This is where it's won; Team Aqua Blue putting in wet and cold long miles in the hills of Co Kerry in January.
With the Tour of Ulster having concluded in a 1-2 overall for Team Aquablue via Conor Hennebry and Sean Lacey, it felt like a good time to share this piece from two years ago by the man behind the squad, Tim Barry.
The riders may have changed since this was published, by the recipe for success hasn't.
And this piece - about the team's winter training camp - offers an insight into some of the reasons why Team Aquablue is one of the best outfits on the domestic scene.
Originally published in January, 2014
With the domestic season just weeks away and their sights firmly fixed on some big prizes, team Aqua Blue take to the hills of Kerry to bond and build their form for the tasks ahead, writes team principal Tim Barry.
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With the racing season looming, we held our annual training camp in Kenmare last weekend. While the An Post-Chainreaction team enjoyed two weeks in Calpe with temperatures only experienced during a good Irish summer, we grabbed two days in the freezing cold, fog and rain of Kerry.
Why head off in dreary January to such an exotic location and torture ourselves in the mountains you may ask?
Well, this pilgrimage is a bit of a tradition for us; we’ve been doing it for a number of years and for some very good reasons:
- Building team spirit; getting the lads back together after a long winter while having a bit of craic and getting the miles in.
- New members; introducing the new guy’s to their teammates, which didn’t take long this time seeing as we all knew each other.
- Reconnaissance of the route for the second stage of the Kerry Group Rás Mumhan which will be based in the town on Easter Saturday. It’s a new stage and has never been included in the race before.
Building team spirit is the key to success in any sport and particularly so in cycling.
It’s difficult to put your finger on how to go about it best and hard to know you’ve got it right. Obviously one weekend away doesn’t magically create an invisible bond between team mates, but it’s a very good way to start.
On the subject of team spirit, Fran Meehan who retained her national cyclocross title a couple of weeks ago also came down to help out.
Fran should have been on the bike with lads but couldn’t manage it because of injuries she picked up after crashing in the race; though she got back up on the bike on the day and battled on to the win.
Still she traveled to Kenmare and was kept busy doing feeds and changing wheels; that’s what I mean about team spirit.
Mind you, she was heard to utter under her breath more than once in the team car “that lad needs to toughen up” as somebody else was dropped from the group.
Along with the guys who will be riding the biggest races at home this year, members of the Aqua Blue cycling club who mainly race A4, A3 and triathlon came along for the weekend, so it was a full house.
We had a back-up crew that would have been the envy of Team Sky, made up of driver and master of all trades Ben Foley, photographer Mairead O’Mullane and Brendan Grimes, who eased out tired muscles with his magic hands and his celebrity space boots.
There were also a few strays tagging along, with riders from the Kenmare Tri Club and Killorglin CC present on a spying mission.
Adrian O’Connor from Black Umbrella, accompanied by his sound man Aaron Buggle, was there too. I can’t say exactly what they were doing. All will be revealed in the coming weeks.
Our team line-up for 2014 is made up of the core of last year’s squad, with Joe Fenlon, Sean Lacey, Olan Barrett, Maurice Lawlor, Robin Kelly, Keith Gator, Damian Shaw and Fran all lining out again.
The new additions are Dylan Foley - a first year senior who won the Gorey Three Day last year - and Bryan McCrystal, who begins his second season at road racing after a debut last year which included a stage win in the Tour of Ulster.
New team member and Gorey Three Day winner Dylan Foley (left) with former National Vets' Champion and 2013 Tour of Ulster winner Joe Fenlon - an age gap of 25 years between the two.
Also on board now is Neil Delahaye; a man who has pulled the legs of every A1 in the country for the last number of years. Those three big men come with a lot of power; a combined height of 19 feet 3 inches and 10,000 watts!
We also have two pro triathletes on the team; Bryan Keane who needs no introduction as he spent a number of years bike racing and has ridden the Rás with the national team and Gavin Noble who finished 23rd in the London Olympics Triathlon and led that race in off the bike.
Realistically, they will only use bike racing as preparation for triathlon. But last year they were very competitive whenever they raced, so a few surprises could be on the cards as long as they can stay upright. We all know what supposedly bad bike handlers triathletes are....
On Saturday morning we gathered outside one of the houses we'd rented for the weekend. As the group assembled Keith and I looked at the array of machines on display; safe to say the standard of winter bike was pretty impressive except for our own two gates.
Keith turned to me with a nervous look in his eye and said: “Did you ever feel that you might have brought a knife to a gun fight?”
Then from around the corner we heard a rumble which initially sounded like a dying tractor but turned out to be the Mullingar Monster Damian Shaw on his “bike” with 30 mm tyres, mudguards, lights, steel frame, panniers and even a backer.
Initially I thought he must have mugged the local post man but it turns out this is the bike he has used all winter; plenty to hang out of if I got into trouble on the climbs.
The winter training bike of Damian Shaw; the 2013 Kerry Group Rás Mumhan winner and bronze medalist in the elite men's National Road Race Championships last year.
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Our route for the two spins was out of Kenmare, over the bridge turning right onto the Beara peninsula, climbing first over Lauragh then the dreaded Healy Pass.
I always wondered who thought of building a road over such terrain and I found out later the only reason it was built was to provide work during the famine; giving families an income to help them survive.
It has had a number of names over the years from the Kerry Pass to Ballaghscart. It was renamed the Tim Healy Pass in the early 1930s in memory of the first governor general of Ireland who died in 1931.
So the next time you cycle up the “Healy” let your mind drift back to these few tit bits of information and it might make the climb that little bit easier.
One of the main reasons for the training camp is to foster team spirit and despite the elements the guys seemed to be enjoying themselves.
Once down the other side we headed back towards Glengarriff where in last year’s An Post Rás stage finish announcer Cian Lynch mistakenly asked the good Kerry people of Glengarriff to give a warm welcome to the men of the Rás, though he was actually in Cork.
Rumour has it his two "advisers" on the race, Kerry men Ted Crowley and Tadhg Moriarty set up the poor Dub.
We then took the main road to Ballylickey, where you can imagine the humour as some of the lads saw the village sign; cyclists being cyclists.
Here we turned inland through the Gaeltacht villages of Ballingeary and Ballyvourney before heading over the county bounds back into Kerry through Jackie Healy Rea country.
It was close to Kilgarvan that Joe got a bit of a fright. When stopped at a gate answering a call of nature he didn’t see the local farmer standing close by holding a hatchet.
Now, peeing on somebody’s gate is one thing but getting caught is totally different, especially when the owner is armed.
Funnily enough, Joe didn’t need to get in behind the team car to get back up to the safety of the group.
There's no such thing as bad weather, just bad gear; the lads are well wrapped up against the rain and cold, keen to avoid illness with the season just around the corner.
Without giving away any secrets, the stage will be tough; 140 odd kilometres with very little flat on heavy roads.
Thankfully I'll be driving the car so I should be able to enjoy the scenery for a change, instead of my normal Rás Mumhan which usually involves chasing six-foot tall floppy haired Dutchmen around the countryside.
The rest of the day was filled with getting pictures done for our sponsor Aqua Blue, a casual team meeting to set some goals for the coming season, distributing this year’s team clothing from Verge and nutritional products from Kinetica.
Team helmets are being supplied by Martin in Race Right Cycles and the majority of the lads will be using Fondriest frames from the Waterford Cycle Centre.
The weather cleared up to allow the squad take some promo shots; looking pretty pro with team car and kit - the author Tim Barry on the extreme right.
Sunday’s route was identical to the previous day except for the torrential rain which caused most of the lads to dress like extras for a documentary on the life of Antarctic explorer Tom Crean.
All in all we had a great weekend and despite the weather, the lads got some good miles in the legs and we had plenty craic off the bike. Thankfully nobody has died due to Maurice’s Lawlor’s cooking on Saturday evening; well not yet anyway.
A big thank you to the our back-up crew who helped out over the weekend and to all team and club members who made the effort to come along. But the biggest thanks has to be held over for Damian’s backer for getting me up the Healy Pass!
See you all during the season; it’s just around the corner.
Tim
The moon boots were popular with the riders looking to get any extra help in their recovery between Saturday's and Sunday's training spins.
Team principal Tim Barry gets a backer from Joe Fenlon on Damian Shaw's winter warhorse.
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