Just finishing up on the trails in Castlewellen at around 5.30pm and subsequently getting home around 6.30pm to Tandragee, on walking through the door mum said "are you not away to the cycling dinner?" Whoops!
A triathlon style transition was employed to get ready and out the door to make it to the venue before the starters made it to the table.
I arrived with everyone seated. A bit of banter with Oliver Hunter at the door regarding being late as usual to the sign on, which is standard procedure by now.
The awards night was well hosted and it was great to see everyone lifting various awards for their achievements throughout the year. I was sat down with a couple of juniors and the buzz they had from lifting medals was great to see. Some of the other awards for services to cycling (Oliver Hunter) and Inspirational achievements (Amy Brice and Willie John McLaughlin) were great to see and some of the highlights of the evening. Darrell Erwin also lifted his awards for champion of the hand cycling time trials and for me his achievements are also very inspirational.
I had never won any cycling ulster awards until the 2014 season, I came close on a number of occasions in 2013, with a number of fourth place finishes. Getting into the medals and winning some of the events was for me the highlight of my season. To win in a time trial is a great feeling as there is no luck or chance to it, the strongest cyclist wins and I like the purity of that. I had some great wins on the road in 2014, winning and getting good results in some prestigious road races such as the John Beggs and the Noel Taggart. For me the season was all about the TT's and the results of those road races was a by-product of the training I did for time trials. I had a really simple goal going into 2014 and that was to hold a certain number of watts for 20 minutes, I knew if I hit that number on my day I would be hard to beat.
I collected a number of awards all for Time Trials which were presented by Denis Toomey (President of Cycling Ireland)
Ulster 50 TT - Gold
Ulster 25 TT - Gold
Ulster 10 TT - Silver
Ulster 100 TT - Silver
Ulster 25 Team - Silver ( Richard Timmins and Neil Stratton making up other members of the team)
Pictured is the Sport Active Trophy for the Ulster 25 Champion (which was handy for holding the medals as I made my way to the car afterwards!)
I got back home late and mum had stayed up to see what I had got which was nice.
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| Thanks for the photo Bronagh Kirk |
