This week I was back racing and really looking forward to getting back into it. This was a race with no expectations and it was a race where I wanted to experiment. All that said a quality field showed up and straight away im thinking im in trouble here, considering the week I had training wise. I didnt let up all week. I worked alot in zone 3 and my legs were tired before the race. But you cant start making excuses before races..(maybe after!!!)
We were started by a cannon..It startled the bejasus out me and the rest of the field. I felt good and got into a nice pace and set myself up nicely for the bike. I exited the water with Kevin Keane just ahead and felt I done a good job..
Mounting the bike my shoe caught something and fell off and i was held up for a bit letting Kevin get away. It took me a good few minutes to catch him and then I set about getting up the field as high as possible. The course is flat but the surface isnt great and I felt myself bumping over the road in parts. I probably put too much pressure in the tires..I hoped to catch up with the leaders around 20/25k but there was no sign of them giving me the impression that maybe i didnt swim that well after all.. Then your mind plays tricks with you and you ask yourself did I pass them out already and didnt notice them.. ?? no such luck, and at about 30km I caught Colin Bolger and Bjorn Ludick.. Conor Murphy was not in sight and I only caught him in the last 2 km. I know how Conor can run and knew I was racing for 2nd. If I want to beat conor I need to put serious time into him on the bike. That wasnt going to happen today. I didnt know how the legs were going to do today but I felt good, a little fatigued but all things considered i was happy the way the race was going.
Onto the run and this is where i wanted to experiment. I needed(wanted) to do a negetive split. I told myself to stick to the plan and if the lads catch me and pass me, just to do my thing. I went out slow and finished hard! The guys werent close enough and I finished second with my negetive split on the run and a good solid effort on the bike. It is a great venue and a well organised race.
Where good days turn bad…
Friends of mine were getting married and I needed to get back to Dundalk, I told the race Director I needed to go and thanked him for a great race. Before I left I used my free food voucher 😉 and had a burger.. back to the van and I was missing something..my iphone.. went back to where i put it down and no sign.. The MC announced over the crowd but no-one handed it in.. I had to go and hoped maybe someone would later hand it in. I got to the wedding and also got a new sim and replacement phone. My first message on the phone was from colin bolger..” why did you get DQ’ed pal”????… I thought he was winding me up so I rang him..no wind up!
I got Talking to the race organiser a while after and I was disqualified for crossing the white line entering in or out of a corner, im not sure!! In fairness I did hear something about a corner in the race briefing but I wasnt fully tuned into the briefing. The race referee was behind me in a car and witnessed it apparently! this is my argument!!!…When I entered the corner I did crossed the line but I was the only person on the road.. The corner was littered with marshalls and I didnt put myself or any other person in danger! I think I am an experienced enough rider to know what is and isnt safe. I think commonsense should of been showed and the referee should of have had the cop on to know what the best decision was. These referees race themselves im sure,( probably further down the field) & I hope it wasnt the case of ”I’ll should that fella”… If there were a few bikes on the road and maybe a car approaching, yes i totally agree with the descision but there wasnt and The rule book was slamed in my face!!
On a positive, I raced well considering my week and Antwerp still in the legs. And the wedding was great craic.. Next stop Dublin in 2 weeks! Here’s hoping to getting on the finishers list….;-)
That seems really harsh, Bryan. Yet, it’s like a traffic cop giving you a speeding fine for doing 55km/h in a 50 zone – really, common sense says that’s just ridiculous, but in purely black and white, rigid terms, you broke the speed limit. It leaves one with a bitter taste in the mouth, because in reality it’s not fair, but there’s absolutely nothing you can do.
My exceedingly humble opinion.
Great to see you have a blog, will be reading more.
Petty, over zealous and as someone pointed out on facebook not in the spirit of a memorial event. Racing and travel is expensive this should be a last resort.
Bryan
I cant even imagine the dissapointment you feel at what happened ,considering you were doing so well, however you have to admit , you are an experienced competitor with international events under your belt , the exact same thing would have happened in any other traithlon that was being run by the rule book , I think JP O Brian and his team put on a great event last Saturday ,but every year the same issues about safety comes up , and cyclists breaking white lines is a major problem , my only apologly is that we had not enough marshals to catch the other cyclists that infringed , I marshaled a T junction where 2 cyclists swung wide coming out of the junction and narrowly missed on-coming cars, because I was too busy trying to get other cyclists around the junction I did not get their numbers.
.As race organisers I make no apology for hounding the refs to enforcing the rules, we are 8 safe years racing that course , lets keep it that way .
Regarding the comment from Paul , yes this was a memorial triathlon , does he think ,or anyone think that rules of the road should be relaxed for this event as opposed o any other event ? just think of the irony of that statement and the reason we are holding the event.
Lastly Bryan I would like to thank you for racing with our club , we work hard so guys like ye can race , we might compete at the back of the field , but we take our race organising very seriously , hopefully this has not turned you off the midlands , I,am sure it wont .
John O Reilly
Chairman , Midland Tri
Bryan, I was DQ’d by the same club last year while competing at “Tri to beat cancer” triathlon. Same offence, crossing the white line. While I accepted the fact that maybe I did cross the line and would have been happy to accept any time penalty, midland tri club would not give me the time of day and said if I wanted to protest I should go to Triathlon Ireland, bearing in mind this was a “charity” event with a lot of first time competitors. While I agree that safety comes first I think that common sense should prevail. I only compete for fun so I can only imagine how you feel. I have since raced other midland events so by no means did the incident put me off, it just left me with a very bad taste in my mouth. I suggest that the midland club could make better use of the marshals and slow the cyclists down before entering corners rather than taking their numbers on exit. Regards.