Pete Vance, Daryl Bent, Declan Brassil and Ronan Baxter
By Graham Healy
Preparations are continuing for the ‘Hunky Dorys Lucan CRC – Renegade Racing Team’ as they aim to win the four-man team title in the gruelling Race Across America (RAAM) in June.
The event is arguably one of the toughest endurance events in the world; starting in Oceanside, California, on the Pacific coast and finishing in Annapolis on the Atlantic coast.
At 3,000 miles in length and passing through 12 states and 88 counties, RAAM is around one third longer than the Tour de France.
According to team member, Declan Brassil, they are following the Paleo Diet for Athletes, which was co-written by legendary cycling coach Joe Friel.
“It is a low carb, high-protein, high-fat, diet incorporating loads of fruit, veg, nuts and seeds,” he tells us.
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“The general principle is to switch your body from using carbs as a primary fuel source to using fat and protein. The latter are much more efficient in terms of energy per gramme and your body can store a lot more of it as a fuel source than glycogen derived from carbs. It also minimises gluten/wheat and dairy and is more alkaline in content than acidic which brings its own benefits.”
“The principal difference to the straight forward Paleo diet is that there are windows before and after training/racing when you carb up on normal carbs as the glycogen fuel source is also important. Carb intake also increases at high intensity stages of the training/racing cycle. The likes of Sky Procycling work to these principles without calling it the Paleo diet.”
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As regards the intensity of the training, Brassil tells us: “At this stage of the training programme, Scott McDonald has us doing long back to back sessions at the weekends (4 x 6 hours per day steady hard) with 2 to 3 hour rides during the week with 20-minute threshold efforts woven in. We are still doing a lot of core stability work but the weights are gone. We rode Gorey for training and since then there has been little racing.”
“We will also do one or two 24-hours training sessions in the next six weeks, primarily for crew training.”
I asked Declan if he had been studying the opposition to determine which rival teams they may need to keep their eye on, but he tells me: “We are trying not to look at the opposition. We can only control ourselves and our own race. The race is about maintaining the same effort for six days.”
“If you're watching the opposition go up the road early in the race and start chasing them, chances are both teams will blow up and get caught by the middle of the race. We intend to start and finish at much the same pace which is dictated by threshold power.”
The time involved for the attempt has been enormous for all team members, and both Brassil and team mate Ronan Baxter are appreciative of the support they’ve received from their wives, girlfriends and children also, in addition to their various sponsors.
You can follow their progress on their website: http://www.renegadelcrc.com
The Team
Cyclists: Pete Vance, Daryl Bent, Declan Brassil and Ronan Baxter.
Team Manager: Jimmy O’Harte
Coach: Scott McDonald
Medical Consultant:Dr Peadar Gilligan
Nutritionist & Chef: Darren Rubotham
Masseur/Masseuse: Graham Macken
Mechanics: Mark Sheridan and John Baxter.
Media & Communications: Brian Purcell
Drivers/Navigators: Mervyn Bent and Gordon Lee, Dan Egan, Gary Chappel, Jamie Cornett, Wes Batty
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