Bellinter House – Highly Recommended

We’ve been to Bellinter House before and really enjoyed it, so to celebrate my “big” birthday Tracey treated us to another visit there on Saturday night. Bellinter is a quirky sort of place and if ever the expression “Shabby Chique” was apt then it applies here. The staff are really relaxed and it’s a great place to sit around on comfy chairs, drink a pint (or two) and chat or read a book! The hotel is owned by the same people who own Eden in Dublin and have another branch of the restaurant in the hotel, so great food is guaranteed too!

Bellinter is situated on the banks of the Boyne close to Navan, County Meath so conscious of missing a Sunday mountain bike spin and knowing that there would be a lot of food and drink involved I decided to salve my conscience by cycling down and back! I reckoned it was about 65kms from home so pretty manageable. Tracey drove down in the car with all the gear ..... well it was my birthday!!

The trip down was a “doddle” - Saturday was a really nice day, sun shining and no wind! I left home at about 12.45pm and was at the hotel by 3pm. 61kms, 2hs 12 min and an average of 28kms per hour, I was flying! We’d booked a room in the “Stable Block” so I was able to wheel my bike into the sitting room and forget about it!

Quick shower, soup and sambos, newspapers and a couple of pints! So relaxing! Well earned “nap”, pre-dinner drinks, fantastic food with a bottle of wine and a night cap, I know I’m getting old but that really works for me!!!

The trip home was another story altogether! Sunday morning was wet and I had a stiff headwind the whole way home – the spin was a bit of a grind! Amazing the difference the wind makes, my average speed dropped by about 4kms per hour and it was just hard work.  I’d love to have had some company to share the load. To add insult to injury when I got back to Dublin I decided to cycle straight downs the quays, across the East Link and out along the coast road. The tide was in and huge waves were breaking over the road – I got soaked! I met a “proper roadie” going across the toll bridge and we cycled out together as far as Shankill, he was heading down to Arklow and back ..... I didn’t envy him!

Anyway, we had a really nice night away and I got two decent spins in ...... happy days!



Heading home .... just before the rain started!



Biking Blitz - Sunday February 6th

The first race of the new season was held on Sunday last in Ballinastoe. It was the 1^st of a three race series around the Irish Trail Centres and was organized by Niall Davis. Niall is one of the good guys so I was keen to turn up and support the event.

I always feel that it’s really important to be very careful about diet and nutrition in the 24 hours leading up to a race so on Saturday evening I went to the Blue Light to watch Ireland play Italy in the Six Nations. Six large bottles of Bulmers was followed by an Indian from The Bombay Pantry ….. surely the diet of champions? Personally I think that there should be a Cycling Ireland rule regarding the proximity of mtb races to International rugby matches!

Sunday morning was very windy and the weather wasn’t great either!! Feeling a little delicate I headed to Ballinastoe! When I got there the wind was howling and it was raining on and off …. hardly inspiring! Parking was down in the Golf Club but thankfully Stewart had his van in the paddock and let me leave my gear there for the day. Despite the conditions there was a huge crowd at sign on and the Red Bull DJ was doing his best to get everybody going. I love the buzz before a race and it’s always great to catch up with people you haven’t seen for a while.

After a half lap warm up I was beginning to feel better and was looking forward to the racing! The first climb in Ballinastoe is always horrible and Sundays race was no exception, Jackson and Stevo quickly passed me, I tried to stay with them but not for long! We followed the usual Ballinastoe route and the track was riding well despite the conditions. The wind at the top of the mountain was incredible, where you start to drop downhill as you come out of the forest we had to pedal really hard just to go forward! The rocky sections on the way down were also wet and very slippy – I had a couple of major “dabs” (ie. falls) on them!

At the end of the 1^st lap coming down towards the paddock I heard a “I’m right behind you Lynchey” and looked around to see Paul Barry from IMBRC! Now Paul would normally be well ahead of me by that stage of a race so I was pleased to see him behind but less pleased with the way he was carving into my lead! I managed to get onto the fire road ahead of him and started to pull away again on the 1^st and further again on the 2^nd climb. By the time I started on the downhill singletrack he was nowhere to be seen so I forgot about him!!! Imagine my disgust when, in exactly the same place, as the previous lap I hear “I’m behind you again Lynchey”. I would normally be very good about letting people pass in a race but there was no way Barry was getting through at that stage! I was a half decent front row forward in my day and made myself very wide again on Sunday! I managed to get across the line about 2 metres ahead of him …. Happy Days!



Rudolf, Conor and Stewart apparently had a great dice!



Overall I finished 40^th out of 94 starters in the Senior race so was reasonably pleased! A number of people remarked how well I was climbing but I was as slow as ever on the single track particularly where it was slippery! I finished ahead of a few people who would normally beat me but still feel I’ve got plenty more improvement in me!

Everybody seemed to have had a great days racing and the “all weather” nature of Ballinastoe meant that the whole track was perfectly rideable in very poor conditions. Next race for me is the 795 Leinster League Race ….. bring it on!!



Overall winner "The Greg" shows that even in baggy shorts he's the real deal!



February Targets

This month is probably not going to be great ......!
The Big 50 arrives on the 14th so there are a few things planned with my family and Tracey is taking me away for a nice night in Ballintyre House.
February is also a short month so realisitically 40 hours on the bike and one kilo weight loss would probably be a result!

January Summary

Well, the January targets proved to be a bit "ambitious"!!
I managed forty hours training on the bike instead of the fifty I'd aimed for. On the positive side most of the training sessions were good ones – a mixture of longer sessions on the road and mountain bike and shorter hill interval sessions on the road. I got out 17 times in all and covered about 750kms.

More disappointing was that I only managed to lose one miserable kilo during the month! This despite the fact that I burned over 30000 calories on the bike! The reason for this is simple .... Sweets and Biscuits!

By about 3.00pm every day I have this mad craving for something sweet and I'm afraid I don't do "just say no" very well!