Irish XC NPS 6, Davagh Forest

Today, some boys ran round a field, faffing around after a ball on tv, and falling over a bit. Closer to home, some boys sat on motorcross bikes, ploughed a field in Desertmartin and blew apart some old ladies' hearing aids. The real men, you'll have found in Davagh Forest, in a fearsome battle against every force mother nature could bring, armed only with some bottles of juice and a bicycle. Man vs. much mud and many midges. Heroes of war we should all be crowned, for just surviving.

As I finally scrape enough of Davagh Forest's finest mud out of what's left of my eyes to get two clear bits I can see through, I guess it's time to put some words down. I was told once that if you've a couple of sore bits, the body tends to pick up the worst pain most, and forget about the other ones. After punching my arm silly before going into the dentist's one day, coming out tail firmly between my legs: throbbing arm, some deadly painful holes were there used to be teeth, and an incredible vengeance at who-ever was winding me up, I was less than convinced. Only today did it strike me where I went wrong all those years ago: I needed a yellow bottle of 'midge repellent cream', that someone had used all up, then decided to keep their Hydrochloric Acid in. Who's was that? Boyyyy did it burn. Suddenly all the other niggles disappeared, my brain seemed much more concerned that the skin on my face was about to disappear too. I may stick to the Skin So Soft in future...

As I left the house, with only the directions on Carn Wheelers's website and my worse than awful sense of direction, I tapped 'Davagh Rd' into the Sat Nav... 'road not found'. Hmm. I'll try the next mentioned road. 'Sixtowns Rd'... 'road not found'. Technology, eh. This was looking good already!

We finally got up to Davagh late Saturday evening. Most of my family lives up around that end of the country, so I thought it'd be handier to get a lap in on Saturday, kip up at Granda's for the night, then scoot back over to Davagh in the morning for my day's bog snorkelling. At about 7.30pm, mother and myself pulled into an empty carpark in the furthest depths of nowhere's rear end, and Mum's expectations of a happy little camping village with lots of nice people on bikes milling about, fell faster than the Greek economy. Definitely a potential spot for a good scary movie. Didn't have contact lenses in, do have a box of 30 of them or something, but thought I'd save them to the big day, counting my pennies. While lying on my head in a bush in the first section, I decided it would've probably been better if I could see where I was going.

Looked at some fancy lines through the first section, tried riding them, fell off some more, and eventually just thought screw it, we'll probably still be congested by this stage so I'm not going to make or lose much time: ride the main line. Some technical climbs and descents round the rest of the track made for great fun, but it was a true hard-man's course, no let-up at all; pedal, pedal and pedal some more. Tyre choice was going to be a huge factor. Mud tyres seemed logical, for half the track was riding through bottomless bog, but then the other half of the track was smooth singletrack or fireroad. Oh what to do? Go with my worn out driest tyres obviously. Semi-slick Specialized Renegade on the front, kinda grippy Schwalbe Racing Ralph on the rear: it would be doing the steering.

Fast forward a bit to race day, woke up and the sky was still leaking; the track wasn't gonna be any drier anyway. Race was off at 2pm, so hopped on the turbo at about 1.45 and got some blood moving in the legs. Let out as much liquid weight as possible, and headed down to the line. Gridding got started for the mighty men of S2 and our Junior selves, and I was on the front row somehow, awesome. There was no pressure for a good start as the track had about a mile of fire road climbing before any singletrack suffering began. That said, I still did intend to put my foot into my pedal rather than the ground as the whistle went(or whatever they do to start the race, is it only me that honestly can't remember!?), but didn't quite get it in, so was about 20th before I knew it. 

Up the fireroad it was crazy as usual. People ducking and diving everywhere, one side of the road to the other, anywhere there was a gap, or they thought there was a gap, they'd jump into it. More times than not it was only in their imagination, resulting in the glorious tune of tyre buzzing and f'ing announcing our arrival. Men and mice separated, we hit the first bit of bog, through a puddle, or pond moreso, and then a slip and slide down til we hit the gravel singletrack. Would've loved to have been a spectator for that bit, boys everywhere and every shape. Thankfully there's not much else to do where I live than ride around fields, and most of the time it's raining, so I was well used to the terrain.

Got through the start loop and onto the main track, sitting in 5th or so at this stage. Unfortunately Moses was no-where to be seen as we neared the red sea, so we could do nothing but ride through it and hope for the best every lap. Pre-jumped into it and held on tight. Hit the thing so hard on my 3rd lap my front foot clipped out on the impact!

Still a couple of people infront of me, so put in a good effort to get by them to get to the trenches first in the hope I wouldn't lose too much time on my dry tyres. As promised, this bit was deadly. Was like nature's own turbo trainer, you could sit there and pedal as hard as you like and still make no ground. Only managed to clear the whole thing once in my 4 laps, but it was great fun just trying to keep the bike upright and moving in it. Back onto a fireroad descent, into 1st now.

After that I just held it steady and gave her the beans every time I caught a glance of an S1 rider on up the trail. Tried my best not to slack on the fireroads to ensure I was doing my dry tyres worthwhile. Many many slips and slides came and went, to be expected on that type of track. Brilliant fun had. All overshadowed by almost losing it on a super high speed but really tight little bit of gravel singletrack towards the end of the lap though. Must've been doing a solid 20mph as my front wheel caught the inside of the corner, front end started to fold, all my weight went over the front, rear end started to slide a lot, all the ingredients for the perfect face first smash. Thankfully my foot magically appeared and saved my life... and then got caught in the hedge and the whole thing started to happen again! Like there wasn't enough soil in my bib shorts already! Some great descents on the track though, most of them were fairly high speed slidey rooty bits, kept you on your toes.

One of the bridges in the boggy bit had no wire mesh on the first half of it. Front wheel popped on fine, this was going to be ok, back wheel on, go to pedal off it... ABORT! Feet were only starting to dry out a bit after the river crossing, then boom, both feet in half a foot of water and half a foot of muck below it. Need a better offroad diff installed! Eventually by the 4th lap I'd caught on that riding over them would be quicker than falling into them; eased off a bit and made it over. Just.

Caught me bud Matt Adair halfway round the last lap, so cruised with him in to the finish. Crossed the line for the last time, 1st S2 and 1st Junior, happy days. Matt was shouting at me to come for another lap, but as tempting as it was, I'm still carrying far too many injuries to be able to risk doing any more than required! Laughed at him having to drag his body round the battlefield for another lap, and took the much more inviting fire-road back to the car, to get some food.

Big thanks to Rynopower and the much needed Green Oil for the support. The bike cleaner was definitely of use! Thanks to Carn Wheelers for the class show they put on (lovely trophies too), Martin Grimley for keeping things running smoothly, all of the photographers, me mummy for taking me down, Brian Kellett for doing my bottles, everybody that moved over when I called 'rider up', all of S2 for leaving me alone, and Paddy and Stuart for a big hug on the podium. Oh and whoever supplied the box of bananas at the end can't be forgotten either, cheers!

Monty, out.

The Holy Grail Of Tyre Leverage

Just take a look at these. Now look at me. Now look back at them. Back at me. Back at them. Back at me. Okay, I'll admit that was pointless, but you'll admit you didn't do that, you just kept reading. Anyway, I trust by now you've looked at that little red bicycle riding hood of beauty to the left of this text? If you haven't seen it by now, go back to Facebook and carry on with your life, thanks for the page views. However, if you are one of the Twitter pure race, you'll probably have noticed that luscious lever of legends currently on your screen, as you're just better people #yero. As a Sainsbury's advert would say, this is not just any tyre lever, this is a Bontrager tyre lever. Now to be honest, I used to associate Bontrager with cheap Trek bikes, I never really rated their gear at all. But that was back in the days, the days before I met my favourite tyre lever in the whole wide world. As unassuming and plain old run of the mill normal tyre lever as this looks, this perfect and precise piece of pleasure is far, far from ordinary.

Dt Swiss rims, Maxxis dual ply tyres? I'm sure most of you have been there. For those fortunate few who haven't, imagine trying to open a tin of beans. Done that before? Seem simple yeh? Ok, think about it again, only this time your hands are strapped into a pair of woman's mitts(because boys should never own mitts), your arms are tied together, you are upside down, and you can only use a banana, and it's not even a good ripe Fyffes banana. Seriously, it'll deep fatty fry your head til the extent you'll have pulled this much hair out. You stick the lever in, try to grab hold of a bit of the tyre bead, think you've got a little bit, give it a pull in the hope you'll get a bit of tyre off, the lever slips, you loose the tyre and you're back to square one. Repeat this process x10. Really, if you ever wanted a mental strength test, give somebody a Decathlon tyre lever and a Maxxis/DT set up on a cold day and leave them there til they have forcibly buried the wheel over their own head, or are eating the bearings in the hub while hitting themselves in the face with the QR skewer.

Hours I have spent, in the garage's very own artic climate, fighting polar bears with desert spoons. No matter how many times you try, it just seems to come to nothing every single last one of those times. By this stage if you were doing something more productive you could probably have made enough money to just buy a bloody new wheel, tube and tyre, and some petrol to set the old one a-light after shouting every expletive in the dictionary, and all those new ones you just made up.

But thankfully, all this fickle frustration is in the past. I was a little apprehensive, when buying these, as as mentioned above, I'd prejudged Bontrager. Such was the extent of my distress though, that I was willing to try anything just to be able to get my tyres on and off easier. Show me a brick and tell me it was good at getting tyres off and I've had snapped it up quicker than you'd have finished talking. Thankfully nobody offered me bricks, and instead I ended up buying some Bontrager tyre levers. Similar in looks to a brick, they are certainly much better in function. They even just feel nice in your hands, or toes, or whatever you use when you're all alone with the bike in the garage. Now I've tried Park Tools, Decathlon, Pedros, Weldtite, SKS... the list goes on(Well, it doesn't really, it just stops there, because I found these Bontrager babies and have never had to buy new ones since) and nothing has ever even felt as solid or well manufactured.

On first appearances, other than being cool 'cause they're red, they don't look like they're up to much. Not the most reinforced nor attractively shaped, and the part that should hook onto the tyre looks much to blunt to ever do more than find itself a one way ticket to the bin. Haha, I forgot the majority of us mountain-bikers don't use bins. I mean that middle shelf that you'll never look at again, that's where it'll sit until the day it falls down the back of the shelf, or just disappears all together. But instead, this tyre lever is as subtly sharp as a sharp thing, and it'll grab right underneath your tyre and with a gentle old yank of the wrist, you'll have the tyre on the side of the rim that it's never been before. Then its all smooth sailing from there. You fumble in the next tyre lever and give it a yank too, and before you know it even more of the tyre is exploring places its never been before. Give one of the levers a bit of a pull around the rim and the next thing you'll know you'll have the whole of one side of the tyre free. Get this right once, and the world IS YOUR OYSTER. You'll buy more tyres, ones for raining today, ones for raining yesterday, ones for raining the day before (it's Northern Ireland, don't even consider a dry tyre), just because you can. You'll then change the tyres before every time you go and ride, because you don't have to go through the emotional trauma that normally ensues changing a tyre. Honestly, your entire quality of life, and quantity of life not spent wondering if arm pump from removing a tyre is possible and not to mention realising how sore breaking your nails really is, and all of that just for your lever to snap just as you think you've hit the jackpot, will leapfrog all of those non Bontrager bearers.

Furthermore, they're not just red so that you can spend more time staring in awe of them without getting bored, although this is a useful aspect. In fact, you'll find that most things on a forest floor, which is where you spend most of your time upon your mountain bicycle, or the majority of the majority of the time, on your ass, are brown or green, not red. This may seem nothing special at first. But after being out on an hour's lap around Tollymore one day mid-spin, I stopped to grab some food from my saddlebag. I came to a controlled stop, I took my hands from the bars, I turned around, everything was going well until this point, but upon turning around, I could see the mouth of the saddlebag wide, wide, wide open. Now I can assure you that it was 100% zipped up before I set off for my ride, maybe I should do my next review on a Topeak Wedge saddlebag.... but anyway, my heart had already just dropped to about ground level, as there was a lot of good stuff I'd collected over the years in that saddlebag, or not in the saddlebag now as the case seemed. I bent over for a closer look, hopelessly wishing that there'd be at least something left in the bag, but unsurprisingly it was empty. No angels, no Jesus, no fancy oils or bedclothes, the stone had been rolled back and the tomb was empty. But here, I'll cut this a bit shorter. Basically everything had fallen out of my saddlebag. I retraced my steps, and bit like your woman who left the breadcrumbs in that story you always hear as a child, nothing else did I find, but before long, I stumbled across a little red ribbon of hope in the ground. Upon closer inspection, dayyym right, it was my tyre lever. Not long after, I found the other one too. The rest of the stuff in the saddlebag is still lying in Tollymore somewhere. Cue all you scroungers catching the next tailwind to Tollymore and pitching your tent, but I can assure you, due to the crappy blacks and greys that most bike tools come in, the other kit has found its final resting place.I found them, unlike everything else, 'cause they're red, so they stood out from everything else on the forest floor. Genius x genius = genius^2 .

So forget about your festive feetwarmers and candy canes next Christmas. Simply donate £3, and a child with a bicycle will recieve two Bontrager tyre levers. No longer will they have to spend hours walking to the water well, as they'll be able to get their tyre off to get a new tube in and now they can skid on down to feed the goat til their little heart is quite content. And not just once, but all year. A Bontrager tyre lever is for life, not just for Christmas.
You can even buy a box of 20. Now I'm not sure why, as two will last you a very long time. Maybe you can frame the other 18 or throw them at heures or something.

Monty's product reviews, out.

Ps suggestions for where my heart rate monitor strap has ran away to are much appreciated. Where would you go if you were a HRM strap and suddenly sprouted legs?

Giving 110%

Have always thought the expression to 'give 110%' was a beautiful expression to highlight the simplicity of those who speak without thinking. 110% like? If you were to give 100% I'm pretty sure you'd die, as all of your body would be committed to whatever it would be you'd be giving 100% to, so you'd have no percents left to use for general survival (well, unless you were giving 100% to just surviving). Feel free to argue with me if you think otherwise. Maybe if you're on drugs its possible, as proved by Tom Simpson there. Amazing story if you've the time to read it.
Relating to Tom Simpson, who died while on his way to winning a Tour De France stage due to exhaustion, I was looking at all the people who've died in the Tour De France. Some crazy deaths ranging from drowning in a riveria on rest days, to highsiding a corner and plunging down a ravine, to just plain old impact upon crashing on a descent. Crazy, crazy men.



Saw this the other day, thought it was pretty cool -

What Makes 100%?

What does it mean to give MORE than 100%?

Ever wonder about those people who say they are giving more than 100%? We have all been to those meetings where someone wants you to give over 100%.

How about achieving 103%?

What makes up 100% in life?

Here's a little mathematical formula that might help you answer these questions:

If:
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Is represented as:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26.

Then:

H-A-R-D-W-O-R-K
8+1+18+4+23+15+18+11 =98%

And

K-N-O-W-L-E-D-G-E
11+14+15+23+12+5+4+7+5 = 96%

But ,

A-T-T-I-T-U-D-E
1+20+20+9+20+21+4+5 =100%

And,

B-U-L-L-S-H-I-T
2+21+12+12+19+8+9+20 =103%

AND, look how far ass kissing will take you.

A-S-S-K-I-S-S-I-N-G
1+19+19+11+9+19+19+9+14+7 = 118%

So, one can conclude with mathematical certainty, that while Hard work and Knowledge will get you close, and Attitude will get you there, its the Bullshit and Ass Kissing that will put you over the top.
Now you know why some people are where they are!

First Day Of Talent Team 2020

Had sort of been wondering whether to stick up a post about this or not as I haven't got much to say, but a short post'l probably do no harm!

What is the Talent Team 2020?

"Talent Team 2020 was recently launched with the aim of nurturing the young talented cyclists that we have in Ireland, and building a structure that will see the development of cyclists through to the 2020 Olympics. 16 of the best U16 riders in the country have been selected originally."

It kicked off on Saturday 29th October with a lovely drive down to Scott MacDonald's Winning Solutions in Dublin -

Session began with a rough introduction to all of the coaches and different important people there and then headed down to the CI van (you'll see she's no D-turbo) for some photos.



Then the sun came out and being Irish we had no idea what to do as we don't experience the rays too often: so everybody closed their eyes and looked generally retarded. Classic. Click on it there and you can see it bigger, fasten your seatbelts...



Then individual photos came, and things went from bad to worse, I'll save you the torture of having to look at a close up photo of me with a couple of hours sleep the night before.

After photos we jogged down to the local park for a bit of run. Probably shouldn't have done this due to my knee but thought I'd give it a go and see what happened. Wasn't too bad, sandbagged at the back for the duration of it to ensure I didn't push too hard. Hopefully can get this knee, or what's left of it, sorted for the season and not be sandbagging for the year! But, we look on injuries as a positive. Time to practise not looking like I've just fallen out the back of the yellow bus in photos.

Jogged back up and then Sam Bennett, pro Sean Kelly An Post rider, U23 Road Race Champion as far as I'm aware, got us stuck into some quality stretches to be doing.



After that it was time to get a bit of lunch down and chat about a bit with the lads. Then came a bike positioning talk from Paddy Doran and the distribution of a file with some goalsetting sheets and that sort of kit in it.


Overall a pretty good day, good to see the rest of the team and meet the various coaches we'll be working with, and get a bit of a chat with Sam Bennett, learnt a couple of new things I can put into practice.

That's it for now. Short one with plenty of photos. Over and out.

The Arrival Of Some Rynopower!

Yo! How's it going?

What is Rynopower?
I had a big quote from the website here (www.rynopower.com), but then decided you can click the link and go to the website if you like, not much point in me just copying it over here! Basically it's a supplement company over in the US of A, started up by Ryan Hughes, a pretty classy MX'er who used to be on top of it, and has learnt a lot from racing at such a high level for a long time. Rather than sit on his ass and become a commentator or something (Rob Warner ;) ), he's gone out and started up Rynopower, with the aim of providing us classy athletes with the right fuel for the fire! Aaron Gwin, Eli Tomac, Ken Block, Josh Grant, Jimmy Decotis, Robbie Madison, are all on it. What do they have in common? Champions. If you've never heard of them, get yourself a cup of Rynopower protein and decent internet connection prepare to be amazed by some of their videos on youtube!

As hard as I try, one of the most consistent things with my recovery is a lack of it! I can train, train and train again, but when it comes to rest? I'm a racer, I'm not meant to rest! Unfortunately this doesn't work. With overtraining/overexceeding comes injuries, sickness and de motivation, getting the balance of training and rest right is your maker or breaker!
So, can't get enough time to recover? Not able to eat 24/7 as you should when you're training? What’s the solution?
Going to bed at 8pm every night, removing all external stresses from your life, existing with your legs above your heart to keep the blood flowing, 24/7 eating, ice baths and not doing risky stuff to ensure you don't get injured? Yes, but realistically, you're not gonna go out and do any of that are you?
An easier alternative is to get some good supplementation going, and this is where Rynopower comes in. If you're looking to knock your nutrition on the head to help your recovery as much as possible, look no further!

Got some of the goods in the post this week, Rynopower's very bestest gold-package with an extra tub of protein and a couple of t-shirts/stickers/shaker bottle. Good stuff. Unfortunately I got dicked upon by postage from US to here that I wasn't aware of. Package was 14lbs, so ended up being $50 dollars to reach me over here in Northern Ireland! Not such good stuff! Not happy with that at all, but will hopefully get something sorted!

With regards to the actual products, can't really say too much yet, will give a proper review within the month, but so far I'm very impressed! Rynopower offers a wide range of task specific products: protein; carbs; recovery; electrolytes; endurance; motivation, in powder and tablet form which is a nice variety. Also, unlike a lot of the big industry sports nutrition companies, Rynopower has nothing to hide: all nutritional information and ingredients are available on the internet and most of them come on the packaging anyway, go onto the website and take a look for yourself!



So far I've used the 'French Vanilla Protein' and 'Recovery' capsules a lot. Protein has a bit of an interesting taste to begin with, didn't really know what to expect with 'French Protein', coz I know they eat worms and snails and stuff over there! A couple of sips and it's all good though, nice stuff, not too sweet! Looking forward to breaking into the swiss chocolate too! Nice concentration of it with 250mls of water, very drinkable compared to some other products from different companies I've tried. Also the powder dissolves evenly throughout the water! Easy to take this for granted but I've tasted too many shakes that the powder just piles up at the bottom of them even after the wildest shake you can manage!
On another note, the shaker is a super job too! If you don't have much money on ya but want to experience some of Rynopower's top quality kit try out the shaker for starters! Perfect for all occasions: gym, aerobic stuff, swimming, school, work, romantic dinners, hamsters, throwing over people, drinking, losing, dropping, forgetting to close etc. Although the lid on it is actually really good! Good firm click on it when you close, it'l bring back those beautiful memories of clipping into your pedals even when you're lying on the sofa injured like myself! ;) What's not to like about it?
Recovery tabs go down a treat, just throw a couple down the pipe before bed-time with a couple of hundred ml's water and you're sorted! Will try and do some tests over the next months and see if they're any use now.
(UPDATE: Just tried the chocolate flavoured protein thismorning: class. I don't even like chocolate flavoured drinks but this is spot on, goes down effortlessly. If you're going for some protein, which you'd be crazy not to, get the chocolate flavour ordered!)

I know to some, the products may seem expensive, but just bare in mind how much you spend on getting grams off the weight of your bike? You're getting something here not losing something! Grams of this kit is much better value for money for yourself, concentrate on upgrading yourself not your bike and you'll see much bigger improvements believe it or not! This stuff is legit!

This Saturday is my first day training with the 2020 Olympic Talent Team so will neck a couple of different things and get back to you on how they are, maybe get a photo of the broken gym equipment after I've ripped it apart! haha. Maybe even get to try the race-situation portaloo test if I'm lucky, will see how it goes down, literally!



That's all for now! Will keep you updated, for now, www.rynopower.com

Screw the 'only write about interesting things' idea, here's a true ramble if a ramble ever was rambled

Ok, so it's been a month or two since I last updated the blog. This is partly due to my internet taking a huff, and partly down to me doing nothing interesting in the last month or two, not gonna lie. I know I said that I'd only write things when I did something interesting, and not try and make glaringly uninteresting stuff interesting, but screw that, I've nothing better to do right at this point, and I guess you're already a couple of lines into this post, so you must be sort of interested in this bull excrement?

In my months of uninterestingness, the cyclocross sensation Jeremy Powers, has rekindled my flame for finding the ultimate beats: those mad remixes that you hear one time and your water breaks, but then never hear them again, and like a forgotten sandwich in your schoolbag, they become a distant memory until one day, while looking for something else, they knock you out. I've found a couple of those tunes, and they say to share is to care, so obviously imma show you all how much I care about you and share this toonage with you guysss: these will make your balls drop.
(These are all ravey beat type numbers, I do have a fairly extension of acoustic and metally songs if you're interested though? Leave a comment or g'is a shout through some sort of internet communication medium)(If they're pulled down by the powers that be before you get to see them, your bad, visit my blog more often and don't miss stuff)

Avicii - Levels (Flo-rida Remix)


Dune - Heiress Of Valentina (Alesso Remix)


Example - Kickstarts (Afrojack Remix) (Takes a while to start, skip her to 1:15 and you're sorted)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IPJHdbbkPLg

Labrith ft. Tinie Tempah - Earthquake


Nadia Ali, Starkillers & Alex Kenji - Pressure (Alesso Remix)


Rizzle Kicks - Down With The Trumpets (Star Slinger Remix)


Tara McDonald vs Sidney Samson - Dynamite (Nicky Romero Remix)


This one isn't a 'tune' as such, but they take a Maybach, stick the grille where the boot should be and the boot where the grille should be, give it wider wheelarches and stick a dragon inside the exhausts, so it suffices for a listen/watch in my humble opinion?
Kanye West ft. Jay-Z - Otis


In other news, I remembered about this blog today http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/ . And what a blog it is.

Heading down to Dublin tomorrow with Ciara MacManus and Robby Deegdawg for some strength and conditioning day organised by Cycling Ireland, looking forward to that, has been much to long since I've chatted to the lads and had a solid training sesh with them!

Currently, bike-wise I'm not really upto much. Left knee is a little on the sore side so I've just been stretching the bit out and doing super gentle miles(not Myles..) most days on the mountain-bike to ensure it doesn't get any worse! 7.5mph average yehhh buddy. Hopefully the old patella shall be feeling fly like a g6 come November time; the Rynopower downed; chain Green-oiled up; and training will begin! BOOM. Hitting the gym once a week at the minute with Elite NPS no.1 hero Gareth Mckee, and had the pleasure of seeing Sir Simon Curry, James Curry, Matty Teggart, Gareth Hillen and Josh Daly all down pumping the 'ron the other night. Basically Banbridge Cycling Club took over the JIM. Ever done 100s?! The whole gym could probably hear me about to take a stroke, terrible craic. But then again it's so enjoyable? There must most certainly a couple of wires touching in my cranium.

Got onto the Irish Youth Talent Team 2020 - http://cyclingulster.com/?thenewsid=5122&newstable=news - so if all goes to plan you can see me at the Olympics in 2020! Stick it in your phone as a reminder. Be cool to look back and see the good old days right here, the times of yore and all that. Definitely buzzin' to get some real training done, can see 2012 being a very good year!

That's all for now. Got some www.rynopower.com in the post there today, but, delivery companies, do they not realise that most of us have jobs/school at mid-day? Don't think I've ever gotten a package on time. Instead of them coming at a reasonable time or leaving the package somewhere handy, I'm gonna have to ring ma boys DHL Express and inform them of my whereabouts over the next couple of days so I can sort a time to get my RYNOPOWER!! Going to tip the gym like, can't wait.

But for now I'm away to pack my bags for tomorrow coz' I'm an organised kid like that. Over and OUT. Thanks for reading!