lydiaboylan

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Short statement on my plans for 2019

It is no secret that WNT-ROTOR has not been what I hoped this year. I have had to watch good friends leave WNT-ROTOR, staff and riders, from early in the year.

My track commitments have made planning road more difficult but so far this season WNT-ROTOR have “selected” me for only one race. And for quite a while now I have not even had any contact from the team DS.

So needless to say and with little surprise, after 4 years, I will not be continuing with WNT.  Prior to this year, I have had some of my best memories on a bike with WNT and I thank them for that.

I have no concrete plans for 2019 but what I do know is that the next two years I will be giving it my all to get to Tokyo 2020 and represent Ireland on the track! I’m sure I’ll still have some time for road! Teams/Sponsors feel free to contact me 😉

I have so much appreciation for all those that support me on this crazy journey! Thank you!

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Love this photo from @sixdayberlin @sixdaycycling Off the front in the tempo race and making sure I’m riding the shortest line possible!! (at Velodrom Berlin)

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Why I love Dublin ❤️ #nofilter (at Killiney Beach)

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The Pruszkow World Cup wasn’t my finest but the legs were there so I’m focusing on the positives and learning from the experience! One last push for the Manchester World Cup this weekend! #twcpruszkow2017 #tissotucitrackwc #twc #tissottwc #ucitrack #omnium #madison (at Pruszków)

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#throwback to the first time I got to wear an Ireland jersey at the 2012 @rasnamban So proud and honoured to be selected to wear that jersey again @bergen2017 🇮🇪 🇳🇴 #worlds #bergen2017 🌈 (at Dublin, Ireland)

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Merry Christmas to you all! Looking back and remembering some fantastic times during 2016. Defending my national road title definitely being one of many! Thank you to everyone who has supported me. Here's to another fantastic year in 2017! Enjoy the holidays everyone! ⛄️

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Going into the omnium points race I knew I had to take a lap to get the top 10 result I wanted. Taking a lap on your own is hard work...thankfully a few others joined me and I finished 9th overall! Everything is crossed now hoping that I've done enough to qualify for Worlds in Hong Kong next April. #trackcycling #omnium #ireland #sport #cyclingireland #teamIRL #IRL #worldcup #tissotucitrackwc (at Omnisport Apeldoorn)

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Little selection of photographs by Guy Swarbrick from last week’s UEC European Track Championships

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What a superb week of racing for Team WNT at Rás na mBan in Ireland. We won the team classification! Along with a stage win and points jersey for Eileen, top “British” rider and 2nd on GC for me...and a couple of podiums along the way! 

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Footage from The Belgian Project

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Matrix Fitness GP Series, Round 1, Motherwell - back to it with a 6th place finish.

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Update...

Yet again it seems to have been quite a while since I’ve updated my blog. Track season has a way of keeping you busy. You go from race to race and so always looking forward with never much time to reflect. And then when you do find some downtime you don’t want to reflect but rather switch off so you have the energy to go again for the next event.

We started out this season with the distant dream of Rio. And after a very good performance at Europeans that dream perhaps became a little closer. But as I pointed out previously it was always a numbers game and we started out this season quite a way down on the teams we would need to beat. I personally always thought of Rio as a long shot instead choosing to focus on making the improvements necessary to perform at my best for each race. Europeans gave me the confidence I needed and with Cali up soon after it was a great opportunity to continue our progression. A top 8 necessary to move up the rankings. We so narrowly missed out. Rio was off the cards for me then. 

NZ up next. And another opportunity to race! But with racing comes travel! I struggle with all the travel we do in the track season and you can’t really travel much further than NZ. A 12 hour shift in time zone! I’m convinced it is the most messed up thing you can do to your body. I struggled to feel my legs and with a slight glute injury I’ve definitely felt better. But as it usually does my body came good for race day and I felt I put out a good effort...but as a team not good enough. We missed out on top 8 again.

A short hop home for Christmas and it was straight back to Mallorca to prepare for Hong Kong. I was feeling ok but perhaps not quite 100%. Arriving in Hong Kong  I knew something wasn’t right. Fatigue, jet lag, exhaustion....what ever it was I knew this wasn't going to be shifted by race day. I was broken! So I won’t say much about Hong Kong. For me, it was terrible!

A much needed week at home and off the bike was due. And boy did I enjoy it. I arrived back out to Mallorca with the freshness required to hit the ground running and prepare for Worlds and with the added bonus of the scratch race for me. Our Rio dream is up...but that doesn’t stop us. Worlds is maybe our last chance to get it all together and race as we all can. Leave it all out on the track. But most importantly ENJOY it. And that’s basically where I’m at. Sometimes you can lose the focus of why we actually do sport. Sometimes we allow the pressure to get to us. But at the end of the day if you don’t enjoy it, why bother?

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What my life currently revolves around....

This is the current team pursuit Olympic rankings. For those who may not know the Olympic qualification procedure is a little complicated... but basically the top 9 in the world rankings after the World Champs in London next March will more than likely qualify.  (And yes, you’re right...only 9 countries get to go to Rio! Crazy, huh?)

After the first world cup last weekend in Cali, Ireland are currently ranked 12th. To get to Rio we need to jump up above Russia. 334 points. A tall ask, but not impossible! 

After our recent performances at Euros and Cali where we improved our PB by 9 seconds and were heartbreakingly close to finishing top 8 in a world cup for the first time we know our rides are getting faster all the time. We now have four weeks until the next chance to get more precious points, the NZ world cup. Finishing in the top 8 is now a necessary result if Rio is still to remain mathematically possible....time to get the head down and keep training hard!

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My Rás na mBan in numbers!

5 Days

6 Stages

404 km 

10.83 hours

37.3 km/h

2761 m climbed

7216 calories burned

868 TSS

198 average watts

1002 max watts

1 podium

5 top 10s

4 fantastic team mates

4 super team staff

1 amazing experience

Photo credit: Lorraine O'Sullivan

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A History of Attempts

I realised I haven’t blogged about what it the biggest race win of my career! I never know what to say. It’s hard to sum up what exactly winning meant to me. Perhaps giving you a history of my attempts will help.

2012, my first road nationals. I went into this race a complete rookie. I had no expectations and perhaps this helped. I made the final break of 4. Surrounded by much more experienced cyclists I felt a bit out of my depth. My lack of endurance and experience showed in the final sprint - 4th.

2013. A bit between my teeth and something to prove to myself. A year more training and experience (in 2013 I had completed my first UCI stage race) I was ready to show Ireland what I could do. I attacked the race making the only significant break hoping it would split to a smaller group but alas it was a bunch sprint and bad decision making meant for another soul destroying 4th place.

2014. I was so ready. And I had trained harder than ever and was feeling so strong. My coach had got my taper perfect. I was hitting sprint PBs in my pre-race ride the day before the race. My confidence was as high as it could be. On the morning of the race I had heard news of a bad car crash that caused a road closure on part of the race course. By the end of the day the road was still closed. The race was officially postponed. I kept a straight face as they announced it but after I just curled in a ball a had a little cry. I was so disappointed. So much training. So much preparation. It hurt. The race was re-organised for that September which clashed with a track squad camp. I couldn’t contest.

2015, would this finally be the year? I thought not. After a very tough winter track season, mentally and physically, I was struggling to find consistency in my road training. And just when I started to really hit form I fell ill. This was just less than a month out from Nationals. I had hoped it would be a quick cold and I’d get over it but I was completely wiped. I pushed hard to get back on the bike again and with my coach, James Spraag, we put a plan together to try get some of my form back. I wasn’t convinced. Even just a couple of days before Nationals I felt terrible on the bike. But it all came together the day before the race. I felt so strong and completely smashed my pre-race ride sprints! I knew physically I was in good shape. Now the only thing that stood between me and the finish line was a whole peloton of very strong riders. Billed at the best line up in years, I’ll admit, nerves were pretty high. I fell back on routine to keep the nerves at bay and made sure I went into the race with my own plan. I knew I couldn’t just watch everyone. I had to make sure the race went how I wanted. This meant being patient and having confidence in my strengths. There were several moments when I thought I blew it. Most of all when I was off the front solo for far longer than I would have liked. And then when rounding the last corner. I thought I’d blown it. I thought I was too far back! Seems ironic now. The last 100m is a blur but I definitely remember crossing the line - and to my surprise, no one was in front of me. I had just won! Disbelief. Shock. Elation. A huge goal achieved. And one I will cherish forever.