Phil Ormrod's TT column

Time trial notes 2010.

TT Options day. Moy Valley, 5/9/2010.

Nine riders embarked on the "50", only six reached the finish! Conditions did not seen too bad at the start, got a good rate cruise to the Kinnegad turn but was then met with a surprisingly strong head wind. By the time I for one got to the Enfield rounabout I realised that my ambitious goals of an improvement in my 25 time for the year and hanging on to a 2:12 were out the window and I lost all motivation except for touring round in order to pick up a BAR cert. Now I've worked out what it's going to look like I'm wondering if I should have bothered! John Connaghan put in a creditable 2-16-09 and was closely followed ( time wise, not on the road! ) by Gerry Gaston with 2-17-00. Paddy Fitzsimons and Rose Leith hung on like myself and Peter Rice finished his debut 50.

Six riders rode the "25" and eleven rode the "10"to no avail in respect of the BAR except for Lloyd Berry who manage to shave 11 seconds off his ten time for the season. Six of the seven counting rides were in the 50. It is being considered to drop the "10" option next season.

Fifteen riders have completed the three BAR / FAR distances. I'll not publish the result until I've had a couple of days to check all the times. Good luck to all in hanging on to the form for the last month of the season.

Al Fresco 25 TT Result Revised.

Mea Culpa time. Sorry William.
I had Oliver down off scratch due to a posting error on the master
handicap sheet. Thankfully Oliver spotted it and hence a revised result
> sheet has been posted on the web.
Oliver took the trophy with his 1:23:47 giving a handicap result of
> 97.86%.
I hope everyone else out there is keeping a check on me :-)
Have given myself a slap on the wrist,
Phil.

Tom Dempsey 10 TT. Black Bull, 3/8/10.

An overcast evening with a SW breeze and about 15C greeted us for the final event of this season's midweek League. A fine turn out of 37 riders started and 36 finished, commiserations to Pat Byrne, I did not hear what caused his DNF.

The top 15 riders beat handicap which is something of a record in itself. Susan Maher took the trophy with a fine 3 and a half minute improvement followed by Eddie and Colm locked in their private battle and split by only 0.5% on handicap.

Thanks as ever to Donal and Dave and Adam for the timekeeping and also to the marshalls.

League points will now be checked and totalled and the two compulsory discards taken into consideration before I'll be able to confirm the final Midweek League Table result and thereafter the Group results.

Al Fresco Shield 25 T.T. Black Bull, 27/7/10.

A fine evening wth good air quality in a SW wind about 20 kph.

Tough enough out to the turn and not a huge lift back but the top 5 managed to beat handicap.

Congratulations to William Parnell on the win with 1:11:07 for a hndicap result of 98.84%

Definitely worth a mention in second and third were a couple of septogenarians, Dermot McGrath with 1:5:47 for 99.17% and Peter Schweppe with 1:8:44 for 99.18% ( how close is that for a percetage difference ). Dermot needed another 28 seconds to take the age 71 record off Mick Manley.

Fourth and fifth were Tom Barber with 1:11:42 for 99.54% and Victor Hynes, continuing his run of PB improvements in every event with 1:2:20 for 99.6%.

The full result can be found on the web site.

We are getting down to the wire now with just one event, the Tom Dempsey 10 TT next Tuesday, 3/8/10, to go in the midweek league. Eddie Dunne leads with 77 points from Victor Hynes on 75. No sprint finishes in time trials Eddie ! With only 5 points between Paul Dolan and Francis Moran in 3rd and 4th places changes are possible there also. Discards are not taken into consideration in these comments.

In the Time Trial Handicap League there are two events left as the Hill Climb is included this year. Victor leads with 86 to Eddies 62 points and Paul Dolan third on 50. Victor is therefore unassailable but the minor places are still to be won.

In the unofficial Age Standard TT League with just next weeks 10 to go Dermot and Paddy in first and second have only a 4 point difference so all to play for there. I appear to be safe in third but that's only by the grace of Hugh not riding more TT's this year. 50 points from 5 starts is outstanding.

Those needing rides to qualify for the BAR comp should remember that on Sept 5th we have the optional 10 / 25 / 50 TT's at Moy Valley. As we will be timing the 25 point en route to the 50 finish it is possible to use both times for the BAR.

Playing catch up today after a miserable week suffering with a dental abscess which kept me out of two TT's and very disgruntled. Anyway reports following for the second Mullagh Circuit TT and the Championship 50 .

50 Mile TT Championship, Moy Valley, 18/7/10.

A lousy, and correct, weather forecast obviously kept many people indoors on Sunday with only 16 riders signing on. Eddie Dunne again sacrificed a ride he wanted to do in order to make up the marshalling numbers and avoid cancellation of the event. Six out of twelve scheduled to marshall failed to show up. Suspensions of those letting us down again will be posted after tonights committee meeting. Thanks to those who did turn up and as ever to Donal who timed the event as ever, this time without Dave Cormack who has been great support for this season but was away on holiday. We could deally do with another like Dave stepping up from the roadman ranks ( or perhaps non racing members ) to support Donal and maybe even allow him a day off once in a while.

The usual suspects rose to the occasiuon in entirely predictable fashion with Hugh taking the honours, a full set for the season, with plus 27:37 from a 2:2:41. Dermot McGrath was second with 2:17:45 and plus 24:06, Paddy Davis third with 2:11:57 and plus 23:42.

Paul Dolan recorded the fastest ride on the day with a fine 1:56:18. John Oram was taking his version of a recovery ride with a 1:58:44 :-) , and Hugh was third fastest.

Looks like me and several others are now hoping for a good day on the optional distance day on 5th Sept to get our three BAR distances in.

Full result on the web site.

Mullagh Circuit TT ( 13 mls ish ). 13/7/2010.

A wet and windy night with a low turnout and, unusually, an excess of marshalls. A problem we can happily live with given experiences to date.

All handicaps are based on your current 10 handicap and a multiplier of 1.3 to adjust for the distance and difficulty of the circuit.

Mick Mullen took the win with a handicap result of 101.13% with Colm Conway second on 101.22% and Daryl Bent third on 101.92%.

This is a very " sporting " TT circuit and likely to become a standard fixture in the program. I was really looking forward to it and disappointed to be unable to ride.

We were happy to have our Paralymic hopefuls present for some real TT situation training and fine rides were recorded.

25 mile TT Champs. 4/7/10.

A miserable change in the weather depleted the field to only 22 starters, assisted by our timekeepers and marshalls without whom we don't get to race at all. I mention this each week because our thanks is eternally due but also because getting a full compliment of marshalls for our races has been a difficult task this year on too many occasions.

As it turned out the 15c, 29 kph SWesterly, and pouring rain did not prevent some decent performances. Hugh Davis went under the hour with a fine 59:39 for a plus 12:46 to take the championship win followed by Dermot McGrath with 1:6:1 for plus 11:59 and Paddy Davis in third with 1:5:25 for plus 9:35. Next three were Phil Ormrod 1:6:36 for plus 7:44, Patsy Fitzsimons 1:15:20 for 7:10 and Noel Tonge 1:3:50 for plus 6:15.

Patsy's time shaved one second off the age 76 record held by Kevin Simms in 2008, congratulations Patsy.

Kevin's response was to set a new, and first, age 78 record for 25 miles with 1:22:53, congratulations Kevin.

Full result on the Web site.

Kelly Cup 25 mile TT. Black Bull, 29/6/10.

A fine evening with 18c and a 15kph NE breeze brought 35 riders out to Black Bull seven of whom recorded handicap beatings. Eddie Dunne scored his third TT handicap win of the season to extend his lead in the Tuesday league while John Oram posted a 55:13 for the fastest time. Fastest that is except for Con Collis, a Paralympic tanden pilot whom we are facilitating in his TT training who did a superb 53:21. I could have done with him pulling me round on the night !

Eddie extends his Midweek League lead to nine points over Victor Hynes with Francis Moran moving up to third. Victor leads Eddie in the Time Trial Handicap League by six points with Eddie and Francis in hot pursuit. In the Age Standard Time Trial League we have a three wat tie for the lead between Phil Ormod, Dermot McGrath and Paddy Davis. Sundays 25 TT Champs wil sort out that order.

Full results elsewhere on the Web site.

10 mile TT Championship, Moy Valley, 26/6/2010.

Similar conditions to last Saturday but no help from the breeze on the way back from the turn. The clash with other events this weekend made for a disappointing turnout with only 26 starters.

Hugh Davis with 23:37 for plus 4:27, Dermot McGrath with 25:58 for plus 4:20, and Paddy Davis with 24:58 for plus 4:08, put in super championship worthy performances to take the podium places on age standard with Peter Schweppe 27:25 for plus 3:13, Phil Ormrod with 25:59 for plus 2:51 and Harry Sherratt with 25:06 for plus 2:44 making up the top six. Another super fastest ride on the day from Paul with 22:21for plus 2:01saw him taking 7th on age standard. Noel Tonge 25:58 for plus 1:40, Paddy Fitzsimons 26:40 for plus 1:38 and Eddie Dunne 27:29 plus plus 1:21filling out the top ten.

Top 10 actual times were :-

1 Paul Dolan 22:21,2 Eoin O'Se 23:32, 3 Hugh Davis 23:37; 4 Lloyd Berry 23:49, 5 Dermot Moyne 24:02,

6 Lionel Hart 24:05, 7 Enda Smyth 24:06, 8 Lloyd Scott 24:14, 9 Victor Hynes 24:17, 10 Linus Devlin 24:49

Top 10 , all who improved on Handicap were :-

1 Peter Rice 30:57 96.07%, 2 Harry Sherratt 25:06 96.54%, 3 Victor Hynes 24:17 97.98%, 4 Lloyd Scott 24:14 98.04%, 5 Peter Schweppe 27:25 99.34%, 6 Colm Conway 27:48 99.7%, 7 Eoin O'Se 23:32 99.72%, 8 Eddie Dunne 27:29 99.82%, 9 Oliver Bright 33:12 99.85%, 10 Enda Smyth 24:06 99.93%. Well done all.

Full result on the web.

Many thanks to Donal and Dave the stalwarts on time keeping and Robbie, Ray, Keith, JJ, Mick, Greg and Martin on marshalling duty.

Next TT is the Kelly Cup 25 at Black Bull Tuesday evening 29th and the following Sunday we are back in Moy Valley for the 25 TT Championship.

See you all there, Phil.

10 mile TT, Moy Valley, 19/6/2010.

A fine but coolish morning saw 29 riders lining up for this warm up for next Saturdays Championship event, also at Moy Valley.
What breeze there was was from a northerly direction hance the 15c temp and resultant cross wind with the outward leg being the hardest.
Congratulations to Eddie ( again )on lowering his handicap again and extending his lead in the midweek league.
The first nine riders beat handicap so it has to be seen as a good day.

Full result on the web.

I have unfortunately to mention once again that only half of the scheduled marshalls turned up. On any other course we would have had to cancel the event!
There will be more on this subject seperately.
Phil.

1st June, 2010. 25 mile T.T. Black Bull.

Many thanks to Timekeepers Donal, Dave and Adam. The new system of having the laptop in the timekeepers car is working well and making my post race work easier.

Thanks also to the Marshalls who guided us safely around the course.

Congratulations to Victor on win no.3 and also to the next five who all improved on handicap time.
Commiserations to Gerry on the puncture and above all to Brian Kinsella on crashing on his first TT. I don't know the details of what happened yet.
We hope for a speedy and perfect recovery to the collar bone.
It was a fine warm evening with the breeze appearing to fall as the race went on. Most of us found it a grind with
no reward but the top five managed to defy that.

With four TT's behind us the Time Trial League table is headed by Victor Hynes (33 pts) with Eddie Dunne second (24 pts) and Billy Bourke 3rd (23pts).

With four races, 3 tt's and 1 DMS gone in the Tuesday league we have Eddie on 1st (31pts), Victor on 2nd

(26 pts) and Francis Moran 3rd (18 pts). Full details will be on display at the next event.

For those not beating handicap times every week like the lads above I've started a new table out of interest to see how the league looks on an age standard basis. Here we have yours truly closely followed by Dermot McGrath with Paddy Davis, John Oram, Hugh Davis and Peter Schweppe in hot pursuit. This offers another season long dimension for those less likely to be in the running on handicap but performing well against standard.

A bit of a break now until 19th when we have a warm up ten at Moy Valley as a precursor to the TT Championship period.

Time for some R & R. Cheers, Phil.

25 - 05 - 2010. Mullagh Circuit TT.

A fine but cool day turned into a pleasant evening for the race.

Congratulations to Victor on his second win with another PB. Also Eddie the only other rider beating handicap .
Good to see another excellent turn out for an evening TT. Could it be catching on?
Hard luck Dermot on the puncture and Billy on the mishap, trust recovery will be quick.
I intended revising the handicap multiplier when I got the exact circuit distance but my Garmin had a malfunction.
Anyone who has a garmin recorded distance please let me know.
Thanks as usual to the timekeepers and marshalls. Thankfully this week we had a full compliment which makes the running of the races much less stressful for the committee.

Apologies to all about the absence of updates of results on the web. Even committee members have to have holidays now and then.

Start/Result Mullagh Circuit TT. ( app. 13 mls ). 12 2
TTL 03 25 May 2010 10 10 10 10

Hynes Victor 00:32:31 94.39% 1
Dunne Eddie 00:38:14 99.75% 2
Dillon John 00:30:18 4 100.54% 3
Gaston Gerry 00:34:17 100.91% 4
Cassidy Colm 00:38:13 101.30% 5
Miller Cathal 00:29:13 101.46% 6
Sorry only first six here, It's a nighmare getting excel files onto this format.
Temp Pressure Humidity Wind
15c 1015mb 40% NE 15 kph

Phil.

18 - 05 -2010. TTL - 02 Oliver Bright 10.

After the fine weather of the first TT Tuesday was certainly a dampener.
42 riders got wet and windblown. Sadly only by cross wind so one of those tough
both ways days.
Only Eddie Dunne beat handicap to take the win. The next 13 riders were within
3% of handicap so all will be looking forward to better weather.
We had a full compliment of timekeepers and marshalls and no misshaps in spite
of the weather and poor visibility.
I do owe everyone an apology for the confusion about sign on. When I sussed out
the parking possibilities after we lost the use of last years lay by I forgot to
specify sign on position.
The next time we are on the Black Bull 10 course the sign on and primary parking
area will be on the first left off the roundabout, where Donal was initially on
Tuesday.
Next weeks TT is one lap of Mullagh circuit with sign on and parking at
Batterstown. Start and finish will be at the usual Batterstown line.
Apologies for delays on getting results on the web. David is on holidays and I
am not trained in on web page manipulation.
Here is a snapshot of Tuesdays result.

Start/Result.Oliver Bright 10 TT.
TTL 02 18 May 2010
Surname Handicap Actual Time HandicapPosition
Dunne Eddie 00:29:48 00:29:29 98.94% 1 10
Moran f Francis 00:24:39 00:24:51 100.81% 2 9
Smyth Enda 00:24:51 00:25:09 101.21% 3 8
Bourke Billy 00:51:08 00:24:08 101.33% 4 7
Devlin Linus 00:33:33 00:24:33 101.45% 5 6
Bright Oliver 00:39:46 00:33:46 101.55% 6 5
Miller Cathal 00:52:30 00:22:30 101.58% 7 4
Barber Tom 00:48:10 00:28:10 101.81% 8 3
Moyne Dermot 00:59:06 00:24:06 101.97% 9 2
Cassidy Colm 00:52:32 00:26:32 102.12% 10 2

09/05/2010

Fred Smith 25, Moy Valley.

Some fifty riders were greeted by a bright sunny morning at Enfield yesterday. The NE cross wind although not too disruptive was a cool 6 c at 0900. Four riders beat handicap. First was Victor Hynes with 1:4:39 at 97.08% of handicap time. Second was Eunan Malone with 1:01:05 at 98.34%. Third was Billy Bourke with 1:02:55 at 98.72% and fourth was Orla Tansey with 1:01:22 at 99.09%. The next five riders were within 1% of handicap so we can consider our first TT of the season a good event. Comiserations go to Dermot McGrath and John Dillon who both suffered punctures, I hope you did not hit that monster pothole at the Enfield end of the course!

Thanks as always to Donal and the marshalls for making our day possible and also to Victor and Dave for getting involved with the timekeeping panel I've been trying to get off the ground for a couple of years.

On a less pleasant note I am dissappointed to report that in spite of web postings and texts we still have rostered marshalls failing to show up. Thanks are due to Eddie Scully and Dave Kelly for stepping up to volunteer.

Next TT Tuesday 18th. Oliver Bright 10.

25/03/2010

Hi all. If there is anyone out there who intends to ride the TT's this season and is not yet on the IVCA e-mail list please sign up so that you will be sure to keep abreast of notices sent out this way.

Best of luck to all those hardy souls who intend to make their season's debut on Sunday. I'll be there to give you a shout from the side of the road. Hope the sun shines for us!

26/02/2010.

Hello all you TTers out there. Trust you've all gotten rid of the festive season belly by now and have managed to get out on the road in spite of the freezing weather to start clocking up those all important base miles. No doubt many will, like me, have done a lot of their miles ( or kilometers ) to date, in the garage on the turbo.

You'll have seen by now that we introduced a few DMS's into the Tuesday League again. These will be monitored carefully from a safety aspect and the decision reviewed after the first couple of events. The racing committee is determined to see an increased sense of awareness and safety consciousness in these races before allowing them to continue.

As a result the Midweek League will revert to a mixture of TT's and DMS's which we hope will satisfy all members. Saturday TT's will be counted in the Midweek League.

As in the past couple of years the Time Trial Handicap League will cover all TT's, Tuesday, Saturday and Sunday. As a new inovation this year the Kilmacanogue Hill Climb will this year be added to the TTHL making a total of 13 events to count with no discards.

The two circuit TT's are at present expected to be on the new Batterstown circuit and will be confirmed after the circuit has been tried in the early RR's.

Best of luck with your training. As my coach says each time he sends me a gruelling schedule, have fun!