I’m glad to report im on the mend and have turned a corner since my fall in Athy. Thank you again to all well wishers.
I havent been injured in a long time and it’s not nice. I’ve given advice to plenty of people when they get injured. ”Rest up, whats a couple of weeks out of your program, take it easy, the rest will do you good in the long run”. Now I understand why all those people ignored my advice because that’s exactly what I did. My problem was my groin area. It turns out It was all coming from my infected ”bullet wound” at my hip. But that didn’t stop me trying it a few times last week to see how it was. I’ve been working with Conor Murray at Physio Ireland Clinic for a number of months now. He runs a quick check over me and makes sure im ticking over. I ran up to the field but walked back on a few occasions. On Wednesday I had enough and had to just give myself a good talking to. It is crazy, for all the athletes out there they know what I am talking about. Until now I didn’t realise how addicted I was to training. I felt like a heroin addict not getting his fix. Stupid! I know but that’s how you feel. It taught me a valuable lesson in terms of how I should approach my next injury..(touch wood). I sound as if I was out for 6 months but its only been 2 weeks. I know now I need to build a bridge and get over it. I was able to the turbo which has kept me ticking over and I tried swimming in the sea(carlingford lough) too. I got out 800 metres or so and I had to go back because the cuts on my Lats were rubbing against the wetsuit. Only one way back! kicking! Hands out front I kicked through the waves. I was tired. This morning and yesterday I managed to run and its all systems go again.
All is not lost I have ‘3 Days’ of Racing!
What 3 days of riding I hear you ask??.. This is the Newry 3 Day road race that I won Last year.. One of the best races of the year. Well organised, Safe, guaranteed weather..;-), and a very welcoming bunch of lads!. I was injured but was able to ride. So in my head I was looking forward to the Newry 3 day to defend my title and a build for next’s weeks national championships. But you see there was a slight problem. I received a call on Sunday the 12th from Newry Wheelers who will be called NW
NW– ”Hello Bryan,”….BMC-“How ya doing”..NW- ”Listen I’ve bad news… We received your entry for the 3 day but are not accepting it….SILCENCE….NW-”are you still there Bryan”..BMC– ”I am”… ”Can I ask why??”.
At this point a million things flew into my head, did I fail a drugs test??, was I out-of-order in any way towards Newry wheelers. All these things just running through my brain.
NW-” Bryan your too strong and it wont be a race if you’re in it”… this is where I started to laugh.. Now I thought it was a joke. NO JOKE.. The conversation ended pretty much after that with mark c...;-)
For those of you not in the cycling loop. All cyclists are graded and have a rank. ‘A'( good guys), ‘B'(nearly good guys), ‘C’ ( good and bad guys) and vets. My grade is ‘B’ but Newry claim im an ‘A’. ‘A’ riders are not allowed to race the 3 day and it is only open for B,C & vets. I probably am an ‘A’ rider in terms of ability but the fact is I am a ‘B’ rider with the governing body. I do not/ cannot race a lot of open races to gain points to get up graded. Reasons I do not want to bore you with. Its actually only one resaon. LIFE! .work + Family = BALANCE
(I’m actually 1 point off an A grade). I targeted this season a few races to get up to an A grade and the 3 day was one of them. And the other funny thing is, if I don’t race the 3 day how I get up to an A grade… Confused??? well I certainly was…
The talking starts..
The handling of the situation was all wrong. The ”committee” lined an eejit to ring me. Had he rang and ASKED.. would you consider stepping away from the race because we deem you an extremely talented athlete that bears no place at the line.. He would have pumped me full of feel good complements and then I’d of thought about it. I probably would have stepped away. Maybe they wanted a young rider to win the race. I’ve no problem with that, but remember I’m thirty and only riding 3.5 years. These young fellas are ring 10+ years. So what gives??
PEACE TALKS
It was starting to get out of hand. Alot of shite was being talked. My club were pulling out of the race and standing by me. That meant a lot that they were willing to do that. I wanted the lads to do the race but I wanted an apology as to why and who made the decision. I got the call.. but it was from an indirect of an indirect person that had NO involvement with the club. Well, a little involvement he told me. Again he’ll remain nameless but PH told me and explained to me all of the above I just wrote about. A nice man, with only good words for my ear. It still didn’t solve anything.
NW-”What and how can we resolve this situation Bryan??”.. BMC-”I want my lads to do the race but first I want an apology in writing from the person who rang me.” NW– ”OKAY I’ll do that..” BMC-”why, sure you’ve nothing to do with it!!”..
If the person who rang me had the balls to say im not in there race then they should grow them once more to say sorry.. OKAY I’ll sort it out he assured me.
Apology..
True to their word I got an apology… but then I read it.. It more or less EXPLAINED the situation and at the bottom it said in time I’ll understand that they were right and we were wrong!!!! how pathetic. I emailed back and thanked for the quick response but I didn’t consider it an apology. But I will inform my club to ride. I just didn’t want them to miss a race on our doorstep. And to rub salt into the wound the person who rang me in the first place never grew his balls!
Race standard!
I was lead to believe that the race was for riders of lesser ability but that just insulted some of the guys on the line. And the guy who won it is a National champion!!.. Make your own mind up on that one!!
Conclusion..
It no doubt has left a bitter taste but I will get over it. Its water under the newry bridge as far as I’m concerned. I was to ride in Kildare but my head wasnt right after all the drama. I have the nationals this week.. lets hope I’m allowed to enter it.
BMC
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