fine really. I didnt realise the upset they would cause among my family and friends. Some people were very upset saying it was shocking to see a picture of me looking like I was beaten up. Of course people who cycle were trying to convince me it was cool and all part of racing.

I've said it on facebook but just to reiterate, the amount of calls, texts, messages on here and other social media have been unbelievable. People are so nice. I'm fine and will get back in the saddle some day soon.

Una (my bike) is doing well. She needs new shifters and a few other small repairs but she is going to be back to herself sooner than me.

By the way for the 6.9 kms I cycled in the race the average speed was 37.2kph. How cool is that! Women's racing is FAST!

Trig1

RESPECT!!!!!!!! your some woman!!

Dory Dory

You were rocking that course! I can only dream to go as fast as you!!! With your incredible determination and amazing spirit, you will claw yourself to the top....mark my words.

mossym

great report. reminds me why i back off every time i get tempted to give a4 a shot, first, i like nice bikes and wouldn;t risk them in a crash, but secondly

37.2km/hr? i'm just not fast enough..:)

BennyMul

+1 great report,
37 average in a bunch of 50 is nice, a lot less places to hide as opposed to the big bunches of the A4,

Solobally8

mossym wrote: »

great report. reminds me why i back off every time i get tempted to give a4 a shot, first, i like nice bikes and wouldn;t risk them in a crash, but secondly

37.2km/hr? i'm just not fast enough..:)

Remember I only managed the first 7k which were mainly flat and downhill. From looking at one of the other girls strava it looks like things calmed with the drags after that and her average speed for the full race was 34kph, which you would manage in a bunch no bother :-)

mossym

grand, if they'll me sign up for the women's race so i'm sorted..:)

Solobally8

Lol

RacoonQueen

Solobally8 wrote: »

Remember I only managed the first 7k which were mainly flat and downhill. From looking at one of the other girls strava it looks like things calmed with the drags after that and her average speed for the full race was 34kph, which you would manage in a bunch no bother :-)

What distance is the race?
Not that I'd do it...imagine me in a peloton. :pac:

Solobally8

RacoonQueen wrote: »

What distance is the race?
Not that I'd do it...imagine me in a peloton. :pac:

It was 48kms. I think the women's races can range in distance from that to 70 or 80k.


I can't really imagine myself in a peloton again either M

Solobally8

My face on Monday
image.jpg

Dory Dory

You've got the same pic up twice.

Solobally8

My face today image.jpg


I put this up on Facebook this morning as part of the no makeup selfie thing for the irish cancer society, not that I'll be wearing make up for a while. Just added it here to show how quickly the face heals.

mossym

Wow, twas a worse knock than I thought.


It knocked your face upside down:)

(On my phone at least!)

Solobally8

Jeez lads ye are gas!! It must be the blonde in me, can't get this photo thing right at all

Dory Dory

You got it now! It is amazing how quickly you have healed. And you look beautiful without your makeup!!!

RacoonQueen

Solobally8 wrote: »

My face today image.jpg


I put this up on Facebook this morning as part of the no makeup selfie thing for the irish cancer society, not that I'll be wearing make up for a while. Just added it here to show how quickly the face heals.

Healed really quickly...hows the pain?

Athletes cheat at that no make up selfie...how often do people see us with makeup on anyway?!

mossym

RacoonQueen wrote: »

Healed really quickly...hows the pain?

Athletes cheat at that no make up selfie...how often do people see us with makeup on anyway?!

Very rarely in my case....

Solobally8

Ha ha mossy your on fire today


I'm still in a lot of pain. My knee is the most painful part which is annoying as I had planned to turbo today or tomorrow but it's too sore yet. At least I won't scare my students as much when I go back to work on Monday

RacoonQueen

Solobally8 wrote: »

Ha ha mossy your on fire today


I'm still in a lot of pain. My knee is the most painful part which is annoying as I had planned to turbo today or tomorrow but it's too sore yet. At least I won't scare my students as much when I go back to work on Monday

I assume you've not been back on the bike yet?

Bike crashes are mad like that, you think you'll be straight back on then realise you have damaged essential cycling parts of you. No rush to get back on sure.

Tea Tree

I've just been trawling back though your old logs to see what bike you started on, not finding it so twisting my neck looking at photos upsidedown to try to figure it out :pac: ... then I thought it might be easier just to ask!
New bike coming soon (with fairly limited funds) and I'm wrecking my head trying to figure it all out so thought I'd have a nosy at what other people have.
Is it a Felt you have now? out of my range I think but is that what you started with?

Solobally8

Tea Tree wrote: »

New bike coming soon (with fairly limited funds) and I'm wrecking my head trying to figure it all out so thought I'd have a nosy at what other people have.
Is it a Felt you have now? out of my range I think but is that what you started with?

Hi Tea Tree

I started out with a Felt Z100. It's a fine bike, heavy but did the job for my first 2 years cycling. I now have an UNOVELO, they are custom built and v pricey but light as a feather and a joy to ride. I use the Felt as my winter and turbo bike now.

Solobally8

RacoonQueen wrote: »

I assume you've not been back on the bike yet?

Nope, I might hop on the turbo tomorrow but won't be out on the road for another week I'd say. No helmet and my racing bike is still at the bike mechanic

Solobally8

Thursday 27th March
Finally back out on the bike. My racing bike is still sick so I went on my winter bike which was just back after getting the rear mech 'fixed'.
It wasn't!!

Anyways out I went with my new sunglasses (very nice) and my hubby's helmet (mine is still missing in action). I was a little nervous but not too bad actually, this cycle was important as I wanted to find out a few things. I needed to see if physically I'm ok to cycle and mentally was I going to be alright.

I was glad to find I could remember how to cycle Ten days off stuffing my face meant that I felt fat and sluggish, my knee hurt a lot but apart from that I was grand. My heart rate was very high but I was kind of pushing the pace a little at the start even though I had planned to take it very easy

Then I bumped into a friend just about to start his cycle so he said he would join me for a while. Eek! I hadn't intended to cycle with a person! But we chatted away and I managed to cycle without thinking of the crash too much. The biggest problem was this guy is very fast, very fit so he was flying along, chatting away and I was at my max, I actually hit my highest max heart rate while he was chatting away and I was dying whilst trying to look breezy :-)

I did ask him to slow a bit but even still I thought I was going to puke. I slowed down a LOT when he turned off.

So there it is, first cycle done. Nerves are fine. Knee very sore but I think it will easy with time. Face is healed up very well. Next step is cycling with a group. I think that will happen next week. Until then I'm going to do a few easy spins to try build my fitness back up.

30.5k in 1:15

mossym

Fair play for getting out again, but i reckon it;s the right move. you'll be flying again in no time .

BennyMul

make sure you get back to group riding as soon as possible, having to ride in close proximity to other cyclists will help the confidence,

Solobally8

A agh I had a long post written and lost it somehow.

Now for a much shorter version...
Saturday 29th March - rain soaked junior training. Great for my nerves to cycle with kids who can't cycle in a straight line!!

Sunday 30th March - spin with a few girls from the club. Beautiful day for it. Lovely company. Found it tough at times, I've lost a lot of fitness and have piled on the weight over the last two weeks. Copping on from tomorrow. Knee was fine thank god. Big problem with descents though. I've totally lost my nerve. I was terrified, pulling my brakes constantly, fearing my bike would skid out from under me at any time. No confidence whatsoever. I'm very shook by this. I didn't realise the crash would affect me that much. I'm fine in a group now, fine on the flat and climbing but descending and cornering seem beyond me.

I really hope I get over it with time. Otherwise I won't be racing again any time soon

Dory Dory

The things you have overcome amaze me. The descent will be no problem for you....just keep facing them.