'Another 200'

Cadex

Rottenhat quietly arranged another 200 for today (Saturday 27/02/2010), this time heading north.

Well 3 souls (Rottenhat, Empty and Andreas ?) met up at in town and I joined them Phibsboro, heading up on a tour of the north before heading back around by Kildare and back to Dublin. It included Glasnevin, Finglas, St. Margarets, Oldtown, Carrickmacross, Kells, Athboy then back into Dublin via Celbridge, Lucan, Phoenix Park, where we went our separate ways. Blorg - the terribly late - joined us in Athboy, but then showed his 'hard' credentials by arriving on a 'fixie' - dear God! I'm sorry, I believe in evolution and gears are part of that in my book. Anyway, the day went very well with a few really nice bits and the weather wasn't too bad. We did get a bit wet though and I managed to carry a goodly amount of the mud in Meath back with me from road-spray. We'd one puncture but other than that no problems. Was very glad to reach home in the end. Of course, bath and beer followed - lovely! Nice to discover Ireland won the rugby too! Well done lads and great to meet up again - it's been a while. Big thanks to Rottenhat for organising.
Stats (for me):

Distance: 209.1k, Max: 62.1km/h, Ave: 25.2km/h, Cycle Time:8:17:13, Elapsed 08:00 - - 18:00

mvt

Yeah,another nice day on the bike.Great to see Cadex and all his various "bulges".The man is a bit of a energiser bunny.
Route was real nice,apart from a horrible stretch from Celbridge to Lucan.
Oh yes,and all of Meath .Apart from that there was plenty to look at.Thanks to the usual suspects for coming up with the route.

Cadex

Ah 'the battle of the bulge' still being fought now 66 years later.....

More pics:

niceonetom

Fair play lads, the milage you guys are cranking out these days is impressive, and it's at a decent enough pace too. You'll be savages by the time the long days arrive I've no doubt.

blorg

204km for me in 7h36m, longest I have gone yet on a fixed gear. Rolling courses like this are fine on a fixie, the climb into Kingscourt (which was extended and topped 10%) and the short sharp hill at the end up from the Angler's Rest were the only bits that really stuck out.

We passed through Counties Dublin, Meath, Louth, Cavan, and Kildare. We were quite close to the borders with Monaghan and Westmeath; I think it would be interesting to turn the route into a seven-county tour. The going out to Celbridge bit is unnecessary and unpleasantly suburban and can be removed for the future; the cyclocross course around Summerhill is however essential and must remain!



Route (my route, the others went a slightly different way out)

Cadex

@MVT - Are you going to stick up the pics you took?

@Blorg - ta for the extra pics and route map. It was as much as I could do to get a couple of the 'views' and chase after the lads. When I was on my own heading to New Ross, it was easier to stop for that kind of thing (and it gave me a break!). As it was, I probably did drive the lads a bit mad the couple of times I stopped......

sy

Just checking to see which of you hit the dirt in Kells? Was passing the junction (in car)on my way to son's soccer match when I spotted the Boards jersey picking itself up from the ground (smiling ) Looked liked emty? Sorry I couldn't stop as traffic was very heavy at the time and once I saw the smile then I reckoned all was ok. Nice trip lads and serious miles for this time of year. They are my cycling roads and blorg, you did well to grind your way up that hill in Kingscourt on your fixie. What gearing is it? For future trips you should head from Kingscourt to Baileboro as there is a nice drag across at Muff. Well done to all.

Cadex

Hi Sy, eh yes can confirm that one of us fell and was OK thankfully. Clip problem, when stopped to check on the others. Tough guy though (natch), got up smiling. Great day.

Some of Empty's pics below:

dexty

can i ask ye what ye bring for 'fuel' for your long 200K trips? when do u start eating/drinking, or do you just shop along the way?
cheers,
D

blorg

Personally I bought a few boxes of Clif Bars cheap that have a best by end of March so I have been on them. They are high in calories in a compact package. On this ride I brought four, ate two, had an apple pastry at 65km and a sandwich, crisps and chocolate biscuit cake at around 140km. Muffin towards the end but only as there was a puncture, I would have been OK without it. To be honest that isn't a lot, you may need to eat more. The Wicklow one last week was similar, maybe even a bit less for lunch, just a sandwich. Ate more Clif Bars on that one. You can get used to these things. There are plenty of towns so you don't need to go crazy carrying everything but I always come home with food left in my pockets, better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it.

Cadex

Hi Dexty, I have a special diet (gluten-free) which mostly means I can't just buy a roll or bun somewhere. As a result, I usually bring some of my own sambos which I would have at 'proper' stops on the route. In this case, we stopped about the 70k mark at a Centra and where the lads bought rolls to go with a cuppa, I just bought the cuppa and had 2 of my sambos. We did this again about 140k and I finished my sambos. In between, I had I think 2 cereal bars. As these were gluten-free, they would often not be the ones available in bike shops (most of them include e.g. Oats), though health food shops or Tesco e.g. often stock ones similar to the mainstream products. I brought two bananas but only ate one. Apart from that, I had one jelly 'shot' from high-5 and my drinks - one bottle water one bottle high-5 which has carbohydrates, salts, glucose etc. I find I need to wash down the energy drinks with plain water as they can be a bit sticky. It's all very 'doable' even with a dietary restriction. I recently bought one of those 'triathlon-targeted' cross-bar bags (e.g. http://www.jejamescycles.co.uk/topeak-tri-bag-w-mesh-cover-id34888.html ) which allows easy acces to some bars, my phone/ camera etc. for long spins. Like Blorg, I ended up with a bar or two left over which was grand as I would have needed them if the weather was worse.

rottenhat

I brought 2 bananas, 2 bars and a couple of ham sandwiches with me, all of which I ate, and I had a breakfast roll at Collon as well, but I probably should have eaten more - you tend not to feel like eating as much as you actually need to. Generally the advice is to start eating after you've been on the bike for an hour, and to eat small amounts often. I'll always bring food with me, but would expect to supplement that with stops in shops and cafes.