Dublin to Cork Cycle

podgemonster

A group of co-workers are discussing cycling from Dublin down to the real capital possibly during the June Bank Holiday.
I was advised to rent a racer as my mountain bike would have too much effort, is this true?
We are hoping to do this in two days and have the energy to have a good night out in Cork on the second evening!
Was thinking of maybe taking three days instead!

Has anyone done this and what route/stops are the best ones to take!

blorg

I've done it over an evening and the next day Dublin-Cork and in one day the other way. Routes included in those posts. Dublin-Cork is generally harder due to the prevailing wind.

I've also done it over an evening and two days via Wicklow and Waterford. That was a very nice route, over Mount Leinster and then by the coast from Waterford. I included a hospital stay in Waterford in the middle

A road bike with drop bars is a good idea. Will you be carrying all your own stuff? May need panniers or a large saddle bag. Try to keep it as light as possible.

Three days might be a good idea, you could choose a more interesting/challenging route.

What sort of distance do you reckon you will do daily? Are you prepared to cycle up mountains for the scenery- there are some good options if so. You can take a pan flat route but that wouldn't be as interesting.

podgemonster

Probably will tend toward a more scenic route rather than the route taken by car. We were hoping to hug the coastline rather than go up mountains with the possibility of going through Waterford on the way to Cork.

The majority only really cycle 20 mins and back for work but are relativly fit due to other sports and have 2.5 months to prepare. We will pack light, just a small backpack i think.

Never thought of the wind tho..

superrdave

podgemonster wrote: »

Probably will tend toward a more scenic route rather than the route taken by car. We were hoping to hug the coastline rather than go up mountains with the possibility of going through Waterford on the way to Cork.

The majority only really cycle 20 mins and back for work but are relativly fit due to other sports and have 2.5 months to prepare. We will pack light, just a small backpack i think.

Never thought of the wind tho..

Wind is a big consideration. It is the reason people cycle Lands End to John O'Groats (hence LEJOG) and Mizen to Malin rather than the other way around. I would seriously consider revising your options and starting in Cork. Go down on the Friday night, stay over and leave on the Saturday early. Maybe stay in Wexford or New Ross or somewhere like that.

This route could work.

blorg

superrdave wrote: »

This route could work.

That is the general sort of route I took from Dublin when I went via Waterford. I followed the first stage of the Tour of Ireland which included a few climbs and then headed from Waterford to Cork hugging the coast a bit tighter, there are some cycle routes marked out and it is scenic but bumpy. From Dungarvan I went via Lismore as indicated and across through Conna.

rat_race

I am also doing this on the June bank holiday weekend (coming weekend). Likewise, I never considered the winds...Hmm.

I am going to take a route like that link above...

Fatscally

podgemonster wrote: »

A group of co-workers are discussing cycling from Dublin down to the real capital

I did this up the N81 thru Blessington and on yonder. It was a good route. Over night stop in Kilkenny. The non-stop head on wind was a soul making/breaking mofo. Dunno if I had any beans left in me for a good night out. Both shunts 8 hour minimum -Don't forget your sun block.


As for the "real Capital", maybe if they cut that People's republic of cabbage water drinkin fairies off and push it into the south Atlantic might it one day become the capital of some british isle, since it has enough brits there already.:p

a/tel

rat_race wrote: »

I am also doing this on the June bank holiday weekend (coming weekend). Likewise, I never considered the winds...Hmm.

I am going to take a route like that link above...

Im doing Cork to Drogheda over two days early next month, my first cycle over 200km, looking forward to it. Hopefully make it to Portlaoise the first day.

ipodrocker

fairplay u must tell us how u get on!

a/tel

ipodrocker wrote: »

fairplay u must tell us how u get on!

Will do not a bother. Ill bring d camera

podgemonster

Completed our cycle this weekend.

We left UCD at 6.30am and headed for Waterford, reached Arklow for 12.30 pm and after that quick start the pace was lowered and we arrived into our Waterford hotel at 8pm. Did a fair amount of the route on the N11 but had to branch off into little towns because of Motorways. Towns like ferns & New Ross had uphill climbs coming out of them.

The next day after a lie in and a big breakfast we left waterford at 9am and went non stop to Dungarvan in just over 2hours, amazing what sleep can do! The long gradual climb out of Dungarvan was the last real challenge of the day apart from a few very rough hard shoulders. Crossing the Cork border the winds did pick up and was quite disheartening and jus annilated any momentum.

Stuck to the N25 the whole way, sunshine was beautiful and they were many other cyclists on the road. Arrived into Cork for 5pm and decided to opted for cold pints rather than climbing Patrick's hill.

Total distance 317 km.

a/tel

podgemonster wrote: »

Completed our cycle this weekend.

We left UCD at 6.30am and headed for Waterford, reached Arklow for 12.30 pm and after that quick start the pace was lowered and we arrived into our Waterford hotel at 8pm. Did a fair amount of the route on the N11 but had to branch off into little towns because of Motorways. Towns like ferns & New Ross had uphill climbs coming out of them.

The next day after a lie in and a big breakfast we left waterford at 9am and went non stop to Dungarvan in just over 2hours, amazing what sleep can do! The long gradual climb out of Dungarvan was the last real challenge of the day apart from a few very rough hard shoulders. Crossing the Cork border the winds did pick up and was quite disheartening and jus annilated any momentum.

Stuck to the N25 the whole way, sunshine was beautiful and they were many other cyclists on the road. Arrived into Cork for 5pm and decided to opted for cold pints rather than climbing Patrick's hill.

Total distance 317 km.

Well done, fair play, that climb out of Dungarvan is tough!!

rat_race

I did this too over the bank holiday weekend, all went according to plan!

Wicklow -> Waterford (5th June):
http://www.mapmyride.com/ride/ireland/wicklow-to-waterford/191127592664312016

Waterford -> Cormac (6th June):
http://www.mapmyride.com/ride/ireland/waterford-to-cork/605127592675122717

I back-roaded a lot. Yup, the winds were annoying but not too bad...lovely weather, was very lucky.

souter

Had a vague plan to cycle Dublin to Youghal next month, then back the following week. According to bikeroutetoaster it is 250km. I managed the w200 in 10.5 hours so figured 250km must be doable if I get up early enough.
But did a hilly 130km yesterday in 6.5 hours and was shattered (too many world cup scoops my excuse), then checked out this thread and pretty much everyone was doing Dublin Cork in 2 days, even the mighty blorg evinced some trepidation about the route.

Should I knock it on the head now?

blorg

You can do Dublin to Youghal in much less than 250km. Youghal is a fair bit closer than Cork, it is just over the county border. While that route would not be hill-free it would be substantially less hilly than the Wicklow 200. Key is not carrying too much stuff on the bike. There is a customs post on the bridge over the Blackwater where you can complete formalities, change money etc. Despite being just the other side of the Blackwater Youghal displays little of the typical border town mentality and is thoroughly Cork; very few people speak English.

Hermy

blorg wrote: »

There is a customs post on the bridge over the Blackwater where you can complete formalities, change money etc.

So much for the Lisbon Treaty!

thebouldwhacker

While I will not rise to your anti cork rhetoric I will suggest you get a copy of this... you should get outa the pale more often

souter

blorg wrote: »

You can do Dublin to Youghal in much less than 250km. Youghal is a fair bit closer than Cork, it is just over the county border. While that route would not be hill-free it would be substantially less hilly than the Wicklow 200. Key is not carrying too much stuff on the bike. There is a customs post on the bridge over the Blackwater where you can complete formalities, change money etc. Despite being just the other side of the Blackwater Youghal displays little of the typical border town mentality and is thoroughly Cork; very few people speak English.

Cheers Blorg. I got 245km from getting bikeroutetoaster to plot, it came up with a coastal route. Is that N9 route not mainly motorway now?

blorg

souter wrote: »

Cheers Blorg. I got 245km from getting bikeroutetoaster to plot, it came up with a coastal route. Is that N9 route not mainly motorway now?

You can certainly go shorter; you can get Dublin all the way to Cork with a 255km route entirely on small roads and Youghal is substantially closer. I'm not necessarily endorsing that route in particular, just as an example. There is another N78 route suggested, that road is also fine if uninspiring, not as busy as the single digit N roads.

The M9 is a new road built beside the N9 so most of what is N9 on that map is now a R road. It was a small but very busy two lane road as the N9, certainly not the sort of thing that could be redesignated as a motorway. I haven't cycled on it but I have extensively on the old N8 and my general experience is that where there is a new motorway the old N road is quiet but of a high quality.

AFAIK from Openstreetmap on the "N9" route you might be on the current N9 for 10km after the end of the M9 Carlow bypass around Leighlinbridge as far as Paulstown. You could avoid this if you wanted by taking a back road from just before the end of the bypass through Bagenalstown or indeed probably even better on the eastern side through "Old Leighlin." I'd suggest you do, IIRC I was on this bit of the N9 for only a few km heading down to Waterford a few years ago but it was nasty and Raam was almost flattened by a truck.

From Paulstown what is showing as the N9 in Google seems to have been redesignated already as the R448 to Thomastown; I presume most of the Waterford traffic continues on the N10 through the Kilkenny ring road so it can continue on the motorway south of Kilkenny and that this is now a quiet road.

a/tel

blorg wrote: »

You can do Dublin to Youghal in much less than 250km. Youghal is a fair bit closer than Cork, it is just over the county border. While that route would not be hill-free it would be substantially less hilly than the Wicklow 200. Key is not carrying too much stuff on the bike. There is a customs post on the bridge over the Blackwater where you can complete formalities, change money etc. Despite being just the other side of the Blackwater Youghal displays little of the typical border town mentality and is thoroughly Cork; very few people speak English.

Ya strangly enough they speak their native language Gaeilge.........

souter

blorg wrote: »

You can certainly go shorter; you can get Dublin all the way to Cork with a 255km route entirely on small roads and Youghal is substantially closer. I'm not necessarily endorsing that route in particular, just as an example. There is another N78 route suggested, that road is also fine if uninspiring, not as busy as the single digit N roads.

The M9 is a new road built beside the N9 so most of what is N9 on that map is now a R road. It was a small but very busy two lane road as the N9, certainly not the sort of thing that could be redesignated as a motorway. I haven't cycled on it but I have extensively on the old N8 and my general experience is that where there is a new motorway the old N road is quiet but of a high quality.

AFAIK from Openstreetmap on the "N9" route you might be on the current N9 for 10km after the end of the M9 Carlow bypass around Leighlinbridge as far as Paulstown. You could avoid this if you wanted by taking a back road from just before the end of the bypass through Bagenalstown or indeed probably even better on the eastern side through "Old Leighlin." I'd suggest you do, IIRC I was on this bit of the N9 for only a few km heading down to Waterford a few years ago but it was nasty and Raam was almost flattened by a truck.

From Paulstown what is showing as the N9 in Google seems to have been redesignated already as the R448 to Thomastown; I presume most of the Waterford traffic continues on the N10 through the Kilkenny ring road so it can continue on the motorway south of Kilkenny and that this is now a quiet road.

Cheers Blorg, that looks a good route. I was getting confused with the new M8 motorway section (haven't been down to see the inlaws for quite a while).
Regarding your earlier suggestion to travel light, that's the plan - my support car (wife and kids) will be hauling all the gear, including a bikerack if I chicken out of the return. I won't do it if the weather is bad so will be travelling with bare minimum.

Milan Cobian

From Paulstown to Thomastown on the N9 (or whatever it's called now) is very quiet now as the bulk of the traffic seems to be heading into Kilkenny and onto the new motorway.
In fact, from Naas south on the old N9 is a pleasant cycle, the road is quiet and for the most part quite wide. It's in very good condition too, I guess the motorway bypass is new enough so it hasn't fallen into disrepair yet! The only busy part is from the end of the Carlow bypass to Paulstown and you can avoid some of that by going through Leighlinbridge.

souter

Saturday, 236km, 25.1 avg (sort of), 11 hours door to door following Blorgs routes. While I know this would count as a minor spin for a significant number of boardsies, it was e my best achievement to date.
Forecast for the day was 10k westerly wind and scattered showers. About as good as it was going to get so got ready to put the new boards kit through it's paces. Slept in a bit but figured getting plenty of porridge and bananas down me was more important than rushing out the door so left the house at 8.
The first section was surprisingly tough - drizzly weather and it seemed to take forever to get beyond Blessington. Nearly 2 hours down and I wasn't even out the backyard.

Turning off at Hollywood I started to perk up - in virgin territory and the weather started improving. In good spirits to Carlow, got there on schedule and able to reassure the support team. Because of my later than planned start this was my last chance to arrange a pick up from the broomwagon, but I was feeling reasonable apart from a twingy knee, so quick refuel and back on the road.
Managed to get a couple tows from tractors (top tip from Blorg) for a combination of nearly 10k, which was nice. Distinct lack of other cyclists so just had to get the head down.
By now my twingy knee annoyance was joined by a squeaky chain. Made a couple of stops to adjust the derailleur but only succeeded in changing the relative squeakiness of the various gears.
Still no sign of other cyclists - they could obviously hear my squeaking for a couple of miles and were avoiding me.
Coming in to Callan on the way to Carrick and spotted a couple cyclists, but they were wearing numbers and turned off just I got them - still no joy for my wheel sucking vampire plan.
A bit further on and a big group were stopped at an organised refreshment stop so I barged in and pleaded for someone to look at my gears. A quick inspection, "you need to grease your chain". Oh. The shame. I hadn't cleaned my bike since the previous weekend so I got out for there as quick as I could.
Just round the corner there were some signs "KOM start". Hmm, could this be related to some cycling event I mused? Then it dawned, KOM = King of the Mountains. Crap.
Stuck her in the lowest gear and gritted my teeth. But not particularly tough or long, those Tipperary guys don't know proper climbing I mused.
Then started getting overtaken by a succession of marshals on cars and bikes. Double crap, I'd unwittingly gatecrashed some event. Well I wasn't for backtracking at this stage so just kept at it, expecting to be swept aside at any minute.
But got to the top before this happened and saw what I presumed was another gatecrashing cyclist there as well. Was thinking of giving an ironic victory salute till I spotted said cyclist was none other than a stern looking Sean Kelly glaring at me.
Played dumb and give him an anonymous cyclist nod and grunt with my best Scottish accent - please forgive an ignorant tourist I tried to convey.
Now had the descent, could I get off it before the race caught me? There were already crowds gathering at corners but apart from some very small children no-one was fooled that this squeaky bike amateur had any connection with the race.
Thankfully got to the turn off the main road to Carrick before the proper race and was able to disappear into hopeful anonymonity despite a garda trying to shepherd me back into the race route.
Stopped in Carrick to scrounge some oil from a bike shop which helped a bit, but the squeaking was still there. Like something from Edgar Allen Poe, there was a persistent refrain of "you didn't clean us, you didn't clean us".
Carrick to Dungarvan was nice, a bit more climbing than I'd anticipated. Up to Dungarvan my average had stayed just over 25, in Dungarvan it dropped just below so decided to up the pace a bit and see if I could complete a personal best and do a spin at over 22 avg for once.
However, Dungarvan to Youghal was very tough. Who put all those mountains there? Why did the wind decide to become a full blown head wind just as reserves were nearly exhausted? Why does my knee hurt so much?
A couple times I was tempted to just crawl the rest of the way there, but with the avg hovering more or less exactly at 25.0 I knew the last few k into Youghal would be with a tailwind so I kept at it. A few friendly beeps from cars with bikes on the back helped (or maybe they were "you debased our race you buffoon" beeps, hard to tell).
Decided to take the average as soon as got into Youghal rather than when I found our holiday home. Success! Totally shagged but 25.1 avg. Now just to find the hotel.
This added another 12k and 40 minutes of increasingly irrational and self-pitying phone calls before I stumbled into the house.
The crowd were waiting outside, but instead of champagne and podium girls it was "What kept you?" and "Daddy, can you fix our scooter?",
Knee was very sore the next day, bought a walking stick, but managing without it today. Everything else in reasonable shape.
So if the knee continues to improve, and I can get hold of some degreaser and lube, I'll be up for the return on Saturday, hopefully with serious tailwinds.

samanthkim7

Hi!
Myself and a few friends are doing a cycle to Cork in August for charity. We are not cyclist but we've all bought racers for the event. We plan on doing it over three days and would like a scenic, easy route. Any Suggestions?