Club Trip to Cyprus a Resounding Success

This week eight Carrick-On-Suir triathletes returned fit and tanned from a week’s warm-weather training in sunny Cyprus. The trip, organised by one of the club’s founding members, Garry McCarthy, involved training in all three triathlon disciplines.

The group consisting of Donal Jacob, Vincent Power, Andy Mulligan, John McEneany, David Grace, Garry McCarthy, Ollie Harold and Jonathan Kelly donned the Carrick hoodies and boarded the mini-bus destined for Dublin Airport on Monday 10^th March. Some pre-training nutrition and liquids were taken in the airport bar before boarding the 4h 30m flight to Cyprus. On arrival the team were ferried to their hotel by mini-bus and, after check-in and dropping all bags in their respective rooms, the Carrick lads ventured into the town to meet the locals and spread some Irish goodwill. The locals proved very hard to find as it was a bank holiday so the boys headed to bed for a good night’s sleep.

The team arose early almost every morning for an open water swim in the Mediterranean, while the cool evenings proved perfect for some runs along the shoreline. The swim distances averaged over 2k with Vinny and Donal completing a 4k swim one morning. The group also made use of a long boardwalk running down the coastline to take in some runs of over 10k.

The main aim of the trip, however, was to get some good miles in on the bike and that’s exactly what was done. Bikes were hired from ex-professional road racing cyclist Thomas Wegmuller who also became the team’s guide and cycling partner. Thomas brought the lads on cycles ranging from 3 to 6 hours long on routes varying from easy spins through coastal villages and orange groves to grueling climbs toward the 6,400 ft summit of Mount Olympus. The weather was lovely for the week however there were some strong winds on the first few days which proved very challenging on the bike. The bike hiring arrangements were exemplary. Each club member, with the exception of Vinny who brought his own bike, received a road bike with a loaded saddle bag, maps of the island, a water bottle and some nutrition. An individual key was given to unlock each bike and you could come and go as you please for the week.

Sharing the hotel and bike shed were some professional mountain bikers from the Fischer BMC team, Petra Henzi and Andreas Kugler. They were in Limassol to compete in the Cyprus round of the Sunshine Cup. Some of the Carrick group traveled to the race on Sunday to cheer on the two riders. The support worked wonders with Petra winning the women’s race and Andreas coming second in the men’s. Both took their respective overall titles. It was a great experience to see some professional athletes in action and the Carrick lads know with a bit of hard work it could be them next year!

On top of the hard training during the day the Carrick team took time out in the evenings to enjoy themselves and see what the Cyprus nightlife had to offer. The pub opposite the hotel, the Nag’s Head, became the local for the week. Indeed a certain member of the club spent most nights there hogging the karaoke microphone. He shall remain nameless! On the last night there club sponsors, Cyprus Tourism, kindly brought the team out for a traditional Cyprus meal. This became one of the highlights of the trip as the boys enjoyed a Cyprus Meze consisting of plate after plate of traditional dishes, some local wine and all the while being entertained by a Cypriot band.

The next morning the whole team rose bright and early with bags packed and took in some breakfast before making the journey home. Some tears were shed when boarding the plane to Dublin with the realization that the trip was coming to the end and with it, for the short-term at least, open-water swimming and cycling in shorts!

The whole trip was a great success and thoughts are already turning to next year. A big thank you goes out to Gary McCarthy for organizing it all.