Lakeside Wheelers Winding Down The Summer
8/23/20263 min read
When the reopening of schools after the summer break gets to within a week and the evening light draws in, it is a sure sign that unfortunately, the summer is coming to an end. For Lakeside Wheelers members this means the end of the official Wednesday evening club spins which will cease for this year on this coming Wednesday, August 26th. Thankfully the great spell of dry weather meant that the spins went very well over the summer so there certainly can be no complaints this year.
Cyclocross
To coin a certain well used phrase, as one door closes another one opens and for cyclists that means as the summer winds up the Cyclocross (CX) season begins. Very soon there will be a host of CX races popping up all over the country and Lakeside Wheelers will be staging one of the biggest CX events in the country in October. On Sunday October 4th all roads will lead to Belvedere House and Gardens where Lakeside Wheelers will stage a round of the National CX League. The club is no stranger to running big races but running a National League race will be a big step up for the CX organisers who have spent the last few years perfecting the event under the auspices of the Leinster League. There will be more news on this exciting event in the coming weeks and as usual, any help with pre-race preparation and on the day of the event itself will be greatly appreciated.
Some of the Road Racing guys headed north to Co. Monaghan last Sunday to take part in the Emyvale GP which will be good preparation for the Leinster Road Racing Championships. Our near neighbours in Clonard Road Club will be the hosts for this big day on Sunday, August 30th and it will cater for all categories from Juniors through to Masters. Those that didn’t travel to Monaghan included some of the race route on the A Group spin last Sunday so there should be a good representation of Lakeside Wheelers riders very well prepared and hopefully in the prizes on the day.
Sportives
Club members were very active on the sportive front in recent weeks on and off the road as well as in and out of the country.
The Galway Gravel Grinder sportive took place on Saturday, August 15th and attracted a few members out west to ride the roads around the Galway Wind Park and further afield into the greater Connemara area. The weather was very favourable as riders departed to tackle the 105km Epic which included 90km of gravel surface.
Last weekend the club was very well represented across the pond in Wales at the 170km Anglesey Sportive. This trip was planned and organised by our native Welsh member, Dale Roberts who enticed a few more to join him to tour his home roads. Hopefully the lads all enjoyed the trip and they send us some photos and a report in the coming week.
Members are reminded to please register this week for our own Tour of the Lakes which will be run off on Sunday, September 6th. It makes the work of the event organisers a lot easier if they have some idea of numbers intending to participate.
Other upcoming sportives include the Tour of Kildare on August 30th and the Cycle Tour of Longford on September 12th.
Track Cycling
Congratulations to Lakeside Wheelers Lifetime member Aoife O’Brien who was in fantastic form at the National Track Championships last Saturday. Aoife has had a very mixed summer as she was badly hampered by a nasty arm injury which she received racing in Belgium earlier in the year. However, she really announced her return with a bang in recent weeks as she raced to a fabulous win in Belgium two weeks ago before heading to the Crumlin track last Saturday where she took three gold medals.
The Ballinafid girl now rides for the British based UCI Continental team DAS-Hutchinson and is also a track and road international rider. She took her first national title of the weekend when she won the Individual Pursuit by a fraction of a second then followed it up with two more gold medals in the Points and Scratch races leaving her the undisputed queen of Sundrive. To complete her haul she added silver in the Elimination event when she was narrowly beaten by Erin Creighton (McConvey Cycles).
