The Stephen Roche GP treated onlookers to some spectacular entertainment last night, with family-friendly novice races, a set of youth races, and the headline event being shaped by several moves before James Davenport (SDCC) jumped well clear to take a superb win, all in the company of the man himself, Stephen Roche.

The Leisure cyclist of the Year 2014 participation based event kicked off this weekend with the Ardattin 200, as well as several randonée events around the country. Greg Farrell shares his first audax experience 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

Coming in at under 2,000 words, this is one of Billy Parker's shorter novellas, but a worthy read nonetheless! He takes us through his multi-faceted Orwell experience of this year's Wicklow 200. Accompanying his written account is Eileen Byne's wonderful video composition. Have a read and a watch!

Last weekend in Drogheda, while the seniors only faced one-day races, the youth of Orwell were fighting it out in the Rás na nÓg. Promoted by Drogheda Wheelers, it's a rare opportunity for the underage riders to experience a full-blown stage race. Orwell had a representative in each category in the shape of Seán Murnane, Uisneach Sheridan and Andrew Ryan, who was riding with the Leinster team.

As the more official leisure rides wind up for the year, it's fitting that our final report comes in from none other than Orwell's hard-working leisure rep himself, Stephen Ryan. He was blessed with fantastic weather, scenery and company for the Rebel Tour in the southwest, read on to see all the photo evidence alongside the account!

A weekend’s worth of racing in Roundwood paid dividends for Fionn Sheridan, taking two prizes, including the coveted Kieran Hammond trophy. Keith Harte and David Maher placed in the Roundwood GP, while several members scored results in the Hammond Memorial TT event. And last week in the league, Uisneach Sheridan, Paul Tansey and Brian Ahern won the sprints in Corkagh Park.

With talk turning to the Marmotte 2015, it's time to start publishing Garret Connolly's opus detailing the 2014 edition. 16 Orwell members tackled it, which is coincidentally nearly the number of pages in Garret's piece. We've published the first part below!