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TOI - Report
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12-05-2009 4:08pm#1Apologies for the length. I'm tired and need a rest....
It all started horribly for us from Dublin. The bike loading was interesting stacking the bikes on a floor of luggage within in container and then the truck taking 2.5 hours longer to arrive than the bus we were on. This meant that we didn't make it to the hotel till about 9:30pm just in time to sleep before the 6am start.
Sorting the coals and the diamonds --- Lisburn to Derry - 168km - 28.5km/h - Avg HR 146
We hadn't really worked out our groups as this stge and it really is vital to find the correct group. It all started out well with a few rolling hills. Lunch, as it was to be all week, seemed to be the daily turning point. Not more than 15km after lunch the whole group was together when a white sheep attacked a guy wearing a black sheep gilet. Well he went down like a sack of spuds and looked like he had broken his arm. He was in the middle of the group there was a split immediately and then the group splintered into about 10 different groups on the road with riders everywhere. I was somewhere just in front of the crash paused to look and then did what was best... stayed away as I couldn't help anymore than the professionals there. I was stranded in no mans land for essentially the rest of the day. At one stage I saw a group of about 15 riders approaching and being that it was raining and there was a cold headwind I thought I would join the group. They had a good thing going but every minute or so I would hear what I though was a carbon rim squealing I thought nothing off it. Being that the group was a little slow I went to the front and did a pull to fast and rode off the front. At this stage I saw blorg (Ivan) and decided to ride with him. he had punctured so we rode away together until he crashed into a parked cyclist --- That was extremely funny to see. Another boards rider, smithslist I think it was, had punctured on the side of the road and someone was asking him if he was fine but has sowed up in the middle of the road. Ivan turned to see if he was alright and road into the man in front of him. I laughed saw everything was all rights and rode off... yes I though he was stronger than me and you catch up. Then the hills started, I kept going at it but it was tough alone in the wind and occasional rain I wasn't really enjoying it at all. After several small hills and many more false tops, I finally felt a decent and saw a sign for 20km to go.. Happy days. About 15km out I rode up to someone riding with one leg. It turns out he had a really bad cramp so I rode in with him partly for the company and because he looked like he was in a bad way. Now if you thought Lance Armstrongs fake bonk was god this guys performance was excellent.... 100 metres from the end he jumped up, called a sprint and sprinted off to the finish line... Apparently the cramp had gone. Honestly I felt shattered after day one the wind and rain were tough.... But I wasn't about to quit just yet.
Holy Roads ---- Derry to Sligo - 170.4km - 24.8km/h - Avg HR 138
Now me being me I though I would choose to ride with the second group today since I sat in front of group 3 the day before. This turned out to be a good move since most of the people I was with were at a similar level, although I think they all had more experience. It started out gradually because they like to keep the groups together out of the cities for the PSNI or GARDA. In the morning everyone was looking fairly tired and generally the weather wasn't lifting the spirits. Cold string winds, rain and occasional hail meant that the groups stayed together. Group 2 was a good pace but I was getting left behind on some of the bigger hills and chasing them back on the decents. There's certain times when being in a group is bad and one of them are long fast decents. At the lunch stop we were all really glad for some time in the warmth. We had criss-crossed the sperrin hills (in Ireland I am sure they are referred to as mountains) and there was alot of standing water so everyone else was pretty cold but I had my new goretex which in all honesty is absolutely brilliant. The hills stopped after lunch and we just kept a fairly steady pace to the need feed nothing really eventful except the continual shouting of 'HOLE'. At lunch we got a briefing from the Garda as we were entering the South. The Gards did an excellent job helping the motorbikes teams we had to stop traffic when we were crossing major intersections. I thanked one of them and quipped, that I was glad my taxes were used well. After lunch it all went mental. While I was happy in group 2 we joined up with group 1 started to ride with them since we were just cruising. Well let me tell you the difference between group 1 and 2 is small in the flats but huge on the hills... group 1 just fly up the hills at the same pace they go on the flats. Essentially at about 135km we entered a big hill and I was dropped oof the back. II kept thinking about the day after, 245km, so I decided to take it easy and just ride at my own pace. Needless to say I went a little to slow. At the top of said climb group 1 and 2 split and group 2 regrouped. As I was keeping it easy I didn't make it to the group before they left and was own my own almost till the very end..... TBH, at time I preferred that though. The wind and cold was awful for most of this stage.
Breaking the Back - Sligo to Galway - 233km - 27.3km/h - AVG HR 129
245km are you serious... Honestly I though was going to be a hard boring day in the saddle but to be honest this was actually my most enjoyable day of the trip. We all kept together really nicely as a group, unless someone punctured, and we rolled along the rolling hills nicely. There were no big hills today just a few short shard descents. The one pain in the butt was the headwind we had all day. For those of you who know the area you'll know that a lot of it is exposed and we had a mad cross wind for much of the day. However we also had some awesome scenery though and around Connemara. It really lifted our spirits as a group and as the pace was relaxed, a deliberate attempt on the organisers part to help us though the tour, and that the weather had started to turn. After connemara we had a food stop at a place called Maams Cross--- don't worry it you have never heard of it you aren't missing anything. From there on in, I guess about 60km, the pace started heating up until we turned with about 30km into Galway ---- then the pace went mad. I'd say for the last 30km we averaved about 35km/h with a slight tailwind and a slight downhill. The guys at the front of the group were hammering it and it was fun. We flew into the city and the lads lined up for a group sprint... I'm not sure how it went as I sat up and enjoyed the views of the bay with about 2km to go... I knew I wasn't going to win a sprint I am still cautious about Blorgs riding. What we all though was going to be a long slow day ended up really excellent.... Everyone was buzzing.
Loving the Summer Sun -- Galway to Kilkenny - 207km - 27.8km/h - AVG HR 125
Did you notice that my HR was coming down everyday. Yes apparently it was getting easier but because of the pace the day before we all were in high spirits for the ride to Kilkenny until... 40kms. We had had a quiet start to the day all rolling along nicely when it was time to breaks up the groups. Now one thing about groups and people it that people always want to be above there group - that is the "I think I am better than I am" syndrome. This definitely applied to me. So to break up the groups a front bunch from group 2 started to fly up the hills, no problem there until about hill 4. They kept flying up them.... every decent I kept catching up and chasing them..... so it went for about 50 minutes but faster and faster every time. I kept thinking, what's wrong am I the only one here who is tired, i should have trained harder. Eventually we got a break and things eased up. Now able to talk for the first time for an hour I said to my fellow rider guy, "crickey, that was tough I nearly died. I'm pretty sure that the hardest most sustained ride I have ever done". He said it was stupidly fast as well. Everyone one else I spoke to that day said it was hard but awesome... I love that we all remember the tough times as the most fun. Anyway still being stuffed form the morning effort about 10kms before lunch I was dropped on a pimple of a hill..... so rode into lunch alone wounded but proud. In the afternoon the pace settled as did the terrain and eventually we had a pretty flat run into Kilkenny. The group started to get itchy at about 15km in with the local kilkenny guys trying to by a sprint victory, or break away victory. Needless to say that didn't work out but away they went got 10 metres in front and then fell back into line. Then one aussie guy made a dash for it... They let him go till about 5km out and then attacked. the pace kept getting faster and faster until I again sat up with about 2km to go having been warned that the kilkenny roads were narrow and dangerous. Well at the front an excellent sprint lit up and the guys were bubbling over when I crossed about a minute later. now this I can't understand.... We had almost ridden 800km at this stage and everyone was absolutely bussing. Straight for coffee after the days action and then to dinner and the bar. Although it was the last night no one really looked tired. It was T-24 so the beers started flowing.
Riding Home - Kilkenny to Dublin (ended near Blessington) - 169km - c. 21km - 128 HR AVG
The night before the ride I was commenting how it was great having had no punctures. People warned me that I was indeed tempting a fate that could break me. Some people had had a puncture a day but not me and I was proud of it... So the day tipped along nicely again the hills broke the groups but and by this stage a group 4 had started to appear so there were officially groups 1,2,3,4. Being smart I decided group 3 was a good pace considering all the climbs I had left to go... Slieve Mann, Shay Elliot, Wicklow Gap, around Blessington not to mention getting from Kilkenny to Carlow which involved 6 peaks but three big-ish ones. Its actually funny cause s we started ascending number 4 of these peaks I lost all power. There was nothing really left but a few people were around me... then as we descended I started to feel weird. My freewheel was sticking essentially meaning I had a fixed-geared bike i.e. when I stopped peddling the chain fell off. This essentially spelled disaster for me and from about 30km to 70km I was on my lonesome. Now if you could pick the worst possible time to be on your own it would be almost pan flat roads directly into a headwind and so it was. 30km as a slow pace and I knew I was losing ground all the time but in the back of my mind I knew the though climbs were to come. Thankfully with 10km to go I saw an Aussie girl as we talked which passed the time but also upped both our paces into the lunch stop. GRoup 3 was still there and I manged to get a new wheel from the van so I could descend again. I shoved down a few sambos and headed out again with group 3. My legs at this stage were still gone and I keep thinking about the climbs to come. I held onto the group until the climb just before the start of Slieve Mann but decided to let them go. I took some pics and tried to twitter but could as coveraged sucked. I started up the climbs happy that I knew where I was. I had spent the last 25km having no idea how far to go as my speed sensor was attached to the wheel I swapped out but happy days I climbed, descended, climbed, descended, climbed again and finally I was at the top of Wicklow Gap and feeling awesome. I did have one very horrible moment when I went pass the service van and saw the guys, out of the race from injuries, eating ice cream. Nice for some I thought. So I had caught group 3 again and descedned with them to the lake, around the lakes and to the finish. During the vovage around the lake I realised that my memory is very vague about hills sometimes cause the road around the lakes has a few nasty hills but al was well. When we got to the end there were no sprints just a group of happy lads.
I think I learnt alot more about what a cyclist is this week. There was such a varied group of riders. The group 1 guys are far and away an awesome fast group of riders... smithlist was part of that group most of the week and they just raced every stage. The difference between different riders is amazing... it seems to be that ascending hills, even small ones, is a massive part of racing. The difference between the groups generally is in the ascending of hills and this is your power to weight ratio.
All in all, as I mentioned on the other thread, I'm surprised that I made it felling as good as I did. Now to see how I recover.
More power less weight -- I know I need to work on that for next year
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Now to set this years next goal.28
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Nice report Scott, I'm not looking forward to the next time I am out on the road trying to keep up with you
Well done to all the lads, that is one monumental achievement.
Some good twittering also, beats Lance any day!0 -
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I had heard of your crash Tackleberry, sorry to hear it was you, sounded like a really nasty one. Glad to hear you are generally OK and posting on the internets.
To be honest I think there was something in the ride for everyone, and I sampled most of the variety. The riding the third group did was very good and certainly very efficient but it was not the only thing the event offered. To be honest for me much of the "challenge" came from the pace rather than the distance; over 30km/h average on the third 235km day, I have done 235km before but not at that sort of speed!
I was in all three groups over the five days although spent most of my time in group 2. The first day I had been straining to stay with group 1 and then trying to organise a chase with some guys who fell off the back when it hit the hills. I can assure you I am all about cooperation, after I was dropped I caught up with a guy David (who I ended up sharing with) and we worked together to get up to another two guys, and then another pair, etc. Eventually we had a group of around 10-12 together and there were a few of us in it who tried to get something productive going (I apologise if I was a bit group Nazi about it.) It was a bit of a mess as there were a fair few not so used to the idea and we couldn't get a constant rotation going, there were people who were "too tired" to do a pull at the front but then miraculously minutes later were able to attempt a breakaway :rolleyes: It was also pretty hilly along with the wind which as another lurker boardsie pointed out at the feedstop did make it more difficult.
After the second food stop I was also thinking "this is crazy, there are 5 days of this" and as we set off was just in two minds as to whether I wanted to stay with the group heading out from that stop and dropped off the back of it; I didn't quite have the energy or motivation to catch them and was a bit tired of all the hijinks but in fairness you guys behind were not exactly catching me either, ye were a few hundred metres down the road... Scott rode off the front of ye as he saw me and was feeling the pace was a bit slow I think.
Anyway the crash was stupid I grant you, smithslist had punctured and as I know him I was enquiring as to whether he needed anything as I passed (we had helped each other with punctures before in the Cycleways cup.) I didn't realise that the guy I was riding with (actually make that drafting behind) had slowed, in fact, he had stopped, to do the same and took my eye off him for a moment. Note there were only two of us on the road at this point, I would have not been looking behind me like that in a group... I know you guys got a good view of it but I was not exactly anywhere near you and despite cracking myself off the tarmac had time and made sure that I got myself up out of your way as a priority before you came past. Both bikes were OK after I disentangled my bars from his rear wheel. Caught and rode back with another guy who had been finding it tough and we supplied mutual moral support. I have never been so happy to see a sign reading "Londonderry."
I too was unsure of how the whole thing was going to go (I had a bar bag the first day FFS) but in fairness you could ride the thing as hard or as easy as you liked. I enjoyed my time in group 3 but I also enjoyed my time in group 2 where there was certainly more variety, painful though it was at times- Joe Barr shook it up on a regular basis and it was a challenge to stay on, but then would calm down a bit. I'd say I enjoyed my time in group 1 but that would be lying, that was just painful for the most part
The group 2 sprint into Kilkenny was mad and a miracle noone crashed given that many of the group were not familiar with group riding never mind racing before this event, I was in two minds myself whether to throw myself into that but ended up going for it. Did too much chasing down of breakaways- I chased down the Kilkenny lads to suggest they were going too early (15km out!) if they really wanted a chance, and then was on the wheel of that Australian guy when he went but frankly he was too strong for me to work with him and the bunch caught us. Ended up at the back of the pack coming into the end but having a clear final corner managed to maintain momentum and sprint up the final straight to around sixth that day- there was a white van with its nose sticking out at the side that I remember being in two minds as to whether I would get around before the rider beside me- I decided I would and thankfully did but it was close.
On the third day I started in group 1, front punctured, fixed it although broke pump in process and needed assistance, caught on to group 2 as they passed... After lunch back punctured and my pump wasn't working- got a tube from David and then as the threes went past yelled for a pump- just throw it at the side of the road. Someone did but it went into the hedge and I couldn't find it, I now thought I was out the back entirely and completely fecked. (Talked to guy who threw me the pump later and thanked him, he was very good about it.) I was very thankful to see the service van come around and pump me up with the track pump and gave me a lift up to the threes.
So this was my first time with the threes, that group of shame that no true self-respecting ego would be seen in. Well if you saw me that day with them, you would know I was happily doing my turn in the pace line and thought it was very well organised indeed by Alastair. I only rode off the front on the hills where it broke up anyway and I gathered this was acceptable. I think the 3s were going faster than the 2s (my average did not seem to drop) and certainly with less effort, as they were certainly more organised- I believe you were doing the whistle thing from the start which was a great idea for people not used to how a pace line works.
On the last day I was planning on pacing myself so let the 2s go nuts on the hills in Carlow (1s were out of the question) and did those with the 3s at the back, went off the front of them on that final hill to chase down the 2s which we managed with some people dropping off the 2s and 1s just before lunch, it was great fun and we got an extremely good three-man chase going- again with that strong Australian guy and I think a Danish guy. 30-45 seconds on the front and then drop to the back.
Great event, I would certainly do it again, the organisation for the most part was excellently executed.0 -
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Anyone reading and thinking about 2010 start now.I only cycling since 2007 and now I 've done 2. A great personal experience and you get out what you put into it.But no matter what miles and climbing you do, do not forget learning the ropes of group riding as these skills will make the whole thing easier but not easy:D
+1 on the training. I startwed cycling only 8 / 10 (I had 2 months off to look after new baby and wife) months ago. All in all the training served me very well and it was just a gradual build up from 2 hour rides to 100 mile rides. It wasn't until this year i did my first century of 160.9 kms.
The group riding thing is imperative to be comfortable with. Apart from the aforementioned not getting the whistle thing the group riding was the best part -- its lonely riding for days on end with no one too talk to. To learn how to group ride just join a club and go on their weekly spins --- its really that simple. The group structure for the TOI saved me alot and the groups were well paced. On the last day I was in no mans land for about 50km which was horrible -- cycling on flats in a headwond should only be done in a group...
I'm going to be back next year I think unless I can dream up another challenge but first I need to win a swords cc wednesday race 0 -
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scottreynolds wrote: »I've read your reports... you need to target finishing in a group first.
I finished with the scratch group last week. It may not have been the group I started out with, but hey, we're all friends here right?0 -
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For the benefit of other new dads, do explain the negotiation process involved in only taking two months off, and fitting in regular imperial centuries.
Do you run courses in this type of thing?
(what this imperial stuff your taking about.. there is only one century).
I didn't mention the following. Riding away from my wife and crying child on the first week of February a total feeling of guilt hit me and I turned back after 30 minutes to go home and tell me wife that I wasn't going to do the TOI since I didn't think it was fair. By the monday I had convinced my self that it was only 3 months to go and even if i did it next year, 2010, i would still need the same amount of training so I should continue on.
Here's my tips....- Tell the wife/partner you love them and will sarifice your training to be with her. There's benefit on both sides. You get fitter and healthier and you'll have more energy.
- Get a plan for your training. I got a coach who new exactly what I had to do. Stick to that plan. Share the plan with the wife so you can make plans based on your schedule. My coach knew my plans, when I was not able to train at weekends because of other commitments etc, and she planned around them. My wife also knew when I would be home on time and when I would be late 7:30pm ish.
- Leave one day per weekend totally free for the family. Your family is more important than anything else.
- Turbo sessions at home help as well... That means your at home and training . not all training session are long centuries
- Train early on the other day. I would leave home for a 6 hour ride (100 miles) before 9am.
- Don't take breaks when riding. You don't realy need to.
- Ride alone cause its your training your doing not someone elses. You can occasionally ride in a group but they will all be at different levels
- Try to negotiate with, or get the support from your place of work. I am contracting but when I was negoiating my contract I requested Wednesday afternoons off which was agreed. When training for the TOI I did one long ride then and stayed out till it got dark.
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Tackleberry wrote: »Here's a few pics just to give you guys some food for thought!
This scares me --
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scottreynolds wrote: »(what this imperial stuff your taking about.. there is only one century).
I didn't mention the following. Riding away from my wife and crying child on the first week of February a total feeling of guilt hit me and I turned back after 30 minutes to go home and tell me wife that I wasn't going to do the TOI since I didn't think it was fair. By the monday I had convinced my self that it was only 3 months to go and even if i did it next year, 2010, i would still need the same amount of training so I should continue on.
Here's my tips....- Tell the wife/partner you love them and will sarifice your training to be with her. There's benefit on both sides. You get fitter and healthier and you'll have more energy.
- Get a plan for your training. I got a coach who new exactly what I had to do. Stick to that plan. Share the plan with the wife so you can make plans based on your schedule. My coach knew my plans, when I was not able to train at weekends because of other commitments etc, and she planned around them. My wife also knew when I would be home on time and when I would be late 7:30pm ish.
- Leave one day per weekend totally free for the family. Your family is more important than anything else.
- Turbo sessions at home help as well... That means your at home and training . not all training session are long centuries
- Train early on the other day. I would leave home for a 6 hour ride (100 miles) before 9am.
- Don't take breaks when riding. You don't realy need to.
- Ride alone cause its your training your doing not someone elses. You can occasionally ride in a group but they will all be at different levels
- Try to negotiate with, or get the support from your place of work. I am contracting but when I was negoiating my contract I requested Wednesday afternoons off which was agreed. When training for the TOI I did one long ride then and stayed out till it got dark.
Fair play Scott - good advice there0
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