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Reports from Connemara and the Mick Byrne this week, courtesy of Michael Staunton and Colm Featherstone, with a few colourful pictures too! Updated: now with Ann Horan’s speed-dating adventures around Lough Derg!

Last week’s club action saw two bunch sprints taken with small gaps by classy winners Bryan Geary and Owen O’Flaherty. Read all about it!

Peak Endurance Coaching have offered a discount to Orwell members for their seminar next Thursday – details below!

Reports from the sun-scorched Mount Leinster Challenge and Lap the Gaps below, as well as a slightly more Irish affair at the Etape Mourne! Thanks to Eamonn Eaton, Eileen Byrne, Sinead Kennedy and Dave Carroll for the always welcome contributions! Updated: now with a Mount Leinster report from Billy Parker

Siobhán O’Connor recently completed the gruelling 170km Paris-Roubaix 2014 ride – about 60km shorter than the pro race, but she did all 55km of the same cobbled sectors as the pros. She described herself as ‘pretty battered after the day, the cobbles are nothing like the smooth ones of Flanders! We didn’t have any punctures, mechanicals, crashes, falls or anything which was great. The only “injury”was a lot of blisters and friction burns on the hands!’ Some photos below!

While Pat O’Brien unleashed his trademark sprint to take the Scratch race, the talk of the night was newcomer Greg O’Donnell’s outstanding win from Limit. Update: Now with extra on-bike footage from Scratch race!

Here’s a little piece from the archives, Brian Ahern’s Rás diary from 2004, ten years ago. An eventful race for the Orwell legend, he goes into great detail on what is an eight day sufferfest for most. It’s revised and updated, as he claims he originally typed it with one finger of one hand (spoilers!).

Róisin Kennedy once again topped the TT results for the StickyBottle.com Women’s Crit League, but when the dust settled, it was Sandra Fitzgerald who took the overall, while Eimear O’Reilly claimed the B title.

On the same day that Marcel Kittel sprinted to victory in Belfast, our own Bernard English did the same a little further south. Mark Mulcahy and Eamon Finn also placed at Dunsany, while earlier in the week Claire McEntee chalked up a superb time in Dundalk to take the Leinster 10TT title.

Tonight is the final round of the Orwell StickyBottle.com Women’s Crit League, finishing as we started with the 10TT at Batterstown.

The long anticipated road race round of the Orwell StickyBottle.com Women’s Crit League featured a powerful rainstorm last night, as Towers CC’s Lisa Darley-Ronan took the win from teammate Eimear O’Reilly in a race dominated by the B group.

Four determined and possibly crazy Orwell Wheelers travelled to Belgium a couple of weeks ago to follow in Dan Martin’s footsteps, and complete the epic Liege-Bastogne-Liege route. Paul O’Neill takes us through a gruelling day!

Next week is the penultimate round of the Orwell StickyBottle.com Women’s Crit League, and the only featured road race. We’ve a few special requests, so for details of the night, and some tips and advice, read on.

It wasn’t a night for fast times, but Brian McArdle braved the cold and the damp to finish fastest in the league’s round five 10TT at Batterstown. Read on for all the results!

Due to a significant number of people missing the deadline for joining the Orwell League, the league committee have decided to accept new applications until May 9th.

Aideen Keenan proved herself no flash in the pan with a dominant win in Bohermeen at the Waller Cup yesterday, followed up by Rachael Kaye-Mellor in 4th and Orla Hendron in 6th. Keith Harte took 8th in the A4 race, while Diarmuid Collins earned a fine 3rd unplaced A2 at the Shay Elliot in Wicklow yesterday. We’re also covering last weekend’s one day results, with Gavin Dodd 5th in Rás Chonamara and Rachael Kaye-Mellor top Junior in Ros an Laois.

On a gorgeous night in Corkagh Park, it was two strong riders with perfect timing who came out best – Bryan Geary in the Limit race, and David Swift in the Scratch.

Ahead of tomorrow’s Shay Elliot classic, we’ve put together an account of one of the other tough events of the Irish calendar – the Kerry Group Rás Mumhan. This year the riders were blessed by blazing sunshine for three of the four days, with standout rides from Aidan Collins and Eric Downey, though many of the Orwell contingent’s chances were scuppered by crashes. Read on for all the details!

Ed O’Mahony made his Gorey début last weekend, and to hear him tell the tale, it was tough going from before it started, right until the final finish line in Blessington. We’ve lifted his account from the forum for your pleasure! Read on!

Philippe Bourdarias spearheaded a seven man Orwell team at the Gorey 3 Day over the Easter weekend, which saw the fast Frenchman bag a brace of placings and a top 20 overall position.