Blog entries

Belgian Opener

Administrator — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 00:00:00 +0100

The Belgian season officially opened for me and An Post on Saturday in the beverbeek classic 1.2 race. I arrived over the previous Monday for the teams official presentation to the public, press and sponsors in tielt which was a good day and a chance to meet some old and new faces before another hectic season.

With construction still taking place on the new house me and McLaughlin have been put up in Hotel Bogaerts with Kurt’s parents which is pretty comfortable and they can...

Race Week

Administrator — Sun, 23 Jan 2011 20:59:04 +0100

My winter is officially coming to a close. It's now just under one week untill the start of the GP Marseilles and then Etoile Beissege two days later.

Winter hasnt been all that long for me this year though the snow and bad weather did seem to drag it out a bit , just back last wednesday from the final team training camp of the winter with everybody looking in really good shape for the season and a quite undertone of confidence, Hopefully some of the hard work put in will pa...

The Great Escape

Administrator — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 00:32:00 +0100

One more day , thats all I have to last for now with a gym session very early tomorrow morning followed by a quick trip to the shopping center for a good dvd to keep me from going crazy on the rollers.

Tuesday will see me and the rest of the team head to calpe in spain for a week of some much needed training , I tried to go for a ride this morning and ended up on the tarmac after 20mins and its apparently to get colder from tonight onwards with some snow aswell so could not ...

Cabin Fever

Administrator — Mon, 06 Dec 2010 23:39:56 +0100

By now I should be writing my blog detailing long winter miles but as any european knows at the moment it is freezing below zero and we have had a week of snow confining me to my rollers and turbo trainer in front of the tv watching any film I reckon has any motivational factors, trips to the gym have been a regular occurance but I know im falling behind im glad now I was running alot for 2 weeks before the big freeze and one solid week on the bike.

Next tuesday I leave...

Ireland

Administrator — Tue, 09 Nov 2010 13:05:05 +0100

WOW a whole month without a blog update however did we all survive , year right . touched down in Ireland last week after cutting my holiday trip short to adelaide , cut short due to being hit by a car and being without my own bike etc was nice though to get away from europe for the few weeks and just relax in a place where no one knows you or cares to much stayed.

I did ride my bike a bit when I was there and the hills of adelaide will be worth another visit was lucky to ha...

Taj Mahal

Administrator — Thu, 14 Oct 2010 06:36:51 +0100

The season and racing may be over but still have a few more days here in the CWG village and india, we managed a trip out to the taj mahal and the ashardham temple here beside the village which was extremly beautifull and a must if your in india.

The village has kind of gone in to relax mode but yesterday our boxers took home three golds two silvers so the celebrations last night have left a bit of an impact on todays energy reserves, but with the bike packed and ready to he...

Season Over

Administrator — Mon, 11 Oct 2010 11:51:20 +0100

Finally the season has come to a close with the road race in delhi. I had a good celebration last night in the athletes bar ( most of which i can remember ) few days relaxation here in the athletes village and then fly out for australia on friday to stay with my good mate dave rawlins for a few weeks.

Do a few criteriums and tick over on the bike to kick start the winter training , will keep everyone up to date , big thanks to everyone for the support this year the medal at ...

Bronze Medal

Administrator — Fri, 08 Oct 2010 09:43:22 +0100

I still can’t believe I won a medal at one of the world’s major games. It’s a great feeling we rode a really fast pace without much problems everybody was comfortable no mistakes and the catch sealed the deal and left nothing to chance. My head is screwed back on today with a though few hours training done and focused again for Sunday and the road race. Maybe look at letting the hair down after that.

Team Pursuit

Administrator — Wed, 06 Oct 2010 16:31:56 +0100

Today had also involved the points race and despite feeling quite good last night in the event tonight was different much higher speed caught out my road riders legs and found the extra sprints just to fast really , it left a clear goal of the team pursuit later in the evening , we stuck to our schedule really well did most things right and have a ride off tomorrow for a bronze medal we need to replicate todays performance and keep calm hopefully we can do it.

competition day1

Philip Lavery — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 16:47:56 +0100

kilo first thing today was not enjoyable at all specialist event and despite a hatched start i was acceptable of a 1.08 time , was really just a blow out before the points race in the evening , which went decidedly better , I broke early to win the opening sprint and that would gaurentee a place in the final so basically just followed the moves and the wheels for the rest of the race taking care not to lose a lap , adam gave me a good dig out and marty qualified as one of the strongest ...

India, opening ceremony

Administrator — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 03:28:25 +0100

After many hours of waiting to enter the stadium including 20 minutes in a furnice like tunnel the crowd of almost 80,000 made it worthwhile.

The walk out in to the stadium was an amazing expeirence and the show put on afterwards even better again , it took a little out of the legs in the next days training session but not much today. It will be the first day of competition with the kilo event this afternoon and the heats for points race in the evening session of the track, ...

The bubble , day 5 india

Administrator — Sat, 02 Oct 2010 15:09:12 +0100

The village is simply packed at this stage mostly everyone is here, at least every nation is represented.

Security is really ramping up with the opening cermony tomorrow, which promises to be a really great expeirence but it will also be a very long day.

Not much training planned maybe an hour on the rollers in the morning.

I will have to be more vigilant though, as i left my track bike against the barriers today at the track and it fell o...

India day 4

Administrator — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 13:40:29 +0100

First real proper training day here today. Up early to head out to the training circuit which is a bit boring and a straight road in 41 degree heat will start to play tricks with you.

The heat is making the short efforts we have been doing difficult. Really Big thank you to pinerello bikes and malcom for sorting out my track bike, which arrivied today.

Appreciated getting on to the track with the rest of the team and being able to do some good efforts this ...

cwg day 3 new delhi

Administrator — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 12:44:24 +0100

HOT !!! It's very warm again today. The heat drains you by mid afternoon bit more productive on the training side of things today body has adjusted a bit to the heat and got a nice bit done on the road, track bike has shown up as well so that will mean I can train with the guys again which will be good for the head.

I enjoyed the athletes welcoming cermony in the village tonight some indian dancing and music before dinner the excitment is building here as the nations al...

Cwg day two

Administrator — Wed, 29 Sep 2010 12:27:28 +0100

It's really warm here today (37 + degrees) very much a dead heat but loads of time to adjust, waiting for my track bike to arrive which should be tomorrow or the day after i left it late to ask pinerello to send it so i cant complain.

I went on the tt course to train today just an easy hour with some other nationans kenya cycling team being one quite strong riders heat seemed not to effect them pretty much a good laugh for the session to be fair, then an hour on the ro...

India commonwealth games

Administrator — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 09:09:38 +0100

Well it took a long trip and me going to the wrong airport in belfast yesterday but 24 hrs later im sat in the athletes village , apartments are really nice and modern and the village here is just unbeleivable.

Weather is warm as would be expected for here but i dont see it being a problem , looking forward to the expeirence of the next few weeks and will upload some pictures and keep everyone up to date

Change of Plan

Administrator — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 13:39:21 +0100

Wasn't due to race tomorrow in overijse just the 1.1 sunday but now looks like I will be riding both races , apparently overijse is one of the hardest races all year so this should be fun.

Training and Good to Crap Weather

Administrator — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 17:19:02 +0100

Hey folks after enjoying a few day of really nice warm weather rain and humidity have settled in for the rest of the week making sleeping difficult and comfort impossible , have still managed to log a few good hours on the bike with next race being planned for sunday so will maybe ride a smaller kermesse for training tomorrow see how it goes , form is coming along nicely though have had a bad stomach the last 2 days but today was better keep you all up to date congrats to bryan keane who was ...

Zottegem 1.1uci

Administrator — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 18:02:41 +0100

One day easy yesterday after travelling back from france 8 hours , and straight in to 200km 1 day at zottegem today was not originally down to ride but last min decision good extra training , really hevy rain last 2 days and a bit at the beginning today.

I broke my back wheel after coming back from the break early on and then got it hard in the cobbled sections was really feeling the other 4 days and did not think i would finish but in last 50km i came around and done the li...

mi aout en bretagne

Philip Lavery — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 17:57:10 +0100

really hard four day race with 180km stages each day the attacking was just relentless , we had three guys up on gc from the first day ronan, matt and pieter so trying to do as much as I could for them with ronan really going the best of the whole team he was unlucky that the yellow was so strong wit the rapha team also protecting third on gc did not give him much room to manovuer but team was happy enough with 4th overall , and mcconvet getting 8th in last stage
my form is definitly getting ...