Brendan’s Blog

These are the thoughts and ramblings of someone who has spent far too long in the saddle.
You may be familiar with the scientific theories relating to bicycles and the exchange of molecules put forward by Flann O’Brien in his masterpiece ‘The Third Policeman‘.
We suspect this molecular exchange may be the force that in some way drives Brendan to write his blog, you have only to look are the wide and strange variety of bicycles (and tricycles) he rides and you will start to understand complexity of his mind.
Below is a comprehensive (but not full) list of the ramblings!

• A Tangle of Straps
  The car’s bluetooth display flashed into life just as I was telling Mick about the virtues of riding steel bikes. Mick: “It’s the lads.” The lads were driving behind us as we headed for ...
• The Insomniac OldVelos Compose
  Oldvelos at the Mondello 24 Hour Endurance Cycle (Those of you that are Van Morrison fans may be familiar with his album ‘Poetic Champions Compose’ and the track ‘Queen of the ...
• O’Loughlin triumphs over Power of the cross.
  The world’s media never gathers in Mallow.  Today was no different.  But today was no ordinary day either.  Three first-class sports photographers, cycling their speciality, gave up their bank holiday ...
• The Pit-Washer’s Story
  Round 4 of the Munster CX League and Munster Championship, Limerick Racecourse “You’re just the man for the job” said Greenmount’s Liam Kennedy to the Pit-Washer. “I’d do it myself and ...
• Stairway to Fota
  STAIRWAY TO FOTA (to the tune of Led Zeppelin’s ‘Stairway to Heaven)’ There’s a Cork man who’s sure All the cyclists be told That he brought a stairway to Fota When they get there they ...
• The Bandon Train
    After 75 long, hilly and challenging miles of the West Cork Peak Challenge, I rocked up to the final service stop in Kealkil on my wooden bike and equally wooden ...
• Fear and Loathing in Lost Races – a savage journey to the heart of the cyclo cross dream
  “We were somewhere around Clonmel when the drugs started to take hold …..” (Hunter S Thompson 1971) You would expect in a cyclo cross race one would prefer to be ahead of ...
• Bray Wheelers CX Race Killruddery
  TIME PLEASE LADIES AND GENTLEMEN !   Twice a year we all forget to reset our clocks for summer and winter time, and even when we do, we can’t recall are they ...
• Book Review: Quondam: Travels in a Once World
  “This one goes out to the one I love This one goes out to the one I left behind A simple prop to occupy my time This one goes out to the one I ...
• Nothing Compares to Glue
  God knows what the late Prince would make of the Irish CX scene, but I would truly love to hear the great Sinéad O’Connor sing this.  I am sure if ...
• “Anyone for Hills?” Organising the OldVelos Vintage Classic 2017
  The OldVelos Vintage Classic may have been over, but some riders weren’t done with us yet.  In particular my friends alá tandem were at pains to point out that my ...
• OldVelos Book Review: Ascent into Hell by Fergus White
  I always read 5 star reviews with the suspicion they are often written by friends of the author.  Well let me admit at the outset that I am a friend ...
• I love it when a plan comes together
  I love it when a plan comes together” – OldVelos joins The iAn-Team One year ago, a cracked cycling unit was convicted in Kerry by a military court for a crime ...
• Teamwork never went out fashion
    “If only the event was run on Saturday morning” mused the OldVelos team manager as he fielded yet another call from an excusing cyclist.  That morning he had the makings ...
• If Strava measured incredulity we’d be right at the top!
    There’s not much the Strava cycling app doesn’t tell you: distance travelled, average speed, heart-rate, former lovers, it’s all there for the discerning cyclist and their followers.  But what if ...
• But is the bike alright?
  Yes it’s that time of the year again, the days are getting shorter, the trike has gone into hibernation, the Cyclocross season has started and Brendan Hennessy aka ‘The Bard ...
• Alleged “sofa-use” mars OldVelos Earthquake victory
  We have been requested to undertake a three-piece review of the off-season activities of Earthquake Team Time Trial champions’ OldVelos following their unexpected win in East Cork on Sunday. Questions were ...
• The Field
  The Field featuring John Crowley as Richard Harris; Marcus Treacy as Sean Bean, Brendan Slattery as God and Pádraig Slattery and Patrick Clifford as themselves.  As for Bird… The parting in the ...
• Medical Miracle in Midleton!
  After the mishap the great Alan Frame experienced at last week’s CX event we thought there was no hope of recovery and like so many others we had prematurely consigned ...
• Remembering John Shanahan (Part II)
  Horsemageddon I guess the last thing the pony expected was Peter Meaney up his rear end.  And if he’d had the time to look, he might have noticed that Peter would be swiftly ...
• The Baracchi Trophy Reimagined – A race before Rock’ n’ Roll
  Gary, harder than a man. Gary Neff, where is Gary now? What’s Gary doing now? Just, where is Gary now? Come aboard. It should come as no surprise that OldVelos still have their old valve ...
• The Legacies
  I was far too far from Cork when I realised I had left my racing legs behind.  It was a stupid oversight considering the long hours I had lavished on ...
• A result that matters – Burren Racing Team’s Ennis CX Race
  “I was halfway through the race and I felt a little silly.  I think I started too fast and then I was wrecked.  I wanted to stop and take a ...
• Good people the Triathletes
  Good people the Triathletes.  Open-minded.  Like all good Cork people.  So when I rocked up to the start line, in the slipstream of Peter Meaney’s Planet X aeroplane, they didn’t ...
• Review: Quondam: travels in a Once World
  “This one goes out to the one I love This one goes out to the one I left behind A simple prop to occupy my time This one goes out to the one I ...
• OldVelos Flash Skin Tight Suit – A History
  One Spring morning OldVelos, the vintage cycling group, took it upon themselves to cycle part of the Ironman Ireland route in Cork.  We had heard it was tough.   Ah come ...
• The Fall from Grace -The Burren A Race
  The Fall – Part A & Ladies – Burren CX I had a sense of impending doom as my rear wheel spun but I stayed put.  My handlebars rose in my ...
• The East Cork Ploughing Championships
  Like some of you I too built a cyclocross course in the garden with old rope tied to older furniture, or anything else that would act as a stake.  No ...
• Ryan’s Water
  An Upperchurch-Drombane Production IN A WORLD OF ALL-HUMAN VELO-REVOUTION DOMINATION, CAN ONE MAN BREAK THEIR SUPREMACY. CAN RYAN BEAR THIS CROSS, OR MUST WE ALL LOOK ON JEALOUSLY? Directed by and featuring; ...
• The return of Brendan’s Blog!
  Where it all started After a long absence we are pleased to share with you once again ‘Brendan’s Blog‘ – the thoughts and ramblings of someone who has spent far too ...
• Oh Mercier
    “Hound dog howlin’, bullfrog croakin’, everything is broken”   Bob Dylan, Everything is Broken, Oh Mercy.   ‘Housework’, I can struggle with that.  ‘Parental duties’, the clue is in the words.  ‘Building a bike’ ...
• Round 4 of the Munster CX League: RIP Alan Frame
  Alan Frame R.I.P. OldVelos has announced the sad passing of Alan Frame (1981-2019). The Alan (as he was affectionately called) was a regular competitor at the Munster Cyclocross League and also ...
• Ode to a Mighty Gael
  Along came Landers On race eve I asked Anthony Kenneally If I could come to the Youghal course for a ‘ganders Who did I not expect to meet? But the bold Brian Landers ~~o0o~~ In his ...
• l’Etape Irlande 2024 – En hommage à François Faber
  Killarney, Ireland, from our reporter en route. The circus is in town and the ring master surveys his peloton. They are togging-out in an Irish mist.  He answers all their questions ...
• Forty pounds of pressure
  Forty pounds of pressure At an approximate* velocity of 1800 ft per second, 40 pounds of pressure will escape a 1milimetre tear in an inner tube in 3 seconds**.  About the ...
• National Hill Climb 2019
    Glounsharoon, Sunday 29th September “Make sure you’re standing on the pedals on the start line” said my buddy Thor.  He would start 5 minutes ahead of me and so I watched ...
• Nessa Rochford’s Socks
  Have you ever spied When to CX races she rocks Her ankles are so well dressed They’re Nessa Rochford’s socks. I eyed them first at Crossbarrs Where the competition she outfoxed Kanturk and Strata3 were good But ...
• Left at the Whiskey Woods – A Post Covid TT
  Left at the Whiskey Woods With my head resting on the handlebars and my legs barely able to hold my weight, I sucked oxygen into my heaving lungs.  Others looked on ...
• The Sound of CX – De Ronde Cross – The Musical
    The Sound of CX De Ronde Cross – The Musical “The hills are alive with the sound of CX. With mud, slime, inclines and camber The hills fill my lungs with gasping ...
• The OldVelos Tricycle Diaries #2: Body
  Luckily, the trike did not commit hari-kari on our neighbour’s drive. I suspect its plans were much more sinister and somehow involved me, the person who breathed life into it. The ...
• Sleepless in Mondello II
  Sleepless in Mondello II Part II: Running out of hours Six hours earlier, on the start-line of Mondello 24, photos taken, we lined-up Le Mans style, admittedly with a few butterflies testing ...
• Remembering John Shanahan (Part 1)
  Remembering John Shanahan, being Gary Neff Gary Neff had been John Shanahan’s tandem partner for a long time before I came along joined the party.  It’s tough enough taking over from a previous partner ...
• Riders unhappy over team’s selection
  OldVelos riders unhappy over team’s selection ahead of the Earthquake Team Time Trial Team management at Ireland’s chapter of OldVelos  have reported unhappiness in the camp ahead of the Earthquake team ...
• My lovely course – Cyclocross at the Clonmel Horse Track
  Clonmel course designers win by a nod (just look at Michael Buckley’s photo finishes)!   As usual, the committee expected Ned and Douglas to run the Clonmel CC Cyclocross race again.  “Who, ...
• AdicTTion – A thank you to De Ronde van Cork Cycling Club
    How can anything so bad for you make you feel so good? And yet I turn up at the De Ronde van Cork TT league to do it all again. ...
• The time, trials and tribulations of a tricyclist
   “Really? On that yoke? Well good luck to you.” Those were the words of the ‘holder’ (the time trial official who usually supports the bike and already clipped in rider at ...
• Round 6 of the Munster CX League: The Chairman’s Spare Wheel and other Stories
  The Chairman’s Spare Wheel: Chairman of the Munster Cyclocross Championships is not an epithet that weighs heavily on the shoulders of Over The Hill CC stalwart Pat McHugh.  Nothing is a ...
• Some people went to Billy Elliott – I just looked like him
  Around the same time as my mum and sister were entering the Bord Gáis theatre to see the young dancer from the 1980’s musical I was at home busily slinking ...
• A bridge too far !
    Are you winning Dad?  Pi Cx Race organiser and occasional OldVelo Paul Birchall held tight to the microphone as he stood in front of the line of racers.  “Be kind to ...
• ‘OldVelos Oldtimers Series’ Part I: ‘Arjay’ by Bob Montgomery
  R J Mecredy, or ‘Arjay’ as he was invariably known was born on May 18th in the year 1861 at Ballinasloe, County Galway is often referred to as the ...
• Three go down to the Sea
  Three go down to the Sea on the good ship ‘Scarke’ Preparing for the voyage When the President of the Tricycling Association in the UK saw this photo. He responded ...
• Round 3 of the Munster CX League: Getting the Upper hand
  Richard: “Where were you?” Patrick: “At the shops, Centra.  Here’s your mints” Richard: “I used ride for them remember – St. Finbarrs – Centra?” Patrick: “Remember?  Like that time you ran into me ...
• The Fissure
  Fissure /fɪʃə/ (Noun a long, narrow opening or line of breakage made by cracking or splitting, especially in rock or earth.) To the people of Upperchurch and Drombane ‘The Fissure’ was always ...
• Round one of the Munster CX League, Ireland
  Another Ambush at Crossbarry Confusing enough that the opening round of the Munster CX league in Ireland was called Crossbarrs, located near Crossbarry and hosted by St. Finbarrs CC, but that ...
• The Tricycle Diaries Part 3: SOUL
  My recent foray into a hedge on a two-wheeler made me double-think this whole tricycle business.  Not only had my 1957 Mercian Tricycle tried to kill me, maim my friend ...
• Over the Top at Over the Hill
  Minding my own business, that’s what I was doing.  Just sitting at the back of the group, listening to the gridding and accepting reality, when from the top of his ...
• Showdowns at the Spaghetti Grounds – De Ronde 21
  The wind may have come in from the north at De Ronde Cross, but the turns came from North, East, South and West.  Amongst the A’s were the Richards, Barry ...
• A Split in the Bunch
  A Split in the Bunch Starting the day by losing contact with the bunch is a bad omen. They said I was too green. I thought they were stuck up.  I ...
• Sleepless in Mondello
  Riding the Mondello24 Cycle (on 12 vintage bikes). Part I: I have my way “You have your way. I have my way. As for the right way, the correct way, and the ...
• Final part of the ‘Shay Elliott’ Helyett build
  Watch as Brendan almost comes to a sticky end in the final part of his Helyett build! https://youtu.be/1XU62kqUQoc
• Your First CX Descent
  Your First CX Descent(after the short story His First Flight by Liam O’Flaherty) (The Cyclocross season has now officially started, like the arrival of the first Brent Goose, the season is ...
• Sleepless in Mondello III
  Riding Mondello 24 (on 12 vintage bikes). Part III: “What you aiming to do?” After slipping into the van, I lit the gas under the beef stroganoff, peeled off my cycling gear, ...
• The Tricycle diaries # 1: MIND
      “Find a quiet road, preferably flat and straight, with no traffic.  Cycle on it for 300 miles.  As your excursions into the ditch become less frequent try turning”.  Now, that’s ...
• OldVelos complete the Ring of Kerry cycle on ‘High Nellies’
    Dougie floated the ball, Brendan reached up, caught it and brought it to ground.  Ger called for it and started running goalward.  He passed the ball on to Pierce.  Pierce ...
• The Rise and Fall of the Burren CX Race
  Part B, The Rise. Hard man, Sweeney. A revolutionary.  Killer tattoos on his arms, Killarney adventure race under his belt.  He timed his return to the Munster Cyclocross league to coincide ...
• Maurice Burton – Britain’s first black cycling champion.
  Delighted to share my review of Maurice Burton’s new book (written with Paul Jones). Copies are available from De Ver Cycles Ltd. (Maurice also rode for the short-lived Glemp / TJ ...
• When two tribes go to war
  When two tribes go to war – The Munster Cyclocross Championships 2018 A Pre-Script Too often women’s races are relegated to postscripts.  In this blog I’m afraid the men’s race again gets ...
• In a league of our own
  During my recent visit to OldVelos headquarters I was summoned into the Editor’s office. The conversation went something like this:- “Hennessy, you are our best and only blogger by a long ...
• Perspective –1962 Helyett Spéciale ‘Shay Elliott’ Rebuild
    Before OldVelos became OldVelos we were just a group of enthusiasts who came together to quietly commemorate Shay Elliott on the 50th anniversary of his yellow jersey.  We chose Shay’s ...
• The Funnel
  The Funnel at UpperChurch Orchard Cross Michael Cahill had been hoarding reasonable results these last few league races, but when the Munster race came to his home place he really coveted ...
• Running up that Hill
    “Oh c’mon, baby, c’mon darling Let me steal this moment from you now. C’mon, angel, c’mon, c’mon, darling Let’s exchange the experience, oh” “Steine Wachsen”.  My German neighbour often reminds me that stones grow ...
• Irish National Cyclocross Championships 2020
    Lines from the Fifth Province “The Fifth Province is not anywhere here or there, north or south, east or west. It is a place within each one of us – that ...