Roche-Elliott-Kelly 400, Saturday 13th June, 4am.

rottenhat

From Paul O'Donoghue:

Hi Folks,
The REK 400 is on in 2 weeks time starting at the Stephen Roche Monument in Dundrum at 04.00hrs on the morning of Fri/Sat night (13th of June).This is a challenging event which will be taking in the Wicklow Mountains,the Blackstairs,the hills between the Barrow and Waterford/Kilkenny rd. along with the hilly bit between Mullinavat and Piltown.The route will then turn in Sean Kelly Square and head through the Kilkenny river valleys and over the Blackstairs to Blackwater(Co. Wexford) via Enniscorthy.From here we will be following the coast road to Arklow and home to Dundrum via the the Vales of Avoca &Clara.The route takes in most of the scenery Leinster has to offer from mountains,river valleys and coastline while the controls are at the monuments recording some of our greatest cyclists (Stephen Roche and Shea Elliot monuments and Sean Kelly Sq.).

Last year 4 riders started and completed this challenging and scenic adventure in roughly 22 hours despite some very adverse weather conditions.If anyone is interested at trying this route this year can they contact me.

I will have a more detailed routesheet beforehand and the time limit for this audax event is 27 hours as set by the Audax Club Parisien.Anyone requiring further info can email me.

Paul O'Donoghue

Not expecting too many takers for this one - 400 is a serious distance, generally considered the toughest for audax - but I'm going to give it a shot and I believe emty and Blorg are too. Lights required (you'd want to be pretty fast to complete this one before dark) and CI license also.

PM me for Paul's email if you're interested.

scottreynolds

rottenhat wrote: »

From Paul O'Donoghue:



Not expecting too many takers for this one - 400 is a serious distance, generally considered the toughest for audax - but I'm going to give it a shot and I believe emty and Blorg are too. Lights required (you'd want to be pretty fast to complete this one before dark) and CI license also.

PM me for Paul's email if you're interested.

I thought I heard blorg and emty saying they are doing it on fixes.

Is it 400 kms or miles?

Sweet jesus, that's some route. Fair play to you guys for going for it!

rottenhat

scottreynolds wrote: »

I thought I heard blorg and emty saying they are doing it on fixes.

Is it 400 kms or miles?

Kms...if you want 400 miles the National 600 will be on in early July.

niceonetom

Any chance of a map?

rottenhat

niceonetom wrote: »

Any chance of a map?

I believe Ordinance Survey do some nice ones.

I will post the routesheet when it arrives but the one Paul actually attached to his email was for a different route, starting from Phibsboro.

Caroline_ie

niceonetom wrote: »

Any chance of a map?

Sure why not do the WW200x2 next weekend? eh? Might as well, at least the road will be marked :P

TinyExplosions

I'm 70% in for this one, should be a challenge, but worthwhile!

Raam

If the forecast looks good... maybe

blorg

I'm in... certainly not on a fixie, I am not completely insane.

The tax man

niceonetom wrote: »

Any chance of a map?

Sorry,my brain is still a little woozy from today's spin.:p

rottenhat

Here's the routesheet, as Excel and Word files.

Raam

Anyone fancy mapping that?

rottenhat

Well, chaps, that was an epic. I can't say that peeling myself out of bed at 2:40am is my idea of a good time, and I was bit taken aback to discover that my new light is so awesomely powerful that it knocks out the wireless on my bike computer, but apart from that, it was about as perfect a day for a 400 as you could imagine. There were seven of us all told, and to be honest, it was bit intimidating initially lining out with rouleurs like Paul O'Donoghue, Dave McLoughlin and the two Johns who have a stack of Paris-Brest-Paris, London-Edinburgh-London, Boston-Montreal-Boston, 24 hour timetrials etc etc under their belts, but the group stuck more or less together for the whole day. Which was just as well because the routesheet proved to be still a work in development with some very sketchy instructions along the southern stretches in particular and having Paul about to guide you through these sections was a considerable bonus.

The route took us out over Djouce and Shay Elliott before turning south through Macreddin and Aughrim to Bunclody. There was a brief shower on the run into Bunclody which proved to be the only rain we got for the day. We stopped in a hotel there for breakfast - I don't know what the other guests made of the seven guys in cycling rig demolishing the buffet, I would have asked for a discount on the room when I was checking out. From Bunclody we pushed on south through New Ross and Kiltealy over the hills to Mullinavat, Piltown and Carrick-on-Suir for lunch at the cafe next to the big plaque on Sean Kelly Square. 180km in at this point, when you'd usually be finishing up for the day, and we were sitting in the sunshine outside a cafe in Tipperary with 220km left to go.

Leaving Carrick we went north towards Kilkenny - this is where Junior spotted us - a series of long, long drags through Thomastown to Graiguenamanagh. Some of these went on so long that you lost all sense that there was flat road anywhere in the country - 3-4% grade is the new level. Dave calculated that the longest of these was 8km up followed by a 6km descent. After a stop for ice cream it was back through Kiltealy (King Kelly, I now have some sense what the Mount Leinster would be like in the sunshine, which is to say magnificent) to Enniscorthy and Blackwater. This was the worst section of the ride from me - the roads were rough as a badger's arse and after eleven or twelve hours in the saddle my own arse was getting a bit tender.

However the next section was perhaps the best of the day, powering along the rolling Wexford coast road, getting a generous push from the southerly breeze that had been blowing steadily through the day, lifting everyone's spirits. The sun was gradually sinking on the left, while to your right you could see lazily tumbling wind turbines and the deep blue of the Irish Sea. We took a jog inland at Courttown to get onto the backroads to Arklow and Rathdrum. By now it was after nine, lights back on the bike and jackets on as the temperature started dropping rapidly but somehow we kept up a stiff pace through Laragh, Roundwood and over the bog. Descending the Long Hill in the dark you could see the first lights of the city picked out against the hillside and by the time we reached the Poggio, it was shrouded in blackness. It was a weird feeling climbing it in the dark, seeing nothing but the few square metres illuminated by your light, unable to even see what gear you were in and hoping you'd picked the right one. emty and I were back at the Stephen Roche monument a hair past 11:30 for a total time of nineteen and a half hours and I think we were both pretty delirious with exhaustion and pride at that point - certainly I'm going to have trouble fitting my head through doorways for the next few days.

It's hard to convey what a great ride this was - so many new experiences, the camaraderie of a small group out on a mission, the beautiful weather. It was a striking feeling crossing some of the route of the Mount Leinster and remembering that the last time you were in Enniscorthy you had driven down. Actually there were quite a few nostalgic moments as we followed sections of rides from earlier in the season, the Ardattin 200, the Mick Byrne 200. Looking back now, I can't really fathom how we kept riding so strongly for so long but after a couple of hundred kilometres you don't seem to get much more tired. You make the demands on your body and the body keeps giving the answers. Anyway, the REK is a great route and I hope at least a couple of you will think about doing it next year - it's a challenge but believe me, if you can hack the Mick Byrne and you put the miles in during the Spring you can do this one, and you'll be well rewarded for the effort.

I know Caroline is fascinated/appalled by the kind of food I'm willing to shovel into myself in the course of a ride so for the record, here's what I ate yesterday:

One bowl of porridge, two bananas, two Nutrigrain Elevenses bars, second breakfast (two sausages, two rashers, black and white pudding, mushrooms, two hash browns, three mini pains-au-chocolat), lunch (BLT, potato wedges), a Mint Feast (yes, I am the person they brought them back for), a ham sandwich, then tortilla chips and salsa and a pizza when I got home. I drank about eight bottles of water (half with Nuun, half without), a double espresso, two cups of coffee, a cup of tea and a bottle of Club lemon.

zzzzzzzz

That's hardcore - well done.

niceonetom

Legends. Incredibly impressive. Well done guys!

biomed32

well impressed there mate well done to all that took part

emty

Not much I can add to Rottenhats' post,it was as if I wrote it myself.Except there would have been more about me in it .
Probably the thing that surprised me most about the whole event was how much I enjoyed it.Hard to put into words how good I felt being able to keep up such a pace for so long.25.47kpm average for 417km :eek:.Feel pretty good today,the base of my neck is a bit sore but that's about it

emty

I have to say that I got a big kick out of the Boards jersey being spotted on such an event especially in the company of such established and esteemed clubs such as Sorrento and Orwell.The guys that Rottenhat mentioned in his post are serious cyclists and yet,you couldn't meet a nicer,more helpful bunch .

emty

Old Rottenhat put in a pretty remarkable performance yesterday,smashing this years PB by a long shot.At least I had the benefit of a 300 under my belt.He was great company all the way round and,crucially on these gigs,knows when not to talk .He finished very strongly,as I suspected he would and it was all I could do to hang onto his wheel on the Poggio.At least,I think it was him,was very hard to see at that point .

Esroh

Awesome. To describe ye as Hard -Asses may sound disrespectful but after a ride like that there can be no other way ;-D

emty

Sorry for all the posts,just wanted to share what was a very special day.
And lastly,just want to mention yesterdays wild card,David.Didn't get his last name but he is the guy without a helmet :eek:.He did this event last year in runners,on a flat-bar in atrocious conditions.He turned up this year a lot better prepaired but was still punching well above his weight.Which he did,with grace and good humour.Fair play!

Nietzschean

emty wrote: »

He did this event last year in runners,on a flat-bar in atrocious conditions.

i thought it sounded hard before..flat bar in runners...jebus, guy must be all shades of crazy, impressive

TinyExplosions

Chapeau guys -very well done, and great pics emty!

barrabus

Bravo. Stunning stuff lads .

Planet X

Congratulations Emty & Rottenhat. Well 'ard.

Junior

That takes some effort man !

Fairplay to ye both, I hadn't don't more than about an 80k spin and I got lumped into doing 150k yesterday. Ye hit some hilly roads around Carrick, Kilkenny, but ye were certainly heading the right way, that gusty tailwind must have helped, cos I was feeling dragging the group along at that stage.

emeraldstar

rottenhat wrote: »

The route took us out over Djouce and Shay Elliott before turning south through Macreddin and Aughrim to Bunclody. There was a brief shower on the run into Bunclody which proved to be the only rain we got for the day. We stopped in a hotel there for breakfast - I don't know what the other guests made of the seven guys in cycling rig demolishing the buffet, I would have asked for a discount on the room when I was checking out. From Bunclody we pushed on south through New Ross and Kiltealy over the hills to Mullinavat, Piltown and Carrick-on-Suir for lunch at the cafe next to the big plaque on Sean Kelly Square. 180km in at this point, when you'd usually be finishing up for the day, and we were sitting in the sunshine outside a cafe in Waterford* with 220km left to go.

Wow, fair play!

*But (ahem) Tipperary

Greenman

Yes well done, I remember over 20 years ago doing those sort of runs with Eddie Dunne and co, they were different days, less traffic,remember doing the The Millennium 1000Km in 88 and a 12OOkm after that.

Well done to all who did it.

Was one of those Johns John Bayley of http://www.blayleys.com/about/john.htm ?

Congrats again.:):):) JD

sy

emty wrote: »

....25.47kpm average for 417km ...

Now that is impressive. Well done emty and rottenhat. Hard men.
Marmotte should be a breeze emty.

Gavin

Sterling stuff

The_Claw

Outstanding. Well done Emty and Rottenhat. You've done all boardsies proud - I look forward to basking in your reflected glory for some time to come.

AstraMonti

Well done guys! You 're just an inspiration for all the newbies out there like me, keep it up

Lumen

Deeply impressive.

now, do it again without the cake stops

The tax man

I'm speechless,so here's a picture instead.

Seriously though well done guys,amazing achievement. Great write up and pics.

ROK ON

Ye are certifiably mad. But that isn't necessarily a bad thing.
Well done Emty and Rottenhat.

That is some achievement.

Captain Havoc

WoW, that's increadible.

kavanagh_h

What are you guys on??? Whatever it is I want some!!

lukester

Hardcore cycling. Respect.

petethedrummer

Well done lads, but where is this gonna end???? What do you reckon is your upper limit for one continuous cycle?

Nietzschean

RAAM in the near future?

rottenhat

petethedrummer wrote: »

Well done lads, but where is this gonna end???? What do you reckon is your upper limit for one continuous cycle?

Well, the audax community generally seem to consider 400k the longest ride you'd do straight through, and that there's enough time on a 600k to get some kip en route. I've no plans to buck received wisdom on that one.

Nietzschean wrote: »

RAAM in the near future?

As if. Although the first time I met Blorg, some time before I started posting here, he claimed that RAAM sounded like fun. I immediately marked his card.

Greenman wrote: »

Yes well done, I remember over 20 years ago doing those sort of runs with Eddie Dunne and co, they were different days, less traffic,remember doing the The Millennium 1000Km in 88 and a 12OOkm after that.

1200k? I am humbled. I had no idea it had been going on that long in Ireland - I'd love to hear more about it if you'd care to write it up at some point.

Greenman wrote: »

Was one of those Johns John Bayley of http://www.blayleys.com/about/john.htm ?

No, I dont think so - they were John O'Sullivan and John Connaghan. I knew I was in exalted company when we sat down to breakfast and the latter removed his jacket to reveal a London-Edinburgh-London jersey and a purse hanging around his neck on a Boston-Montreal-Boston lanyard.

Mind you, looking at his website, this John Blayley sounds like a serious character.

Húrin

Insane. A lot of people I know would consider 400 km to be too much to drive in one day!

LDB

You guys Rock! well done.

Lumen

Is there anything like this in Ireland?

Nikolaus Gardiner won the [65th installment of the UK 24-Hour Championship] with an astounding 510.09 miles, the second highest mileage total in the history of the event.

Jawgap

Well done to all - you must have arses made of kevlar!:)

rottenhat

Lumen wrote: »

Is there anything like this in Ireland?

There is a standing record for the 24-hour TT in Ireland which would suggest that there are long distance TT events, and I did overhear Paul and Dave chatting about various people and their attempts on Saturday. I couldn't get any useful information out of the fabulously user-friendly Cycling Ireland website and it's possible that there are no events, only individual attempts at setting records. The ultra-cycling population of Ireland might not be big enough to make an organised event viable.

These are the current record holders - note the identities of the current 12- and 24-hour record holders, and indeed the number 10 spot in the list in the article you linked to.

Cadex

Well done you men - that was some achievement, I am in awe.
Spent the weekend doing domestics and progressed flooring works to point at which it's not actually dangerous to go upstairs! Very jealous of those that got out for spins but more impressed by than jealous of those that did the 400. Big congrats Empty, Rottenhat and co.

godihatethehils

Well done lads, yis are legends. 1 & 2 on my hero list.

I notice it's a while since those women's records were set.......LDB, Caroline??? :D:D

http://www.cyclingireland.ie/html/site/disciplines/records.jsp?type=road#place

rottenhat wrote: »

These are the current record holders - note the identities of the current 12- and 24-hour record holders, and indeed the number 10 spot in the list in the article you linked to.

warrfla

400kms :eek: makes my 70km Sat & Sun seem Rather insignificant

Absolutely Inspirational Stuff, Congrats to All

unionman

Truly inspirational stuff guys, and great accounts from both of you.

Chapeau.