Week Ending 04/05/2014

What a week for KCC, were do I begin.
Firstly welcome back to the saddle David Dunlop, you have been missed and it’s great to see your on the road to recovery.
During the week saw the start of the inter-club TT league (Shimna, LLRCC & KCC) with several riders from KCC driving to the Newcastle-Castlwellan-Newcastle course run by Shimna Wheelers. KCC showed just how well they can compete on the TT circuit with three of our riders filling the podium. However what suprised the most was how Ross (who does no training) managed to fight it out with the likes of Paul & Alan for the top spot, lets hope it continues over the following weeks and KCC continue to stay strong.
Saturday saw the newbie/novice riders gather at the hall and it was great to see Stuart McIvor & Colin McClements take the lead on this as the gran fondo riders were taking a day off from training (well most of them 😉 ). Six riders turned up and they had a good time with a coffee stop thrown in for good measure.
Sunday 04/05/14, had arrived and it was ‘D’ day for those that had registered for the Gran Fondo run by our sponsor Chain Reaction Cycles. It was an early start for all of us with the earliest setting off before 06.00 to cycle to the event in Belfast.
The place was buzzing when all gathered at the Oddessy Car Park, there was literally 100’s & 100’s of cyclists everywhere looking for their team mates, wondering what group to start in and probably internally thinking to themselves, ‘can I actually do this’..
KCC set off in the second group of 50 with the renowned Dave kane #Flourotrain and Ardscc. The pace started off easy, however some got caught out at traffic lights on the Limestone and a split in KCC was already formed. A few held back to try and pull the others up, while some stayed in the main group. Unfortunately there was no way of being able to catch the main group (apart from Drew busting a gut & a lung to do it). The remaining riders went into the group behind, whilst the others maintained a good pace within their group, with some going to front to help with the work. At the first drink and pee stop we took a quick and well deserved 5min break before setting of again, and it was good to see the rest of the KCC possee coming in with the following group. The pace stayed steady and we actually missed the food stop in Ballintoy, having turned and gone back for our veda with jam & cheese, drinks etc, we set off again, however Ross & Michael decided to stay and wait for the next group (I think Ross just wanted more food to be honest). So it was only Paul, Andrew & myself left in the front group, unfortunately Andrew slipped out the back and was caught in the following group.
KCC in the second group containing Neil, Scott & Rod etc was building a name for themselves as they were seen to be doing a good turn on the front and pulled their weight to get the group of 50+ riders around the GIRO 2014 stage 2 route.
Yes!!!!!! after 7 odd hours all (well almost) those who had signed up the gran fondo had completed the route (apart from Jim Flynn, who suffered a knee injury at Glenarm). It was also great to see Charlie & Chris who entered the Medio complete their targets plus some either side and achieve over 100 miles for the day.
So all in all KCC had a very good week, we once again supported a great event run by a great company (did I mention they sponsor us). We all worked hard and met our goals & objectives in achieving the targets we registered to do. And even some went out of their way to more miles too, with the club achieving more than 3050 miles for one week between all those using the Strava widget.
WELL DONE TO ALL 😉 😉