Monday 28 June 2010

Dublin North Physiotherapy Clinic


Dublin North Physiotherapy Clinic caters for a number of injuries and conditions including; sports injuries, women’s health and continence, workplace injuries, orthopaedic injuries, joint pain and neuromuscular disorders.

Services Provided:

• Private Professional Consultations to create personalised rehabilitation programmes aimed to prevent re-injury in the future.
• Hands on treatments such as massage and manipulation.
• Electrotherapy treatments such as ultrasound and TENS.
• Workplace assessments (ergonomic testing), this can be carried out if pain is caused by static postures and/or repetitive movements on a daily basis.
• Pitch side physiotherapy for all sports. This includes the physiotherapist attending training sessions and/or matches. Can treat injury pre, post or during matches including massage or taping.

• Sports Injury
• Workplace Injury
• Back and Neck pain
• Joint Pain
• Neuromuscular Disorders
• Women’s Health and Continence

Contact Details:

383 Clontarf Road, Clontarf, Dublin 3

(086) 3627818 / (087) 7607595

email ~ dnphysio@gmail.com

Sunday 20 June 2010

Halfords Tour Series Dublin Pics

It was great to see city centre racing return to the streets of Dublin tonight. Even better to see Garmins Dan Martin and the An Post team ride away from the field of seasoned British pros and Irish national and provincial teams. Martin dominated the race over a partly cobbled course, lapping most of the field,  while the An post boys rode what was effectively a team time trial, with four of their five riders leaving the rest behind and chasing Martin all the way to the line.

Due to the unfathomable rules of the Tour Series the An Post team were the overall winners, while Martin wasn't declared race winner but did scoop the Sprints award. No, I don't get it either!

Here's some pics:























Wednesday 16 June 2010

Bet you can't do this on your road bike.

Radioshack not welcome in Spain shocker

So Bruyneel is "speechless" that his golden boys haven't been welcomed with open arms to the Vuelta. Well, when he say's speechless that doesn't include copious tweets and a very long press release on the subject.

 Here's his speechless reaction in full:


“I am not only surprised, I am speechless. At first I  thought it was a mistake so I called organizer Javier Guillén for some explanation. He told me that the other teams offered him better options on a sporting level. I had to ask him to repeat it as I could not believe this but I heard right:  we didn’t offer a good enough team. I cannot accept or understand this decision. With Levi Leipheimer, Andreas Klöden, Chris Horner and Jani Brajkovic we had four potential Vuelta WINNERS on the roster we sent to Unipublic. Our 2010 Team goals were the Tour de France and the Tour of Spain. That’s why -  together with the need to perform well in the Tour of California – we skipped the Tour of Italy this year. ”

"Up until now it has never been accepted that a Team Manager stands on a soap box to defend the rights of the teams and the riders. We always have to accept; we don’t have many rights. After what I heard today, I take it as a personal mission: from now on I will fight for the interests of the cycling teams. It will be more than just a goal.  I will work for it as hard as I’ve worked for my own team. It is really urgent that action be taken now as this is the time that the organizers will listen to the opinions of the teams. I will do everything that I can to bring all big teams to one level.   What happened today is only a detail.”

“In cycling there are three parties: UCI, organizers and teams/riders.  Unlike in other professional sports, the teams and riders are the main actors who are never heard. I will fight for our rights and for other things that rightfully belong to us but we never get.  There is an abuse of power. Some organizers take away the hunger of potential sponsors to invest in our sport. It is unjust that a new sponsor, coming into cycling with a lot of enthusiasm, is not rewarded for their financial input. For me it is hard to explain to my sponsor that 21 other teams are apparently better than us.  Especially when it isn’t true.  These actions are unfair to our sponsors as well as a blow to our fans.  “

“It is high time for ‘professional’ cycling to become professional. The structure of our sport needs to change towards a model of other successful professional sports like soccer, tennis, Formula 1, etc. Today, this is happening to our team and sponsors, tomorrow it could be any other team.  Even if some parties don’t like to see or hear this, I will do anything which is in my power to contribute to making this happen.”

What is he on about?

What model is he suggesting exactly? I always had the impression that F1 and Tennis are totally dominated by the governing bodies/organisers. Is it not an annual event that the F1 bodies (ie Ecclestone and Mosely) change the rules to restrict the cars in some way, followed by the bleating of the teams for a bit, followed by yet another boring, processional season of races where the best machine (not driver) wins. And is that not why the TV audiences are turning off in droves? Don't get me wrong, I'm not for a miinute suggesting all is well in the world of cycling but if Bruyneel is going to go on a rant he could at least be a bit more specific.

As far as it being unjust to his sponsor, again you have to ask, what is he on about? RadioShack are a US focussed company, with little or no European presence. The last I heard, the Vuelta is not a major feature on US TV, nor for that matter is the Tour when Lance isn't manufacturing some controversy. So how can it possibly be a blow to the marketing plans of RadioShack to miss the Vuelta? In contrast, Garmin, Sky, Katusha and Cervelo are all sponsors with a significant European presence. If RadioShack were to get in, one of them would have been excluded so how would that not have been "unjust" to an equally valuable sponsor?

Also, although everyone is denying it, is the long term good of the sport really served by pandering to a team and a manager with such a huge black cloud hanging over them, at the expense of other teams who, at least for now, appear to represent the clean, open, honest, unambiguous future we all want?

 The best bit is where he says he will fight to defend the rights of his riders. Cast your mind back to July last year when a certain manager was very publicly trampling all over the "rights" of his best rider while favouring the "rights" of his not-quite-so-good best mate and meal ticket. Now think about where the out of favour rider came from? That's right, Spain. Is that a co-incidence? Could Bruyneel be getting a taste of his own medicine from Contadors compatriots?

Tuesday 15 June 2010

Wicklow 200 (or 100 in my case)

This year I finally made it. No health issues, no family emergencies, nothing to stop me getting to Greystones at an unearthly hour on Sunday morning to do the Wicklow 100. There is something wrong with getting out of bed at 4:30 am just to ride a bike but at least it was already bright, reasonably warm and the sky was clear and breeze-less. It was also great to have a traffic free trip down. Half an hour from the heart of the northside to the Wicklow seaside must be some kind of record.

I got there before 6am and was changed and ready in the Rugby Club car park in a few minutes. A quick ride next door to the Shoreline leisure centre and sign-on was easy. There were several tables, allocated by event number, all with their own computer, printer and goody bags of various energy bars and gels. Then a short queue for the leisure centre toilet, a quick coffee and all was ready to go.

Outside a steady stream of riders of all shapes and sizes were gathering in colourful groups in the morning sun. I spotted several world champions (!), at least one Giro pink jersey, a tuxedo, a skeleton and an Irish champion as well as the usual array of local and overseas club, team and colourful jerseys.

Then Stephen showed up and we were ready for the off. There's no massed start so we saw a group heading off at about ten to seven and joined the back of it. The route headed up the surprisingly steep by-pass where we passed the first casualty of the day fixing his puncture. Then out on to the almost deserted N11 for the short ride through the Glen of the Downs to Kilmacanogue and the start of the main climb for the 100 route. A small group of people at the side of the road gave some welcome applause although I think both parties were a bit bemused by what the other was doing there at that hour of a Sunday morning.

A short way up the climb and Stephen took a right turn for his date with destiny on the 200 route while I kept left, following the road announced by the Marshall as being the way for "sensible people". Then the climb proper started and it's not called the Long Hill for nothing. Having said that I was very pleasantly surprised to find I was cruising up fairly easily, passing several riders and even able to say hello as I passed! It was a far cry from the wheezing struggle I had up it just over a year ago. It's amazing what a bit of training and losing two stone can do for you.

I did look down at my computer and had a double-take moment to realise I was cresting the top and it was still only just after seven am!

On to Calary Bog and two older gents came past me at a decent pace so I jumped on their wheels and settled in for a tow. As we moved towards Roundwood we picked up a few more riders including the undoubted star of the day. Imagine getting out of bed in Dublin city in the middle of the night, checking a DublinBike out of a street-side station and heading off to Greystones to ride a hilly 100km with your three gears and shopping basket. Well that's exactly what this guy did. So there he was, hunched over his sturdy handlebars, twiddling his limited gears and slipstreaming like a pro. I had to know how the hell he got up the climb on that. In his eastern European accent he did admit that it was "a bit hard". He matched the pace very impressively and held on until the descent to Annamoe where his lack of a big ring was a major handicap. As I passed him for the last time his legs were flying around like a propeller but he just couldn't match the pace.

Mind you he wasn't the only one. The group had dwindled a bit by now. On towards Laragh I was looking forward to getting an easy ride to the Rathdrum stop at least. But fate is a bugger. On a straight, smooth stretch I took a drink and only went and dropped my bottle. It was too early to be without it so I had no choice but to slow up and go back for it.

Down through the beautiful old forests of the Vale of Clara I had some pleasant chats with a guy from Wexford before arriving at the feed stop. It was still early and there were only a few riders there so it was no hassle to get a nice cup of coffee and my pick of a wide choice of sandwich. No queues, a seat and a choice of portaloo. Luxury!

About fifteen minutes after I arrived Mr DublinBike turned up still looking amazingly fresh. He was the centre of attention as the phones came out and everyone got a picture to prove it. Me included, so here it is:


I didn't hang around too long as there was still an early morning chill about. I headed off alone towards Avondale, hoping to either catch or be caught by a group on the road, a vain hope as it turned out. On to Avoca (or Ballykissangel for fans of the BBC TV show) where the route profile showed there was a small climb heading out of the town towards Redcross. Afterwards everyone agreed this was the worst hill on both routes. It was one of those climbs with a not too steep, but seemingly never ending, series of ramps, each of which looked like the last only to reveal another as you got to the top.

I got over it eventually, surprising myself as I passed a whole group of riders, while not exactly killing myself. Riding on alone, I made good progress over the last, mostly flat or rolling, 40 km and made the finish in Greystones well within the four hour time I'd been targetting, to a nice round of applause and a photographer on the line.

Again, it was still early in the day so the admin tables were relatively empty which made getting my cert, medal and more free energy bars easy. There was plenty of tea and biccies in the Civil Defence tent although I didn't have the free pasta.

Overall it was a very pleasant mornings ride. Nice weather, a not too taxing course, plenty of route markings and sufficient food, at least when I was there. If I had any disappointment it was the lack of company for long stretches of the route but I think I was just out too early to get the big groups. That and the slight guilt at not being all that tired at the end. I think I've no excuse not to bite the bullet and do the full 200 route next year.

Speaking of which, hats off to those who did complete the big one. We had lovely sunshine early in the day but by the time they got to the second half of their route the weather had turned very nasty. "Wet and cold" was how Stephen described it.

Wednesday 9 June 2010

Jimmy Magee on Sean Kelly

This is a nice piece where RTE legend Jimmy Magee reminisces about THAT Time Trial from the '85 Nissan where Kelly blew the field away. Enjoy.

PS Don't mind the Milan-San Remo heading. That's a YouTube mistake.

Thursday 3 June 2010

Cancellaras Motorized Bike revealed

It looks like the rumours about Cancellaras "motorized doping" might be true after all. Look at this exclusive footage of his secret testing session.