The Wicklow 200 (2009) Thread

Chips Lovell

Caroline_ie wrote: »

We need the WW 200 people to input the route to Mapmyride or google ... it's not that hard ...

I had it in Bikeroutetoaster, but got one turn wrong. When I get a chance to edit it, I'll stick up the link.

Caroline_ie

kincsem wrote: »

We want more of this -
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Fivegomad.jpg

... See what happened to Dawn French when she stopped cycling ...

ROK ON

Caroline_ie wrote: »

I'd be up for it - not this weekend though...
That route is about 180 for me ... at that time of year you will need to start super early and bring your lights ... maybe that's a bit much? Considering you will need a couple of breaks.

Correct. Itis about 180k for me also. That is why I suggested paddys w/e, in that most people may take the Mon and Tues off work.
(I have kids, so it makes it easier for me to head off for an entire day if I have a day off).

I have not done these climbs previously, so I was thinking of heading to them by the flattest route possible (to stay fresh), and then take my time going over them (like I will have another choice).

But you are correct, for those on Dublin northside, it is an early start and an all day effort.

Anyway, the more the merrier.

To the poster who queried time in saddle, Tonto is correct. Climbing is what kills most people. I find that four hours cycling in Wicklow is no where near four hours cycling in Kildare in terms of stiffness and fatigue afterwards.

ROK ON

scottreynolds wrote: »

This route look tougher and more fun........................

Yes, going downhill will be fun.
That route has similar level of climbs to the WW200, so I would prefer to keep that for the day in question.

blorg

scottreynolds wrote: »

This route look tougher and more fun........................

We did something quite similar to that last year but also included the climb up Kippure, (750m) the Wicklow Gap and Trooperstown Hill as well as Slieve Maan, the Shay Elliot, Lugalla and Sally Gap twice Substantially more difficult than the W200, I think the aim is not to kill people here. Would definately be on for it at some point after though.

petethedrummer

kincsem wrote: »

Bicycles with gears, cyclists wearing lycra, navigating with GPS, recording times!!!

We want more of this -

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Fivegomad.jpg

you mean like this? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WGYngjxJP1I

Mind you don't bring on a touch of the bonk though.

niceonetom

i've had a bash at marking the route in bikeroutetoaster. it's a best guess though. the portion from Donard to Rathdangan is so vague in the organisers description that it's impossible to tell which road to take. hopefully that will not be true on the day.

link

Raam

niceonetom wrote: »

i've had a bash at marking the route in bikeroutetoaster. it's a best guess though. the portion from Donard to Rathdangan is so vague in the organisers description that it's impossible to tell which road to take. hopefully that will not be true on the day.

link

Last year people were taking all kind of routes between there.

blorg

kincsem wrote: »

Blorg answered the change in elevation question, but I did not take 100% of the climbs. I took the interesting parts, the parts you love to cycle.
We are close on the Slieve Maan figures, I probably missed a little at the start of Shay Elliott, and from Crone to Lough Bray on the Sally gap is only a warm up.

It's difficult to define exactly where they start sometimes all right, I'm just going off the elevation graphs I have recorded in SportTracks. In purely subjective terms, the route up Sally Gap the way the W200 goes has a killer of a short steep hill out of Powerscourt waterfall, then is flat and then gradually rising from Crone Wood. The steepness ramps up though coming into the forest and out of it passing the Liam Horner memorial, that bit is definately a "climb." Then there is a little respite after turning left towards the Gap proper before it gets steep again. By the time you get to Lough Bray you are basically there although there is a steep windy bit just after the car park. It then levels off with a very gradual rise up to the entrance to Kippure. It's flat or downhill the rest of the way to the Gap itself, I wouldn't count this bit in the climb. Look for someone like el tonto and tuck in behind them.

Chips Lovell

niceonetom wrote: »

i've had a bash at marking the route in bikeroutetoaster. it's a best guess though. the portion from Donard to Rathdangan is so vague in the organisers description that it's impossible to tell which road to take. hopefully that will not be true on the day.

link

Looks right to me.

scammer101

Good to hear, thanks lads.Hoping to hear more about the spin on Paddys.

Big Bob

scammer101 wrote: »

Done a couple of 100k's and a couple training runs for 4 to 5 hrs. Am I kidding meself for contemplating the 200!!

Last Feb I was 38, 16st and smoked 20 a day, so I bought a bike, gave up smoking and did the Wicklow 200 in June. My preparation consisted of about 40-50k p/w, 1 110k ride a couple of 80k spins in the Wicklow mts and the mt Leinster challenge (100k).
So unless your in worse shape than I was you’ll have no problems. ..

Greyspoke

niceonetom wrote: »

i've had a bash at marking the route in bikeroutetoaster. it's a best guess though. the portion from Donard to Rathdangan is so vague in the organisers description that it's impossible to tell which road to take. hopefully that will not be true on the day.

link

I don't think that's quite right - after last year I spent a while looking at the OS maps and I'm pretty sure the way we went was to take a right turn at Talbotstown (it was marked on the road but easily missed as the previous year we'd carried straight on) continue through Englishtown to the R747 at Woodfield. Follow the R747 to Kiltegan, turn left and rejoin the previous year's route at Graigue. There did seem to be a lot of confusion around here last year - I reckon a lot of people missed the stretch of R747 and Kiltegan. I think the route was changed to add a few kms as there were comments the year before that the route was a good few kms less than 200.

scammer101

Big Bob wrote: »

Last Feb I was 38, 16st and smoked 20 a day, so I bought a bike, gave up smoking and did the Wicklow 200 in June. My preparation consisted of about 40-50k p/w, 1 110k ride a couple of 80k spins in the Wicklow mts and the mt Leinster challenge (100k).
So unless your in worse shape than I was you’ll have no problems. ..

Well done and thanks for the encouraging words. Hope to see you on the route

scammer101

Raam wrote: »

On a scale of zero to awesome... we are close to awesome

Thats me out!! I'm just plain oblivious!!:p

Funkyzeit

Managed to get some of the route in on Sat including Slieve Mann and Shay Elliot .

Slieve Mann is quite steep and difficult at the beginning but does level off nicely and give you a breather before a little kick up at the end.

Shay Elliot ( coming straight after Slieve Mann) is again difficult over the first few hundered meters - took it handy on this and it didn't really give a poor cyclist like me too much difficulties - in saying that we'd only done circa 45k before we hit them - will be a different story on the big day...

blorg

Funkyzeit wrote: »

will be a different story on the big day...

Well you won't have to worry about overheating anyway, should have plenty of ventilation.

Raam

blorg wrote: »

Well you won't have to worry about overheating anyway, should have plenty of ventilation.

Can you get a chamois into those things?

Funkyzeit

Raam wrote: »

Can you get a chamois into those things?

It's not the chamois that I'm worried about....:o

scammer101

Funkyzeit wrote: »

Managed to get some of the route in on Sat including Slieve Mann and Shay Elliot .

Slieve Mann is quite steep and difficult at the beginning but does level off nicely and give you a breather before a little kick up at the end.

Shay Elliot ( coming straight after Slieve Mann) is again difficult over the first few hundered meters - took it handy on this and it didn't really give a poor cyclist like me too much difficulties - in saying that we'd only done circa 45k before we hit them - will be a different story on the big day...

GULP! Thanks for the info.It'll be good to complete it.Great to get all info with his thread

trek climber

A question on the geography at Sally's Gap. coming up the Embankment amd taking a left up Sally's Gap, when you reach the four road crossroads at the top, the road up to the right. Where does that take you too ?

Tawfee

trek climber wrote: »

A question on the geography at Sally's Gap. coming up the Embankment amd taking a left up Sally's Gap, when you reach the four road crossroads at the top, the road up to the right. Where does that take you too ?

Brings you past Glenmacnass waterfall into Laragh, nice road.

Húrin

kincsem wrote: »

Many cyclists have GPS and I'm surprised that the Wicklow 200 organisers haven't put a file of the route on the site.

They're probably holding off in case they make changes later.

blorg

Húrin wrote: »

They're probably holding off in case they make changes later.

No, they are just a bit technologically backward, there is never any GPS or indeed a proper route map or even audax-style turn sheet made available, it's the vague description you have combined with marks painted on the road on the day.

rflynnr

Just realised I've done something stupid. I booked our family holiday around the W200, so fly back into Dublin on June 6. Trouble is, I just noticed the flight gets in at 1am on June 7 and we probably won't get to bed till after 2am. What's the latest I can register on the morning of June 7? Assuming I'm go to take less than 12 hours to do the whole thing, can I roll along at 9am?

bunnygreen

For anyone doing the The Wicklow 200 for the first time ,or not. There's a good talk about it tonight in The Scout Hall Sunbury Gardens Dartry D6,hosted by Orwell Cycling Club http://www.orwellwheelers.org/news_events.html#training Preparing for the Wicklow 200.
Dave Tansey will complete the sequence on March 3rd with an evening aimed at the Orwell touring/randonneur members under the working title of "Preparing for the Wicklow 200". This session will cover topics such as nutrition, training, tactics for the big day etc.

blorg

rflynnr wrote: »

Just realised I've done something stupid. I booked our family holiday around the W200, so fly back into Dublin on June 6. Trouble is, I just noticed the flight gets in at 1am on June 7 and we probably won't get to bed till after 2am. What's the latest I can register on the morning of June 7? Assuming I'm go to take less than 12 hours to do the whole thing, can I roll along at 9am?

It's probably not that critical but the main problem would be if you end up doing the whole thing basically on your own, that would not be a lot of fun. Are you quite fast? If you are, I'd aim to head after people and catch up- spending really minimal time at the first feed stop.

Chips Lovell

rflynnr wrote: »

Just realised I've done something stupid. I booked our family holiday around the W200, so fly back into Dublin on June 6. Trouble is, I just noticed the flight gets in at 1am on June 7 and we probably won't get to bed till after 2am. What's the latest I can register on the morning of June 7? Assuming I'm go to take less than 12 hours to do the whole thing, can I roll along at 9am?

Tough one. Most people go for an early start and, as blorg says, the danger of rolling out at 9am is doing the whole thing on your own. If it were me, I'd try and grab loads of sleep on the journey home from the holidays and then a few hours that night in order to start early. Everyone is different though, so you might be the kind of person who needs a full night's kip. I only got around four hours the night before last year's one.

FrankGrimes

I'm trying to get my head around the mentalness of attempting the Wicklow 200. Good thing is I'm starting training in plenty of time so I want to break it off into sections and get familiar with the route, well mainly the climbs in separate training runs.

Problem is I'm not familiar with the climbs or where they are. Based on this route I think the Wicklow Gap is the bit from Laragh to the 5 mile marker on that map - is that right?

It then looks like Slieve Mann is that beastly looking climb between 35 and 37 mile markers? With the Shay Elliot being from mile 40 to 42?

Is this the same direction the Wicklow 200 will take these hills in? That route I linked to actually looks like a great tough training route. If that's the same direction the Wicklow 200 takes those climbs in, I'll try do that a couple of times before the 200, driving to Laragh and starting from there.

I might try and map out the full Wicklow 200 2009 route on MapMyRide using the directions on the W200 site, but if anyone has already done this let me know and I'll avoid the effort.

blorg

FrankGrimes wrote: »

Problem is I'm not familiar with the climbs or where they are. Based on this route I think the Wicklow Gap is the bit from Laragh to the 5 mile marker on that map - is that right?

It then looks like Slieve Mann is that beastly looking climb between 35 and 37 mile markers? With the Shay Elliot being from mile 40 to 42?

Yes, you have the climbs entirely right and that is the same direction- but note the Wicklow 200 is not going over the Wicklow Gap this year. I think Tom had the route mapped earlier in this thread. Although not essential it is certainly very beneficial psychologically to know the climbs before the day.