Lucan riders boosted by Rás experience

LUCAN Cycling Road Club was, for the first time in quite a number of years, represented in the An Post Rás this season.

Five riders from the club came together back in the autumn of 2014 to begin a gruelling training programme for an even more strength-sapping eight-day contest.

Ross Campbell Grogan did unfortunately have to withdraw after the opening day of the race due to illness yet Michael Leonard, Peter Kirwan, Ronan Killeen and Mark Nicholls ploughed on, eventually completing what was undoubtedly their toughest ever challenge.

“It is very hard” recalled Leonard. “It’s good if you can get through the first hour of each race after which it breaks up a bit and is that little bit less aggressive.

“Some days are so difficult, contending with crosswinds and just staying with them for two or three hours is a real challenge.

“You can’t afford to lose 20 percent of the winners’ time otherwise you’re out, so we did well to make it through the eight days.

“For me and the others, this was the biggest event we’ve ever competed in.

“It was a low-level professional race and none of us would have competed in anything like that before.

“There was a lot of pain and torture, but after it was all over the lads were eager to give it another go.

“With this experience and another year on hopefully we’ll be even stronger and can do more damage.

“We would have started looking at competing in the Rás back in October and it was unique in that we started out with five riders and all five of us made it to the event, whereas other teams might have about 11 or 12 riders starting out and only have about four or five by the time the event comes along.

“The training for it is very specific and it requires a lot of commitment with a lot of very long endurance sessions.

“It will be nice to focus on smaller individual one and two-day races and not have to use them just as part of our training” he said.