Conor Pass Challenge - Sept 19 2009

CheGuedara

After an absence of several years the Conor Pass Cycling Challenge will take place again on Saturday 19th September 2009.

As this is the first sportive organised by the Chain Gang, the Club would very much appreciate if intending participants would notify their intentions by email to chaingangcycling@gmail.com, ideally before 12th September if possible to allow better planning for numbers.

Jumpy

Colour is bad on my monitor, is that elevation purple or red?

thebouldwhacker

Jumpy wrote: »

Colour is bad on my monitor my mind wont allow me to accept the reality of the situation , is that elevation purple or red?

Fixed that for you:D

Jumpy

Oh god, its really purple then. I hurt from just looking at it.

DeepBlue

I'm in.
Will have to start practising on hills though :eek:.

blorg

I think it's purple, MapMyRide won't display it on the key if it isn't on the elevation chart. Note with MapMyRide it is average gradient over some distance, so actual gradients experienced should be a fair bit over 7%.

Jumpy

blorg wrote: »

I think it's purple, MapMyRide won't display it on the key if it isn't on the elevation chart. Note with MapMyRide it is average gradient over some distance, so actual gradients experienced should be a fair bit over 7%.

That explains why it said the road up Woodcock Hill in Limerick was only 6%. My arse it was.

blorg

Jumpy wrote: »

That explains why it said the road up Woodcock Hill in Limerick was only 6%. My arse it was.

Yes, the supposed maximum gradient in the Tour de Kilkenny was 4% according to Mapmyride... It actually turned out to be a little more than that

ROK ON

Jumpy wrote: »

That explains why it said the road up Woodcock Hill in Limerick was only 6%. My arse it was.

There are parts of that road that are 17%. AFAIK if you look at the elevation feature it is for the gradient over a discrete amount of road (either 0.5km or 1km). The gradient of every bit of the road that makes up that point will be different.

ROK ON

Thank Che. I plan on to making it to this one. Lets hope that we get a bit of an Indian summer in mid Sept. It'll be tough enough without the weather that we have been having recently.

Jumpy

ROK ON wrote: »

There are parts of that road that are 17%. AFAIK if you look at the elevation feature it is for the gradient over a discrete amount of road (either 0.5km or 1km). The gradient of every bit of the road that makes up that point will be different.

Well Im new to this, so I was happy I made it to the top without stopping. I was regretting not getting the third cog halfway up though.

AstraMonti

It sounds like a fabulous area to cycle, but it's far from Dublin and these weekend events are starting to get expensive.. Plenty of time though to think it over

DeepBlue

So who is still doing this?

CheGuedara

*tumble weed rolls slowly by*


...well for whoever's intending in taking part we're putting the last few details to bed tomorrow & Friday. All that's left to do really then is hope for a bit of luck with the weather and hopefully we've put on a nice route and a good challenge that people will enjoy.

dedon

Hey I am doing this. Really looking forward to it. Any news on the numbers??

CheGuedara

Well I've had close to 100 contact me via the web and email to indicate their intention to participate over the last month since we announced the cycle - Of course we'll lose some and gain some on the morning but we're hoping that 100 or so will be there as minimum

dedon

Sounds good. Weather looks good too

CheGuedara

I'm not going to jinx any thing by going 'yup good weather forecast' but we're holding a small flame of optimism on the matter.

So yup just the last few bits'n'pieces to have settled for saturday and then we're ready to roll.

I believe we may even have our National Hill Climb Champion with us on the day - I'm sure he'll be the guy giving us an education on Conor Pass too!

lescol

Am home from the Conor Pass Chellenge. Damp start but the sun came out for the climb and the weather was stunning. Excellent event, well organised, good marshalling, food and drink, congratulations to all involved.

afarrell

I did the Connor pass cycle as well today but left my cycling shoes after me. Can someone contact me re same at 087-2631096

CheGuedara

Hey lescol, thanks for the kind words - we're really pleased with how things went, 104 in all on the route and no incidents or a bit.

The whole thing came together very well with the marshalls, motorcycle outriders, garda medical and mechanical support doing (IMO) an exemplary job and those that supported us and saw us set with food and drink etc really pulled out the stops for us. And of course we don't expect we got everything right first time out of the box either so if anyone has constructive criticism email the club, post or PM and we'll see if we cant run an even better cycle next year


Here's my (impartial) report of the event anyhow.

The day started off kinda wet. Not a deluge of traditional Kerry rain drops (big and mean enough to knock a man over) but a misty murky shower that seemed to be able to penetrate clothes labelled 'water resist' or 'showerproof' with apparent ease. After weeks of preparation I can tell you my first words uttered today on opening the curtains are not suitable for repeating in polite company or posting on boards!

So we departed Blennerville on the soggy side. Luckily by the time we got out to Camp looking out past Brandon there was a sliver of blue appearing behind the mass of grey rolling in from the atlantic and the weather cleared just before we started the ascent of the Pass. First person to flinch was Paul Griffin who charged up the mountain like a man possessed hotly pursued by two/three others - reports from our lead vehicle figures they climbed the whole thing at 16-25mph with Griff responding to each attack with another surge in power ultimately beating all to the top! For the rest of us it was not so speedy or effortless and despite the best efforts of the club there was now way to organise French tourists to be at Pedlars lake to give the 'Allez allez allez' treatment that so often in the past has led to out of the saddle last ditch efforts when before it seemed as if the engine was running on vapors. But still - onwards and upwards.

The descent into Dingle was typical fun - when you see 80+kph on your speedo you know you're going well. Pretty much any faster and you'll go back in time! And we breaked for a food stop there before pushing off for Lispole, Anascaul, etc and home.

There's a nice set of hair pin bends outside of Lispole and you can, in ideal circumstances, rail right through them at significant speed. I say ideal because I got word Thursday that the boys in Kerry CoCo decided to resurface the section leaving us with an unbrushed surface of loose stone chippings. Brilliant* (*not the actual words used in the course of that phone call). So what to do but tell everyone to use caution going through the section before letting the foot on the gas again after that and man was caution required. For good stretches you were able to coast on the relative safety of the wheel tracks where cars had cleared much of the b.b.-like-gravel away but in other parts these safe harbors simply disappeared leaving us back on the gravel, requiring careful braking, steering and shifing of balance to keep from a fall and ending greasy side up.

The rest of the run in was nice and fast; lots of rolling road that still managed to make work out of itself more than looking at it would suggest to Inch and on through to Keel. The Chain Gang led things out from the Keel waterstop running fast into and through Castlemaine and heading for the Castlemaine climb. I was up near the front as we started and the speed was high, higher than I'd normally go but I said 'meh, hold this now and you're flying for the run home' and no sooner had the thought passed my mind than a race broke out. I'd was like a shot had gone off, and my comparative lack of training for the year became crushingly evident very quickly as the group passed into the distance. Still I stuck in with a few more and tempo'd it up the rest of the way and made the burst for home then from the top.

There's other details I've left out - the confusion by some caused by the dead road out of Lispole (queue people looking down trying to figure had something gone awry with their grears) , the woman doing Tai Chi in her front garden outside Inch who couldn't be tricked into waiving back etc.

All said now that we've all the cleaning up done, the bike and bod washed and a bit of post cycle discussion had. We're really pleased with how things went and we hope all the participants did too - despite the importance of the the organisation and critical role of good support in an event it's the people that take part that give the thing it's atmosphere and I though we had a great one today. So thanks to those who took part, I hope you enjoyed the day and that we'll see you again next year for the Conor Pass Challenge (and possibly more.... we've plans afoot!)

CheGuedara

Oh and afarrel we have the shoes - I'll PM you and we'll figure out about getting em back to you

dedon

Can I just say a big thank you to the Chain Gang and all the helpers for a great day out on Saturday. The weather looked bad at the start but quickly cleared up and it was lovely and clear and sunny going over the pass.

The food was great and plenty for everyone and the Stewards were very good and plenty of words of encouragement. I didn't have my best day on the bike as I hadn't been out for a few weeks and 2 weeks of beer holiday didn't help but the well organised day was a big help.

Role on next year!!!

Well Done!!