@Cycleman Thanks, i've prewriten a fair amount already.

@Shonak Better late than never, i guess. And the picture should redirect to the first post now, i think.

@Sutty He will, i hope

@LLS Thanks. And good luck for your storx too when it comes. Will it be about bananas?

It was a Trek, I can't quite remember the model, but it was good enough anyway. I was of course delighted to have a real road bike at last, after having had nothing but mountain bikes before that. As soon as I went out to try it (yes, even in December you can cycle in Ireland), and the first thing I noticed was the things it wasn't. It wasn't heavy at all, so I could go much faster with the same effort. It also didn't look bad, which I thought might be a plus with the girls, but most of all I liked it's agility. I could just go out there, descend the hill our house was on top of, and cut the turns as tightly as I could not before. I was over the moon. From then on, I spent loads of time on it. After I had noticed that I was getting quite good at it, came the realisation:

@Admir Changed.

@Sutty I do hope so.

@Shonak It's a possibility.

@krisa Thanks

I had to join a club! Which was exactly what I did, after a long time of searching for a cycling club, and an even longer search for one that would take me, since I was only fourteen. But after a long time of search, I found a club out in Howth, only about ten kilometres from where I lived. The only disadvantage was that I had to cycle along the ever busy Howth Road, but the fact that it was right beside the seaside and that I needed the warm up before hand anyway made it easy to bear. Because they weren't the biggest club, there was only one training session, and that was with the big ones. I hated that at first, but after a time I realised, that it only made me better. But I was getting eager to race for real...

@Sutty I bet it is.

@Shonak They sure do.

But that opportunity did not come for a long time. It was only in July when I had my first chance to test myself against other riders of my age, in the Dublin County Championships, in the under 16's category. Had I been born two weeks later, id've been allowed to ride in the under 14's category, but I was well used to riding with guys much older than me by then, in fact compared to the grown men I normally ride with the other cyclists looked like kids as we all stood together on the starting line. The course was an 8 kilometre long lap, with a short, but steep hill in the middle. From that hill on, it was a long descent to the finish line. We would be doing it 9 times, so a total of 72 kilometres. I looked ahead, and could see some semi-important guy holding the starting gun, and then it started. My first ever bike race.

@SuttyIt sure will. Actually, i think it might be quite useful near the end of the race. But you can see for your self soon.

@mvhoogdalem Thanks, and he'll need it.

@Ian Nah, i'll follow your rule and keep the deaths for later on.

It was hard work, but it was okay. After an early break had established, the peleton calmed down a bit, and I got chatting to a guy from Portmarnock, who seemed to be the only guy of about my age. He said that he wasn't in a club or anything, but that he had always found cycling fun, and that he wanted to try out a race. I was very impressed that he could keep up with the pace of the pack, but he seemed to be really strong. In the mean time, the peleton was getting smaller and smaller, and on the third last climb, only about 20 kilometres from the finish, even my friend from Portmarnock had to let go. As the break was getting reeled in, I decided to move forward to try something...