Team Boards.ie/Wheelworxs Race Around Ireland from September 14 2010

Caroline_ie

aw thanks RAAM -

I was in the car with Janos during that 4am raining and windy shift and I was terrified.
I think Janos ( Bananapants/ Tutschel on boards ) is the Stig

Vélo

This was absolutely amazing. The commitment shown by all was top notch. I had great fun following your progress and genuinely found it more exciting than any other race.

Well done to all involved and I suppose you'll have to do it next year as Lumen will be itching to do it.


I nearly forgot......you're all stone mad!!!!

Lusk Doyle

Nice work bro! Good write up on the great crew!

aidandoyle

Raam wrote: »

Jeff


How does one start to organise the logistics behind competing in the Race Around Ireland? Ask a great mate to do it, that's how. Actually, I never even asked Jeff to be a part of the team. He just told me that he is taking charge. When I saw the amount of things which needed to be coordinated, printed, checked, double-checked, collected, organised... I was more than happy to have him in charge. It really is great to be able to bang an email out to the void of the internet asking some god-forsaken question about how are we going to deal with making sure that rider X will have A, B and C for his shift after mile 945 on local road 1234. Well that's what Jeff was good at, taking questions from all angles, at all times and answering each one with the consideration that a great team leader can. On the road, it was the same. Questions would come in from all crew and riders. Each with their own angle and dynamic. How Jeff managed not to snap at people is beyond me. With people constantly looking for something, he kept a super level head and dealt with everyone in a good manner.

I did my unintentional best to annoy him though. At Sneem, I was waiting on the roadside for him and the riders on the road to arrive. I was very anxious to get riding, more so than at any other point in the race. I'm not sure why I was so anxious. But when he arrived, he pulled off the side of the road, as the rules required, but I roared "WHERE ARE YOU GOING?". Our orange safety light had to be swapped over. I, of course, had no appreciation of this and reminded them to "HURRY THE HELL UP!" Then, when I heard him talking about something else with the new crew, I screamed "STOP CHATTING AND GET A MOVE ON!" He would have been well within his rights to thump me one, and I'm sure he wanted to, but no, I was simply told "we have to do this, because they are the rules." For some reason, that appeased me enough to get me to shut up. I could not have asked for a better team leader. Jeff felt that he owed me that favour because I crewed twice for him at the West Highland Way ultra-marathon, I think I am now the one who owes a massive favour to Jeff.

Caroline


Acting as mummy for 4 cranky, tired and hungry riders cannot be an easy task, yet Caroline did it with a grace and good nature that impressed me immensely. Prior to the event, Caroline had managed to secure a fantastic amount of sponsorship and coverage. It was incredibly impressive to see how much drive and effort she put in before the event. That same level of commitment was evident throughout the actual race itself. She drove long miles in the camper van, putting up with riders complaining about the bumpy Irish roads. She navigated in the follow car, offering cheery advice over the radio, which was very much appreciated. Caroline also kept the riders topped up with sandwiches and recovery foods post shift and kept the follow car stocked with a selection of tasty rolls. It's just great to be able to get off the bike, give it to one person and not have to worry about it. Then get in the camper van and be handed a sandwich and a drink without having to ask for it. Even if we did ask for something, we got it in due course. Quality.

Even with all the race tasks, Caroline managed to juggle her PR tasks at the same time. Our bikes and vehicles all got the sticker treatment, which I think looked brilliant! Our Facebook and Twitter were kept updated, and I have just finished browsing all the fantastic photos which she put on our site. It should be pointed out, that Caroline masterminded the Twitter, Facebook, Youtube vids, our own webpage, the stickers, the car magnets, the PR, the sponsorship, the food supplies. How much can one person actually do? A hell of a lot it would seem. I'm sure I left out something, but that's only because she did so bloody much.

Mike


After the race finish, my dad was talking about the crew members. He couldn't remember Mike's name, so he called him the good looking fella. Well, apart from a dashing smile and great hair, Mike came to the team armed with the mechanical skills to look after our bikes. I really want to thank Mike for looking after my bike and keeping it functioning perfectly. I'd also like to apologise for swearing at him when we took a couple of wrong turns. However, Mike upped his game with the nav and had it nailed from then on. I was in the car a lot with Mike and he always had it spot on. He had a brief low point in Sligo where he got sick, but massive credit to him, he didn't complain or make a noise about it. He kept it quiet and dealt with it, not wanting to load undue stress on the rest of the team. It also meant that he missed out on the pizza and curry chips. Your loss was my gain!

I don't think I heard Mike complain once about anything, even with riders dishing out orders and making pointed demands for this, that and the other, Mike was always happy to oblige and do whatever needed to be done. I think Mike mostly enjoyed driving Jeff's Alfa, because he spent a serious amount of time behind the wheel of that car! Jeff, if you are reading, change your car keys.

Mike, I owe you big time.

Janos


Janos the driver. Janos the descender. Janos, what are you doing on top of the Swords car?! I had met Janos a few times before on cycles. I knew he was a demon on descents on the bike, so he was well suited to drive down narrow country roads at night time following a rider who was taking risks on the corners (Aidan Doyle, I'm talking about you mostly). I really admired his calm, cool style. Never getting bothered or stressed, he oozed a massive amount of confidence which I found both inspiring and very settling. Janos joined us in Navan on the Tuesday, having just flown back from the USA the day before. With this jet lag, he then put in long hours in the follow car with minimal sleep and then on the Sunday after we finished he was off mountain bike racing. I don't know how he did it.

Janos, like Eamonn didn't really know many of the other team members, so to fit in as perfectly and as easily as he did is a real testament to how great a team member he was. I'd like to really thank Janos for his driving on a certain section somewhere after The Giant's Causeway. We were going through a forest and there was debris everywhere, covering the entire road. It was about 4am, it was bucketing down and it was a fast enough, twisty downhill. I'm not the best descender out there, so Janos managed to keep the car close to me so that I could always see where I was going and not run a-foul of any of the hundreds of branches which littered the road. I'm not sure I want to know exactly how close the car was.

John


Mr. Fix-it, Mr. Plan-it, Mr. Schedule-it, Mr. Make-Me-Laugh. Call him what you like, like all of the crew he performed a lot of different roles in the team. I think we would have been lost without John. He solved our light+equipment charging problems and our start line issue with the orange safety light. When we had a problem, and I heard John boiling it down to the root cause and describing the logical steps to take to solve it, I knew we wouldn't have the problem for long. I found that I could trust whatever he came up with because it was always well thought out. John is also a dab hand at sleeping. At one point, I dropped a hairbrush on his face, but he never even stirred. I'm still not sure what I was doing with the hairbrush, because I haven't got a whole lot of it. He worked out schedules for crew members for which car they should drive, who should navigate and when they should rest. He also helped come up with tactics for getting the most out of riders and their respective talents and dealing with their requests and concerns. I have since learned that one of Johns tactics was to tell one sub-team that the other sub-team was completely f*cked, all in attempt to galvanise us and make us step up and take a hit for the team. I think it worked.

When John told us that he couldn't ride the race, due to injury, I was deeply disappointed. Partly because I wondered where the hell we would get another rider from, but also because I knew that he really wanted to do the event and had put in great efforts with his training. We will never know for certain how John would have performed on the road, but if his commitment was anything like what he showed as a crew member, I am confident that he would have ridden himself into the ground for the team.

Eamonn


I met Eamonn for the first time about 5 minutes before we registered on the morning of the event. When he arrived, he was happy and cheery and generally very pleased to be a part of the team. I thought to myself, "that cheeriness won't last long." I was wrong, very wrong. Eamonn proved to be a vital cog in the team, and kept a good humour to the very end. He was always ready to deal with any request from the riders. He won't like me saying this, but I convinced him to give me a leg rub just outside Letterkenny. I know he didn't want to do it, but I had been cramping really badly and was in dire need of some help. Apart from saving my legs, he also saved our bikes from a potential car-park barrier moment. We wanted to do a change over somewhere in the Bluestack Mountains and were looking for a place to pull in. We spotted a lay-by and aimed for it, but Eamonn was alert and prevented a very expensive mistake.

Throughout the whole event he made good tactical choices and was always spot on with decisions over what to do. I know at plenty of points I offered my two cents. Whether I was right or wrong, Eamonn always listened and took on board what I had to say. Usually when I disagreed with what he was doing, his choice actually proved to be better than what I was asking for. That's what you need in a good crew member. Listen to the rider, tell him he is right, then do whatever you had already planned to do!

Towards the very end of the event, on my last shift, I was nearing the end of my turn, which I had expected to be 20km long. I had told Jeff that I wanted to do 15 to 20km. Hoping for 15 but knowing he would choose 20. As soon as we hit the 20km mark, I turned to the follow car and roared, "Where the hell are they? I told them 15k!" Eamonn said the only thing he could say, "They are just around the corner, another 1k or so." I started to moan and then caught myself in the middle of it. These guys had volunteered to follow me around the country, and they had asked for nothing in return. I simply cannot return this great favour by giving out to them. And so, I carried on cycling and rounded the next corner, where I immediately saw the other guys waiting for a changeover. Eamonn had been right, I should have known

RAAM has said it all about the crew. As a group of volunteers go, these folks were absolutely brilliant. They were dedicated, energetic and just plain nice people. Now, I know that in terms of tetchiness, ornerieness (sp?) and moaniness, I can be / am up there with the best of them (just ask RAAM). So imagine me under the RAI conditions!!! Yet, the crew always had a smile, an understanding nod or whatever they thought it took to bring me back to where I needed to be. Thanks to the crew I was able to channel any frustrations I had and take them out on the road / hills / descents. I will always appreciate the work that you all did guys. So a big thank you to (in alphabetic order): Caroline, Eamonn, Janos, Jeff, John and Mike - you are legends and I am deeply indebted to you all. Thank you.

rughdh

That was some achievement folks. You've done us proud. Excellent reports too. Thanks.

Caroline_ie

1st of all I would like to say a Massive thank you to our sponsors Boards.ie and Wheelworx Bike Shop, Topaz, Premier Foods, Orwell DTC and McNally Swords CC. Thanks you for believing in our the team and I hope we made you proud of having invested in us.

Another Massive thanks you goes to the donations and help we got from Boardsies, Beasty, 100Suns, TheTaxMan, ManWithaPlan, LastGasp, Montac, ROK_ON, Aidan_Offbeat, TinyExplosions, Daragh_, Blorg, LDB ... etc

One of the slogan on the RAI document I read before joining was: “This is designed to be one of the most grueling bike races in the World” ... I never really knew how intense the word “gruelling” was, but one thing for sure I will never use it again from now on.

We all met in Navan, Riders and crew to get ready early Tuesday and already we had a few problems to fix: Both RAAM’s helmet were broken, the Safety light wasn’t lighting up, the campervan didn’t have power. So the race for the crew started early by running around shops in Navan to find doublers for 12V, helmets, get under the hood of the car and get everything sorted before 8PM. Thank god for Lumen aka McGuyver.

We had decided Aidan would start the race for the riders as it was his original idea to do it. He left in his Wheelworx kit and his pointy helmet.

The 1st few stages were quite hard. Strong headwinds, rain, more rain, more wind... but the riders kept going.

Malin head was probably the toughest bit for the riders. The speed for all teams reduced signicantly and they had to cycle against Gale force headwind and strong rain.

The Giant Causeway, which I was so excited about ... well, I didn’t see a thing as it was night time when we passed it.

At the time the rain was still really heavy and the roads were covered with leaves and branches and Janos was driving the car. I was petrified. This guy has balls of steel. I think he is the Stig.

Everything is a bit mixed up at the moment to be honest. My next memory was driving the camper van from Sligo to Connemara with Tom and Peter at the back trying to sleep. Narrow and bumpy roads: I think we were around the lakes which I didn’t see because of the night again. At that stage I think I had slept 30 minutes overall since the start.

I also remember being completely fecked on Thursday 1am for the changeover in Clifden. The camper had no petrol left and I’d had not slept since the start. When we all met up for the changeover, it took everyone a long time to get organized. That’s when we realized we had to change the tactics due to lack of sleep. Jeff said to me: Go sleep. So I did.

In the 2 hours or so I was asleep, John took over the camper van and drove 70km to a 24h petrol station in the red ... panicked we would be stuck somewhere on the side f the road ... I was completely oblivious to it, fast asleep.

I remember waiting at a crossroad, in the dark for a changeover, and by the time the boys had come and left again, there was a magnificent view of the Aran Islands. It was amazing.

I only got to follow the riders about 3 or 4 times. I was amazed by their ability to keep going, in the rain, wind. I was trying to joke in the radio, pointing out the points of interest as they were written on the route sheet:

Me: I hope you are enjoying this wonderful view of the Giant Causeway.
Tom: What?
Me: The Giant Causeway on your right, Beautiful isn’t it?
Tom: What???!!!
Me: Just saying the Giant Causeway is on your right, but it’s dark, you can’t see it, I was messin'.
Tom: What? I can’t understand you!!!
Me: We are our way, keep it up you’re doing great.

Also pointing out to RAAM his kit Swords was transparent...

I remember somewhere around Midleton co Cork, Aidan just finished his shift, had just gone up Patrick’s hill and was absolutely fuming. Stormed into the camper van and started swearing all he could in Quebequois ( Aidan spent many years in Quebec and speaks it like a native and still does now at home with his family). I was amused yet feeling quite bad for him. 5 minutes later we were a happy family again :pac:

In regards to eating I made an attempt at cooking pasta once. It doesn’t really take that long, but we didn’t have that time at all. We had to switch to sandwiches and takeout. All the food we had was eaten though, except for the pasta and the potatoes.

ROK_ON met us in Kenmare and gave us 2 roasted chicken, pasta, salad, bread, lucozade etc, I real treat for the riders!!! How they adored that chicken!!!!

The crew had very little time to eat as we were always on the go. In the rare moments of down time, we were able to grab a bite and a coffee. The cakes were good but I think I will be off cakes for the next while.

I am amazed by the crew selflessness and dedication and the riders commitments throughout the event. It wasn’t easy at all. The riders have gained a lifetime immunity from the wimp list.

Thanks to all the tweets and facebook messages. It was a great motivator.

Big hello and thanks to Alan Heary, Lorraine, Emmet, Joe, Amy ( and everyone at base )

Beasty

Caroline_ie wrote: »

The riders have gained a lifetime immunity from the wimp list.

I think we can bestow the same immunity on the crew also.

jeffontour

Here's an attempt at a report but in relation to people as opposed to any chronological order, I'm still confused as to what happened and when! Some people I've more memories of than others as I spent more time with some.

Everyone put in a savage amount of work though and deserves to be proud of their contribution. Obviously only finishing 2nd the riders will need to work harder but that's their motivation for next year.

Aidan:
Tearing through villages at 50 odd kph the 1st night as we followed in the car nearly reaching the speed limits.

Ranting in French re untidiness of the camper.

Getting a bollicking from me after he then threw a chocolate wrapper on the floor of said camper.

Giving out about Tom & Peter’s “science”.

Giving out that he was 36 as if it was some sort of limiting factor.

Managing to brake hard enough not to hit the bunny rabbit on a night descent and subsequently being rewarded with the sight of an owl swooping above him.

Travelling through roundabouts at high speed.

Having a driver attempt to kill him, twice.

Flying up Patricks Hill, ranting at us for not keeping up, then giving us a signal to slow down when approaching traffic.

Taking directions for the next few turns from the car window then confirming them back to us with what could only be described as some sort of Vouge dance routine.

Being in agony every time he got off the bike during the ride to Malin.
Accepting a leg massage from me at the side of the road on way to Malin Head.

Kevin:
Having the heaviest bike of the team, that matters when you’re taking it on & off the car, let alone cycling it as much as he did.

Having to contend with an aul tourist geezer who wanted a race up the Gap of Dungloe.

Being the rider most likely to try both ride and crew the race, take a break dude, it’s our job to carry your ****, accept it!

Being in agony every time he got off the bike during the ride to Malin.

Confiding to us that some illness(lets not get any more graphic) had led him to think he’d have to drop out mid race. I knew there and then he was strong as an ox, it’s ok to think these things to yourself, but to put it out there to the crew and front up as he did said a lot about the guy.

Calmly reacting to the news the noise he’d heard from behind him was the car I was driving 10 feet behind him clipping the kerb after I’d momentarily lost concentration.

Only getting one spin on his Argon, which was short lived. He was wearing overshoes which didn’t match his outfit or bike so probably for the best.

Peter:
Sleeping, at every opportunity presented. Well done that man, he knows how to get through these events.

Matching, the boy always looked impeccably well turned out. I admire it even if I don’t understand it.

Flying up the climb out of Tralee with some of the race officials in awe.

Screaming his head off at me in Sneem as we tried not to forget anything during the rider/crew changeover.

Accepting my explanation of the slight delay at Sneem.

Taking off in the wrong direction at the shift changeover in Cork.

Telling me to drive easy on lots of occasions.

Tom:
Calm, soft spoken. But determined to use the two support cars all the time to allow quick rolling rider exchanges.

Ultimately accepting that we couldn’t use the two support cars with our crew numbers.

Always wondering was Peter out too long for his interval.

Not a happy bunny when made cycle through two dawns in a row.

Jeff:
Going the wrong way at the very start of the race.

Having to change Aidans radio as he was interviewed at the race start, that was a squeaky bum moment!

Picking and eating blackberries whilst waiting for Kevin to return from Malin head.

Having a full and frank with John after we got through the Sneem changeover debacle.

Realising in Clifden that I was going to have to head out for another overnight in the car, yippee!

Being awoken by a call from race control after a 50 minute snooze in the car and not having a clue where I was.

Being regaled by Janos’ stories of his downhill exploits, kept me awake for many an hour.

Drove stubbornly down the middle of a country boreen out of Clifden whilst being beeped, flashed and aggressively driven behind in the dark by some smeghead with no patience. Moral of the story, I will protect our rider, so wait a minute you moron.

Janos:
Unflappable.

Probably the person I spent most time with during the race, thank God we seemed to get on!

He’s six feet two and a half inches tall. He’s very proud of the half.

Drives like he descends, fast.

Sh!t cool.

Mike:
Had a speed wobble around Clifden which saw him flat out for the night. Came back strong like bull for rest of the race.

Got a bollicking from me for being about to head off to brush his teeth at a shift changeover. Sorry Mike!

Seemed to like my car a little too much, will have to start putting a chain on it at night time.

Has lovely hair.

Eamonn:
Late recruit, thank God for the downturn giving people free time!
Like me, thought he’d have time to run, fool!

Had mushy brain syndrome coming into Cork and asked to swap from nav to driving. Driving did not seem any less strenuous on him prompting shouts of closer, protect the rider.

Nearly drove through Tom but Mike & Peter saved the day with their blood curdling girly screams of warning. Ok, it wasn't nearly that dramatic but the way the lads tell it makes it waay dramatic.

John:
Mr. Fixit.

With me when we got lost straight away at start, not a glorious debut for us!

Managed to plan on the go despite being starved of food, sleep, information and time.

Had a full and frank with Jeff after getting through the Sneem changeover debacle. I think we’re cool again, if not he better remember I have his Garmin 705
His rice cakes met with rave reviews, I think the problem is the crew may have scoffed lots. I had none. Hint, hint.

Caroline:
Cursed at in French by Aidan. Ranted at in English by Jeff. Still continued to smile.

Wanted me to talk to her on the road to Kilmeaden, I was too tired but tried, not sure how much sense I made.

Could rival Mrs. Doyle with her offers of sandwiches.

Drives a camper as if it’s a 2CV.

Caroline_ie

Lumen's rice cakes were good .. ( I only had 1, I was starving!)
I don't think Aidan was cursing at me, I think that's just the way he curses. It's quite funny.

I didn't take anything personally anyway.

Janos new phone was 'glupped' .. I hope it works again Jan.

The smell in that camper was disgusting, but it was from all of us ... the shower was nerver used as we were constantly moving. The person who used the toilet when it was moving whoever he was, was cursed at many times during the camper clean up Tom and me did.

aidandoyle

Caroline_ie wrote: »

Lumen's rice cakes were good .. ( I only had 1, I was starving!)
I don't think Aidan was cursing at me, I think that's just the way he curses. It's quite funny.

I didn't take anything personally anyway.

Janos new phone was 'glupped' .. I hope it works again Jan.

The smell in that camper was disgusting, but it was from all of us ... the shower was nerver used as we were constantly moving. The person who used the toilet when it was moving whoever he was, was cursed at many times during the camper clean up Tom and me did.

Absolutely correct Caroline, I most certainly wasn't cursing at you, I was swearing at everything and most particularly the carnage that was the campervan everytime Kev and I finished a shift.

@ Jeff: So I guess I gave out a lot then. Well you should have been faster up St Patricks hill :P the only thing that motivated me there was getting to the base of the ramp and seeing a cyclist on a nice white bike waiting at the top. I was convinced it was RAAM who was going to take over from me when I reached the top. "What the f*ç% is he doing waiting for me up there I said to myself, he is the climber not me" - so with all the rage :mad: I could summons I hit that climb like Mr Cancellara on the Muur as he rode away from Boonen, determined to get to the top as soon as possible so that I could give out some more. Once there, I looked at the cyclist who said to me "savage climbing man", I did a double take , not like RAAM to dish out the credit so freely , looked at him again and in a confused tone said to him (bear in mind it was 07:00 and we had been going since 02:00) "you're not my brother!" - he must have thought I was mad. Jeff then informed me that we had another hour or so to go before the meet-up, luckily enough I still had enough rage to get me to the meetup place in record time (or so it felt).

On another note, I recommend to everyone to try to go down the mountain roads at night as fast as possible, it is one of the best feelings I had throughout the RAI, total concentration, total speed, total adrenalin .

Back to the campervan: After being scolded by Jeff, I did indeed pick up that wrapper and for the pleasure of our readers here is a list of some of the other things I picked up off the same floor during the course of my "rest time" :rolleyes: in an attempt to bring order back to the hellhole: piles of pasta, lettuce, bread, ham, cheese, babywipes, chicken bones, chicken breast, chicken legs, dollops of mayonaise, empty plastic bottles, full plastic bottles, matches, dirty socks, clean socks, hats, jerseys, gloves, wires for some electronic gadgetry, more clothes this time dirty, bags, boxes, empty tin cans, spoons, forks, chocolate recovery drink (in both powder and liquid form), newspapers, shoes, slimy green stuff, gooey red stuff, sticky brown stuff.. incredible how many things you can fit into a campervan.

Being 36 is an excuse! You will know why when you get there .

@ Caroline: I fear that I may be person that you and Tom cursed, since I did do a no. 1 in the campervan, but that was way back at the start somewhere north / west, the smell only came around 2/3 way through the race. If noone else owns up, then it must have been my no. 1, sorry

All in all a great time, with plenty of opportunities to give out

Raam

@Aidan, your post looks like a box of smarties... :):mad::(:o:eek::P:confused:

Raam

jeffontour wrote: »

Giving out about Tom & Peter’s “science”.

BTW, what does this mean?

aidandoyle

Raam wrote: »

BTW, what does this mean?

No comment, no more opening of cans of worms here. All I will say RAAM, is that the crew had an interesting technique for motivating each individual sub-team which involved telling them that the other sub-team was so wrecked that they wouldn't be able to cycle much further and that we would have to relieve them asap. This was then usually followed by a camper ride from hell at high speed over bumpy country roads, resulting in many a resting rider smacking their heads off the side walls and roof of their berth. Suffice to say that after such a journey things were said ;o)

Jeff, as crew chief I though you had signed a confidentiality agreement!

Raam

"Where the hell are the lights?" "Which lights? My ones?" "No, the mad big bright ones!" "Oh, them. They are in the box marked 'lights'"

We had many conversations like that. Another one was about cakes, it went more to the tune of "Jesus man, we've got a lot of cakes!"

Then there were our radios, our stickers, our petrol vouchers, our bike kit, spare bikes, spare tubes, spare tires, spare chains, spare cleats, water bottles, gels, energy bars, recovery drink, high vis vests, the camper van, the Swords car, our website and so much more.

Where did it all come from? How did we get it all?

The generosity of so many different people is where it came from. Caroline has already thanked everybody, I really want to do it again, because it meant so much to us.

Boards.ie very kindly made a sizable donation to our team. We made good use of it, I guarantee you that.

Wheelworx Bicycle shop supplied us with jerseys, shorts, tubes, water bottles, energy foods, tyres, chains and cleats.



We got about 50 water bottles, and thank God we did, because we needed all of them! The things were everywhere. In the cars, in the boot, in the sink, under the table, in my bunk dripping chocolate recovery drink on to Aidan's head (sorry big bro, I forgot about that one). Somehow, I have ended up with 12 of them at home right now.



Orwell DTC provided us with safety lights for the cars and donated generously. Half our crew also came from the Orwell club.



Swords were equally as generous with sponsorship.



They also gave us use of the team car, for which we are very grateful.



The car came complete with a horn, which I honked all the way to the start line. Fun times.



Topaz provided us with petrol vouchers. I was sheltered from the fuel situation, but I understand we made good use of them.



Premier Foods provided us with cakes. I was very much exposed to this situation, and boy did I like it! I love Cadbury's mini rolls and Mr. Kipling cakes.



Aidan from offbeat.ie provided us with some very cool stickers. We plastered our bikes and vehicles with them. He did a great job and they attracted plenty of attention. When in the follow car, I could see other drivers staring at the car wondering what it was all about.




TinyExplosions hooked us up with our website: http://boardswheelworxrai.info/

CDaly_ kindly lent a set of radios to us. They came in rather handy for directions and keeping riders motivated.



Beasty provided us with some insanely bright lights. Think Bat-symbol powerful.

Blorg lent his bike and Zipps to the cause.



Scott Reynolds also lent his bike and bike roof rack.



Thank you to Hermy who so kindly offered to be part of the crew. He helped us with our preparation right up untill the last minute. However, sometimes life makes other plans for us and Hermy could not join us on the road. It was great to see you at the finish line.

So so many people from the boards.ie cycling forum made financial donations. I think Caroline listed them all. Thank you all so much for your generosity. It's very humbling and without this kindness, we would not have been as well prepared as we were.

Some of the guys even came out to see us at the start and the finish.



Thank you to both Shaun Gilbride and Grey May for providing information from people who have actually raced and crewed on the event. It was invaluable. Greg, my apologies for not making it out to your lab to give you your test data.

Both Rok_On and my own parents supplied us with some food. There may have been others, but I was probably too busy doing one of the following to be aware of what was going on around me: eating, sleeping, cycling.

If we have forgotten to mention anybody, we really do apologise and it is only because so many different people helped us out that it was so hard to keep track!

jeffontour

Raam wrote: »

BTW, what does this mean?

I think it was relating to recovery times. It was, like the swearing regarding the state of the camper van, one of those things that just came out when Aido was knackered, but had to be told. Too funny not to. It was in the same breath that talk of a certain sub teams age in comparison to the others was brought up. It took all my strength not to roll round the floor of the camper laughing at that point. Plus the fact it was filthy meant I couldn't.

Informing 1 of sub team of the others exhaustion was not actually a ploy, not on my part anyhow. I was, for the majority, honest with riders. Take the last shift for example, the oldies did more than anticipated at the front end but the whippersnappers got a little longer out than they hoped at the end of it.

And we kept the ride in of all 4 to an absolute minimum, for fear the four of you would unite and turn on the crew for what we'd put you all through!

jeffontour

aidandoyle wrote: »

seeing a cyclist on a nice white bike waiting at the top. I was convinced it was RAAM who was going to take over from me when I reached the top. "What the f*ç% is he doing waiting for me up there I said to myself, he is the climber not me" - so with all the rage :mad: I could summons I hit that climb like Mr Cancellara on the Muur as he rode away from Boonen, determined to get to the top as soon as possible so that I could give out some more. Once there, I looked at the cyclist who said to me "savage climbing man", I did a double take , not like RAAM to dish out the credit so freely , looked at him again and in a confused tone said to him (bear in mind it was 07:00 and we had been going since 02:00) "you're not my brother!" - he must have thought I was mad.

That guy was a mate of my mate who came out to cheer you on up the climb. I must ask him if you scared him with your shouting!

Caroline_ie

... i am waiting for comments on the car boobs hanging from Jeffs mirror, or noone has noticed (yet)

jeffontour

Caroline_ie wrote: »

... i am waiting for comments on the car boobs hanging from Jeffs mirror, or noone has noticed (yet)

I'd prefer if my frontage was not discussed on a public forum. Please and thank you.

Beasty

De-stickified .....


..... until next year:D

RobFowl

Beasty wrote: »

De-stickified .....


..... until next year:D

So it's Beasty, RobFowl and who else :rolleyes:

cdaly_

Beasty wrote: »

De-stickified .....


..... until next year:D

Aww!...

Beasty

RobFowl wrote: »

So it's Beasty, RobFowl and who else :rolleyes:

I feel a long-term illness coming on ... (and I'm allergic to campervans:p)

cdaly_ wrote: »

Aww!...

Just because I've unstickied it doesn't mean there is nothing more to be said on the subject. I'm sure the team and crew will have more to say about their experiences as their fond memories come flooding back;).

shaungil

That's Swords covered, time for Orwell to step up. Blorg and Lumen????

Lumen

shaungil wrote: »

That's Swords covered, time for Orwell to step up. Blorg and Lumen????

I'm going straight for the solo victory. Less logistics involved. :pac:

thebouldwhacker

An adventure is an activity that is perceived to involve risky, dangerous or exciting experiences.

Well done on the fantastic job ye did, riders and support team alike.