Cycle Racing Returns to Dublin City Centre

abcdggs

I'm surprised no-one has suggested boards beers during the race at a suitable vantage point.

buffalo

The Porterhouse has that large circular, corner window on the first floor, or Peadar Kearney's on Dame Street opens up at the front.

barrabus

thomas reads has nicer beer...

eltoro1

Finally a cycle race in down town Dublin that I'm able to attend as a spectator. Will definitely bring on the camera for some action packed shots!

Thinking about making a photo article about irish cycling for a danish website, but haven't really been able to attend any other races (except the Cycle Cross Championships).
But this could make some great photos summing up the dublin atmosphere combined with the love for cycling!

Any good spots for photography along the route?

Check this for a view of my pics of danish cycling races - and a bad crash for Chris Hoy at the Track Cycling World Cup last year:
http://thorerk.dk/english/photos/photos/sport.html

km991148

barrabus wrote: »

Where is the best pub / vantage point of the circuit?


Where are others watching it from?

yeah - trying to work out best outdoor seating/corner-hill-cobble danger zone/beer ratio..

Anything on fishamble st?

DCC_Cycling (Ciaran)

Yes KM, I think it's got to be Fishamble Street

Slideshowbob

I will be on Fishamble St

niceonetom

Slideshowbob wrote: »

I will be on Fishamble St

It's none of our business where you'll be! Right?

Careful bob, your oh-so-precious anonymity is slipping.

Slideshowbob

niceonetom wrote: »

It's none of our business where you'll be! Right?

Careful bob, your oh-so-precious anonymity is slipping.

I will be in fancy dress so u wont recognise me

any news from race in Belfast tnite?

RobFowl

Slideshowbob wrote: »

I will be in fancy dress so u wont recognise me

any news from race in Belfast tnite?

David O'Loughlin (An Post) wins Belfast round of Irish Tour Series. about 2 hours ago via mobile web

c/o Ger Cromwell

buffalo

DCC_Cycling (Ciaran) wrote: »

I hear that Dan Martin will be racing on Saturday.

Just been down on Eustace Street. The lads assure me everything is under control....

They've covered the patch with smooth tarmac, it'll be a nice .1 second break from the cobbles.

Slideshowbob

Belfast Crit photos:

http://www.cyclingulster.com/?thenewsid=4168&newstable=news

http://www.irishcyclingphotos.com/crits/belfast/

Diarmuid

Did someone say Dan Martin is riding tonight? I was just coming down Cruach and met two riders heading up. One was in full garmin gear and had the anorexic look of a pro. Maybe it was just my imagination but I though it was him

barrabus

Where are people meeting ?

I am meeting emty around lord edward at 4 to cheer on the ladies...

zzzzzzzz

Diarmuid wrote: »

Did someone say Dan Martin is riding tonight? I was just coming down Cruach and met two riders heading up. One was in full garmin gear and had the anorexic look of a pro. Maybe it was just my imagination but I though it was him

Yeah - I was just out that direction and Dan and Neil Martin passed us by.

Harrybelafonte

My six year old wants to go in and watch this. Any point in bringing a child that small in?

buffalo

Harrybelafonte wrote: »

My six year old wants to go in and watch this. Any point in bringing a child that small in?

Bring him (or her), stick him/her on your shoulders. If they don't enjoy it, head to Merrion Square for the Street Performance Championship.

Harrybelafonte

buffalo wrote: »

Bring him (or her), stick him/her on your shoulders. If they don't enjoy it, head to Merrion Square for the Street Performance Championship.

Good call on Merrion Square, this one's a bit fidgety for shoulders

velo.2010

SPOILER ALERT
IF YOU DONT WANT TO KNOW WHO WON LOOK AWAY NOW!

Popped into town this evening to watch the race. Turned up just as they were heading out. Had to suffer near deaf-inducing screams from the main commentator and his heavy-techno soundtrack blasting out on the speakers.

Anyway it was worth it. For anyone who might not be into standing around watching races you would not have kept your eyes off this race. It exploded from the word go as many riders were probably wary of the tight corners and cobbles round the back of Templebar. It was the Irish guys (Irish teams) who set out to make it fast.

However it was all about one man. All 62kgs and 180cm of him. Dan Martin left the rest of them for dead. It was as early as the 3rd lap and he was gone. The commentators kept profusing that this was a bid bound to fail as no-one could keep this up for an hour. Every lap he seemed to put more time into the chasing groups. Young Lavery was initially involved at the head of the following group along a number of An Post riders, though in the end it was O'loughlin leading his team-mates in a fruitless attempt to hunt down Martin.

It was hard to believe what we were watching, even non-cycling folk were becoming aware of the feat evolving in front of them. Important to remember that this was a professional cyclist who has competed at the highest level. Still to see a guy that skinny producing that power was incredible. He had some decent Irish pro's and semi-pro's not to mention a good number of the UK teams well used to street racing. And even when dropping a chain within the last fifteen minutes of racing he still managed not only to limit his loses to a few seconds but by the end he had widened the gap to bigger than anything he had during the race.

He got a great cheer by the warm crowds and the other guys were equally applauded for their huge efforts. Credit too to the An Post riders who worked well when joining up together. It was a fierce pace all evening and you could see it in every face that pulled up at the end. Seemed like a great success and validated the growing Irish interest in all forms of competitive cycling.

I wonder if any of the lads were allowed pop into any of the bars for a quick pint after the race. For Dan Martin maybe not, but he certaintly deserves a drink or two after that performance!

ED E

Completely forgot, who got some video lads?

Doctor Bob

I'm just in the door after a very pleasant day out. I got pics and some video, but I don't know what the quality is like- the sunlight was very strong where I was standing, just up from City Hall beside the podium. Once copied and filtered there might be something worth throwing up here.

I'd echo velo.2010's post re the event, and the winner in particular. I'm pretty ignorant when it comes to racing, but there was no doubting the quality of DM's ride- an astonishing thing to witness.

Congrats to him and all participants, and hats off to all involved in organising it. Great to see the Saturday city streets being used for something other than cars going shopping.

Now to see if I can find Setanta in the televisual multiverse- if only to make sure that I wasn't caught on camera checking out that young lady's arse! :P

TinyExplosions

Some pictures on my flickr here, including GodIHateTheHills, LDB, Caroline_IE, Mr Skeffington, Ryan Sherlock, Niceonetom, Nietchezian (sp?) and prolly a couple others...

Great ladies race, and phenomenal performance by Dan Martin in the main event... fingers crossed it becomes a yearly event

Harrybelafonte

Agree with all the above, just to add that this is exactly the kind of stuff to get people into bike racing. My son gladly watched the full thing and screamed DMs name everytime he passed, and wanted to have his photo taken with the An Post team after. The big orange fingers helped

Re the loud techno music, added to the whole thing for junior, he wouldn't stop dancing.

buffalo

Great evening altogether. Really sorry I missed the women's race, but poetically, I had to take some kids cycling at the time.

My photos are here.

Diarmuid

buffalo wrote: »

Great evening altogether. Really sorry I missed the women's race, but poetically, I had to take some kids cycling at the time.

My photos are here.

I think you were standing beside me for a while, I will upload my photos later but I brought the wrong lens, 17-70 was not the ideal one!

levitronix

Bike racing and drinking sessions seem to go hand in hand, who would of ever thought

Diarmuid

I got lazy about editing the pics so I uploaded a bunch here. Plenty of Ryan/Mr Skeff/Philip Lavery/Dan Martin from the corner onto Dame st. The lad in the Raleigh gear with his tongue out and head rolling was great entertainment Mr Skeff looked very strong especially later in the race...

Hearvee

Almost missed the women's race completely because a steward I'd asked earlier told me it was starting at 16:30...
Men's race was superb though, Dan Martin obviously a class apart even without a team, but great to see An Post giving it everything to try and catch him.

Took loads of shots, a couple of favourites here with more in the sig below.

monument

More photographs here: http://dublinobserver.com/2010/06/images-halfords-tour-series-dublin/

uberwolf

savage performance from Dan Martin. Stunning to watch. We briefly thought he was being reeled in as the gap reduced from 18 seconds to 15 seconds with about ten minutes racing to go. That promptly went out to 18 and then 22.

Most noticable where we were was the slightly different angle of attack into a corner, which enabled him pedal through it where every chaser slowed though it. Class in action.

Missed Mr Skeff until he waved at me at the end - didn't realise he was riding which was a shame because it would have added some interest for me.

Beer, sun, cycling. Excellent. More please.