mullingar 2day

jimbo28

many goin to do the A4? i hear stage 3 is a fairly hilly one......anybody know how hilly it is?

pbull69

Stage 3 will hurt big time!!!!! Apparently it blew national champs apart in years gone by.

Flankerb

Here is some of the routes the first lap I think is the last stage.
The second lap is the first stage.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/39082617

pbull69

Stage 1

http://www.mapmyride.com/ride/ireland/-mullingar/813126892258615134


Stage 2

http://www.mapmyride.com/ride/ireland/mullingar/177126892403125943

Stage 3

http://www.mapmyride.com/ride/ireland/-mullingar/815126892349781763

Diarmuid

Signed up but dreading tomorrow, thanks to the rain.

Slideshowbob

Is Michelin racing?????

King Kelly

Any results available online?

Appears to have been several crashes and some riders, including from our own club, taken to hospital. Anyone up at the race?

ThisRegard

Passed by it just as it came to Mullingar, horrible rain at the time and some very miserable looking stragglers strung out behind the main group.

giannip

pbull69 wrote: »

Stage 3 will hurt big time!!!!! Apparently it blew national champs apart in years gone by.

The Sat course was harder than Sunday.

Lots of downhill on the Sun course.

Sat hill broke up the bunch more than Sunday.

DirkVoodoo

Diarmuid grabbed 6th on stage 3 according to the Orwell tweets. Chapeau!

Diarmuid

Yeah decent race. Saturday was miserable. Heavy downpours. Sat in the bunch for most of the race and put the hammer down in the last few kms. Was on the 3rd wheel with 500m (up hill) to go. Was dying badly and wasn't going to make a place so I sat up. Bad mistake. There was a gap of a few bike lengths so I got the time of the second bunch (+ 7 secs). Got the 8th fastest time in the TT which put me in 12th place in the GC and finished 6th on the last stage. Killed myself on the climb on all 3 laps in the hope of breaking it up but to no avail. There was a flat bit half way up which allowed for recovery so the bunch stayed together. The UCD guys defended yellow very well

Don't know where I finished overall but judging by the times starting stage 3 I was surprised I didn't get top 10. In any case still pissed at my mistake in stage 1.

Lumen

So they did time-based GC?

Diarmuid

Lumen wrote: »

So they did time-based GC?

yep. It was pretty much decided by the TT. Fastest was 8:07(I think), the UCD lad, Ian. A TT demon. I did an 8:37. I lost 7 seconds on the first stage and probably gained 3 or 4 on the last.

Lumen

Diarmuid wrote: »

yep. It was pretty much decided by the TT. Fastest was 8:07(I think), the UCD lad, Ian. A TT demon. I did an 8:37. I lost 7 seconds on the first stage and probably gained 3 or 4 on the last.

Ah yes, Ian the triathlete. He's not slow.

fondriest

As Diarmuid say the race was decided by the tt , on the other stages the racing was very negative with any attempt to go for a solo effort being chased down straight away only for the bunch to sit up and do nothing after the catch. Usual a4 stuff really. Should'nt say too much about it really because i hid for most of the weekend.

Diarmuid

Full results now up. They managed to forget me in the GC! I mailed the race director, who is looking into it.

blorg

Diarmuid wrote: »

yep. It was pretty much decided by the TT. Fastest was 8:07(I think), the UCD lad, Ian. A TT demon. I did an 8:37. I lost 7 seconds on the first stage and probably gained 3 or 4 on the last.

Ian won the TT but then had the same time as the winner losing the 8 seconds on the last stage. They say they look back at the TT and the winner is the guy with the better TT- but Ian had the better TT (8:07.4 vs 8:15.4!) Do they mean they were able to go down to hundreths of a second on the TT and Keith had like 8:15.41 while Ian was (say) 8:07.43?

Explosive_Cornflake

blorg wrote: »

Ian won the TT but then had the same time as the winner losing the 8 seconds on the last stage. They say they look back at the TT and the winner is the guy with the better TT- but Ian had the better TT (8:07.4 vs 8:15.4!) Do they mean they were able to go down to hundreths of a second on the TT and Keith had like 8:15.41 while Ian was (say) 8:07.43?

It was decided it was too close to call, So they shared the prize money of first and second spot. A second throphy has been ordered also.

mo_bhicycle

Diarmuid wrote: »

They managed to forget me in the GC!

I wonder is this related to RFID based timing? I noticed a couple more names are missing from the GC.
Have to say I don't think the RFID tags are worth it for racing, I just don't see where the benefit is when compared with the standard camera based approach. It doesn't seem to be any quicker or more accurate.
For sportives I think they're a good idea, but not so much for racing.

blorg

I believe RFID is commonly used in US amateur racing and transponders are certainly used in pro racing. It is also very common in triathlon although I imagine you don't have such big groups coming up to the finish line there as you do in a bike race. I imagine it works fine if implemented correctly.

Camera works fine for single-day racing as you only have to pick out the top 6, 8 or whatever. Having seen sometimes the level of effort involved in working that out having to do it for 180 riders in a stage race does seem like a harder job for organisers.

Lumen

blorg wrote: »

I believe RFID is commonly used in US amateur racing and transponders are certainly used in pro racing. It is also very common in triathlon although I imagine you don't have such big groups coming up to the finish line there as you do in a bike race. I imagine it works fine if implemented correctly.

Hmmm, in triathlon I believe the chip is attached to the ankle of the participant, and triggers as they run into/out of transition. So they're basically tracking pedestrians in single file.

blorg wrote: »

Camera works fine for single-day racing as you only have to pick out the top 6, 8 or whatever. Having seen sometimes the level of effort involved in working that out having to do it for 180 riders in a stage race does seem like a harder job for organisers.

+1, particularly with bunches and in the rain where numbers are obscured. It could take hours.

Explosive_Cornflake

The top 10 results were confirmed by the camera. The RFID was used to to keep a track over the rest of the field. This is what caused a delay in the results to be released. The club wasn't too happy with the chips, and I don't think they'll be making a return.

rosscollins88

blorg wrote: »

Ian won the TT but then had the same time as the winner losing the 8 seconds on the last stage. They say they look back at the TT and the winner is the guy with the better TT- but Ian had the better TT (8:07.4 vs 8:15.4!) Do they mean they were able to go down to hundreths of a second on the TT and Keith had like 8:15.41 while Ian was (say) 8:07.43?

I think the time difference in the last stage was 8.4 secs (think Ian said something like that). Unfortunately for Ian he got a twig stuck in his rear derailleur on the first lap of the last stage and it stayed in place for the whole race. With all that friction it probably cost him the fractions of a second at the stage finish.

Really disappointed with how negative the racing was in the A4 bunch. Tried attacking flat out on the first day and hanging off the front hoping someone would bridge across but no-one tried. In hindsight I probably would have been better rolling around and saving the legs for the TT. Even if I had though, wouldn't have got near Ian's time.

Anyway really enjoyed my first stage race and I thought Lakeside Wheelers did an excellent job in organising it. Chapeau!

mo_bhicycle

Explosive_Cornflake wrote: »

The top 10 results were confirmed by the camera. The RFID was used to to keep a track over the rest of the field. This is what caused a delay in the results to be released. The club wasn't too happy with the chips, and I don't think they'll be making a return.

Thanks for that info EC.
Have to say that overall it was a very well run event and was most enjoyable .... even given the rain on Sat :P

blorg

rosscollins88 wrote: »

I think the time difference in the last stage was 8.4 secs (think Ian said something like that). Unfortunately for Ian he got a twig stuck in his rear derailleur on the first lap of the last stage and it stayed in place for the whole race. With all that friction it probably cost him the fractions of a second at the stage finish.

On the last stage he got the same time as the bunch he was with so unlikely to have been critical; unless you were in a breakaway it is more in the TT when this sort of thing makes a difference.

Lumen

rosscollins88 wrote: »

Really disappointed with how negative the racing was in the A4 bunch. Tried attacking flat out on the first day and hanging off the front hoping someone would bridge across but no-one tried.

This happens a lot. I haven't yet worked out whether the chasing down is a result of planning (e.g. clubs preventing breaks to the benefit of their nominated sprinter) or ineptitude (i.e. a rider at the front responding to shouts from the scrubbers or just not understanding how to jump across without bringing people with him).

rosscollins88

blorg wrote: »

On the last stage he got the same time as the bunch he was with so unlikely to have been critical; unless you were in a breakaway it is more in the TT when this sort of thing makes a difference.

There were a few splits in the bunch. He was only about 2 places behind me at the finish but because of the 1 second gap he lost 5 seconds to me.

rosscollins88

Lumen wrote: »

This happens a lot. I haven't yet worked out whether the chasing down is a result of planning (e.g. clubs preventing breaks to the benefit of their nominated sprinter) or ineptitude (i.e. a rider at the front responding to shouts from the scrubbers or just not understanding how to jump across without bringing people with him).

I think it's mostly the latter. However I don't think most of us A4s can do a really hard acceleration to break from the bunch and then put some sustainable power for a while. It's definitely something I need to work on.