Having won the near 2,500km TransAtlantic Race, Peter McColgan has revealed how he set out a series of stages for himself, of up to 860km each, in a pre-planned strategy to beat his main rival, Benny Cassidy.
McColgan’s main approach was based on his assumption that Cassidy would be fast – and that he’d go out hard right from the start of the event in Derry. But McColgan believed because Cassidy would go hard, he’d also need to take long periods of rest as the event wound its way down the Wild Atlantic Way towards the finish in Cork.
And so McColgan decided to approach the endurance race in a manner that ensured he’d need much less rest than Cassidy. His plan was to offset his rival’s speed by making relentless progress down the course himself.
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He’d ride the race in four big chunks of kilometres and moving time – a mammoth four ‘stages’ - and then take the least amount of rest time possible between those four stages.
The race was again confined to Irish residents because of Covid, and last year’s winner Rachel Nolan did not defend her title. McColgan and Cassidy – both strong and experienced endurance racers - were favourites from the start.
McColgan came second last year and Cassidy third in 2018. In 2019 Cassidy was also a very impressive 12th in the Transcontinental Race that covers 4,000km between the Black Sea and the Atlantic coast in France. Cassidy’s brother Donnacha - both nephews of double Rás Tailteann winner Philip Cassidy - was also in the mix, having come third last year in his first ultra race.
“Benny rides extremely fast from the gun,” McColgan explained to stickybottle of his pre-race strategy. “So I was anticipating that he would have to rest more and that I could exploit that - with less rest I could offset his higher speed.
“I had a three-stop plan that meant riding through the first and last nights and had hotels booked for the three stops. That left me with fours ‘stages’ of approximately 860k, 430k, 430k and 700k. That’s basically how it panned out – Benny had a slightly higher moving speed but had to rest more”.
McColgan had prepared for this strategy by doing some 600k overnight training spins to see how the body would react to the long overnight stages. He eventually won the long-course ‘Cúchulainn’ event - 2,430Km and 29,079 meters of climbing – in three days and 18 hours. Benny Cassidy was 2nd and Donnacha Cassidy came 3rd again.
McColgan (32) is a design engineer in the semi-conductor industry, rides with St Tiernan’s CC and has road racing pedigree, with wins including the Omagh Three Day and Kanturk Three Day.
He came to ultra-racing last year when an around-the-world bike-packing trip had to be cancelled due to Covid, and he entered the TransAtlantic Way as a stop-gap.
He used his regular road-racing bike for the race – a BMC Timemachine – modified with a hub-dynamo, aero-bars with electronic shifters, a suspension stem, Prime BlackEdition wheels – 60mm front and 85 back – and a 28mm rear tyre.
He lost the use of his front derailleur early in the race but managed to change his sprocket from a 34-14 to a 34-11 in Ballina and that restored some of his speed. He finished his event on last Tuesday week, July 13th, in a time of five days and 10 hours.
The short-course ‘Setanta’ race of 1,680km with 19,134 metres of climbing was won by Tom Daly of Killarney CC in a time of 6 days and 11 hours.
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The shorter competition is normally chosen by older riders, those who are new to this type of racing, or riders who are short on time, and this year it was mainly older riders who competed.
Daly (66) swapped the lead over the first three days with Julie Rea (53) from Belfast and who rides with Phoenix CC.
Daly told stickybottle he adopted a similar strategy to McColgan. “Julie went out strong on the first day and opened a big lead but I made no attempt to stay with her,” Daly said of not panicking when Rea gained ground.
“I thought she was stronger than me but I began putting her under pressure by starting earlier each morning and basically spending every available minute on the bike.
"I gradually distanced her after Mayo and rode through the final night to make sure.” Daly had the benefit of the experience of last year’s event, while it was Rea’s first ultra.
“I might not have beaten her had she had the experience of an event under her belt. Also, I’d had the experience of very bad conditions last year,” Daly said.
He rode his regular Trek Domaine, modified with aero-bars and a sub-compact chainset with 65mm cranks. He has won a number of Masters 60 track titles and was previously featured on stickybottle for winning his first A4 race at over 60.
He also runs Masters Cycling Coaching and writes on training for older riders, but is probably best known in cycling circles of as author of ‘The Rás: the Story of Ireland’s Unique Bike Race’.
Joe Morrisson (65) from Derry came third in the short-course event. He lost time in Donegal due to a navigation error.
Asked by stickybottle why she didn’t defend her win from last year, Rachel Nolan explained: “There are so many adventures to experience that I very rarely do the same thing twice.
“This year my goals were an MTB Everesting attempt (completed weeks ago), the Wild Mayo Ultra 650km race, and for the rest of the year preparing my body for multi-sport endurance as 2022 will be a year for adventure racing expeditions”.
Reflecting on the TransAtlantic way event, Peter McColgan commented: “It’s an amazing route: a combination of ridiculous side roads, some ridiculous gradients, some bad surfaces and some amazing landscape.
“The conditions were so much more difficult last year and I enjoyed it more this year - I had more fun. I would recommend it to anyone who likes to travel explore with a sense of competition”.
He still intends to do his round-the-world bike packing trip as soon as circumstances allow.
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