Ryan Sherlock
My affair with the bicycle, and later with bike racing all started when I was a summer intern working in Northern California.
There is a huge bike culture there and my brother who lived there had just started road racing. To keep me out of trouble, I started riding mountain bikes and enjoying the beautiful area. Arriving back in Ireland and finishing out my studies in Trinity, the bike gathered dust – it actually gathered dust for a long time until one of my colleagues bought a nice full suspension mountain bike – I figured, I could afford one and joined him.
Now, having spent what I felt was a huge amount of money (about 1,600), I felt I should let my competitive urges out and give racing a go. It was a frigid cold Saturday morning in December 2005 when I joined up with the Mountain Association of Dublin for their Christmas race – my nerves where at me, I didn’t know why I was about to put myself out on the line – but I did, and somehow won.
From there, it was a logical progression to bigger and bigger races on the mountain bike.
As I got faster on the mountain bike, road riding and racing became a regular part of my training – the mountain bike had my focus but I also enjoyed cycling on the road – the speed, the distances you could cover, the satisfaction of finishing a long ride.
Last year I decided to take part in a few stage races on the road to help my fitness for mountain bike racing. Many top mountain bike professionals do this so I guess I was emulating them.
The first one was the four-day Rás Mumhan in Kerry – despite terrible weather, I performed well and hugely enjoyed the experience. With a good result there, I let it be known that I was looking to be part of a team in order to take part in the 2010 Rás — a huge leap forward and a well-renowned race world wide. The Eurocycles team who had been dominating the Irish domestic scene stepped forward when one of their star performers, Adam Armstrong, was selected to race for the national team.
I entered the race without any expectations and found it a rewarding experience. It was tough at times, very tough, but I made it through as the top county rider (basically, the top amateur) and 17th overall. It was at this point I questioned if I should give road cycling my priority for a few years...
This year, I decided to focus on road racing. After a winter of training of between 18 to 28 hours per week, my season started in March racing a six-day stage race in Malaysia followed closely by the ten-day Tour de Taiwan.
Unfortunately, the day before I started my season a bad crash left me bloody and bruised – I raced on but since then, I have had health issues and never felt as good as I had as I trained for my season.
Recently, with another batch of tests I found the cause – anaemia. Basically, there was a severe lack of red blood cells in my blood – what this means is that less oxygen can get to my muscles as I ride – about 25% less.
It has been three weeks since I got the diagnosis and I have been trying to remedy the issue as I put my final preparation in for this year’s Rás. Last year was an amazing experience and I’m hoping that I have put my health issues behind and I’ll have a successful, enjoyable and safe An Post Rás as part of the Sport Active team.
Source: http://feeds.examiner.ie/~r/iesportsblog/~3/0j-wnHNx6qU/post.aspx
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