Joe Loughman 2010

Muller_1

Details now posted on http://www.braywheelers.com/events.htm

A leisure cycling challenge in Wicklow, all cyclists are welcome
Choice of three routes: 123km, 98km or 48km spin through some of Wicklow’s finest scenery
Sign-on is at Bray Wheelers Clubhouse, Schools Road, Boghall, Bray from 8am to 9.30am
Refreshments en route and at finish
Sign-on Bray Wheelers Clubhouse, Schools Road, Boghall Road, Bray from 8.00am to 9.30am

2x4

The Joe Loughman Randonnee takes place on Sunday 12th September. This is the 11th year Bray Wheelers have hosted this event and all cyclists are welcome. There are three routes 48km, 98km and 123km.
Sign-on from 8 to 9.30 at Bray Wheelers Clubhouse. Tea stop and refreshments on route and at finish.

Entry fee is €20 and all proceeds go to Bray Cancer Support Centre
If you would like to raise sponsorship for this worthy cause – cards are available from the
Bray Cancer Support Centre at 36 Main Street Bray, tel 286 6966
Contact: For further information please contact Victor Edmonds 086 8734059
Poster Download (note large 6.5mgs)
Sponsorship Cards
Short Route (5mgs download)
Long Route (5mgs download)

xz

Could a MOD please merge this thread with this one http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056008550, as they are on the same subject. Thanks

Captain Havoc

xz wrote: »

Could a MOD please merge this thread with this one http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056008550, as they are on the same subject. Thanks

MOD NOTE: Done and a reminder, if you are going to start a thread please use the search function to see if a thread has already been opened on the same subject.

xz

Captain Havoc wrote: »

MOD NOTE: Done and a reminder, if you are going to start a thread please use the search function to see if a thread has already been opened on the same subject.

I did, as I was going to post about the same event;), you should come up for it, some nice climbing, and maybe we can repay the same hospitality you showed us on the Tour de Kilkenny

Captain Havoc

xz wrote: »

I did, as I was going to post about the same event;), you should come up for it, some nice climbing, and maybe we can repay the same hospitality you showed us on the Tour de Kilkenny

I actually intend to come up as the rebel tour is the day before so I might take holidays that week and do the two.

Inquitus

Any route information for the 98km please?

DirkVoodoo

Should be able to do this. Bray Wheelers always put together a great event.

xz

Inquitus wrote: »

Any route information for the 98km please?

I will find out for sure, but I think you just take out the bottom 2 loops shown on the map

xz

Inquitus wrote: »

Any route information for the 98km please?

An update on this question, follow the course of the long map to the food stop at Kirikee, then after the food stop the route splits in 2, the long route will go left, over Slieve Mann, the 98km, will turn right over the Shay Elliott, and just follow the route home.The longer route will do a loop from Slieve Mann, Browne Mountain, and back through Greenane, passing by the foodstop again before going over the Shay Elliott.
Hope this clears it up for you.

rflynnr

Just curious but any thoughts on why so much of this is on the N11 when a parallel route on the much quieter R761 is available all the way down to Ashford?

paddymacsporran

rflynnr wrote: »

Just curious but any thoughts on why so much of this is on the N11 when a parallel route on the much quieter R761 is available all the way down to Ashford?

The N11 will be joined from Kilmacanogue and has a wide hard shoulder until you come off at Coynes Cross, it will be very quiet at that time on a Sunday - Bray spins use this route Sat and Sun every weekend, so no worries there.

I would be more worried about Slieve Mann, Shay Elliot and Brown Mountain personally!

xz

rflynnr wrote: »

Just curious but any thoughts on why so much of this is on the N11 when a parallel route on the much quieter R761 is available all the way down to Ashford?

Like Paddymacsporren says, its the route our club spins take, to Ashford, and it's the flattest part of your day, to ease you in;), once you get into Ashford and turn right, that's when the fun starts:D

xz

For all those in the Leinster area, not going to Cork for the Rebel Tour, why not tackle this instead, it's a good spin, on a fairly challenging route:D

must look into it it myself, but maybe you can stop again at the foodstop again after doing the loop of climbing of Slieve Mann and Brown Mountain,to stock up on nourishment just before you go over the Shay Elliot

godihatedehills

Big fat definite possible yes

xz

godihatedehills wrote: »

Big fat definite possible yes

Bring all your Orwell friends, and I'll get you an extra slice of cake;)

Captain Havoc

Here's my story, I'm on holiday from Monday until Friday, I'm trying to convince him to give me the weekend off also so I can get my last sportives in.

rughdh

Hmm...

<rubs_beard>
Seen as it's the same start as the Poorly Pig the following week, it would be handy for gauging how long to give meself for the cycle out.
</rubs_beard>

Would love to do it, but I'm tapering. Maybe next year.


OK, you've talked me into it, but the short one, mind.

Blowfish

I take it from the 'all cyclists are welcome' bit on the site that no CI license is required?

Muller_1

Blowfish wrote: »

I take it from the 'all cyclists are welcome' bit on the site that no CI license is required?

Correct

Blowfish

Good stuff I'll probably pop along...well as long as the weather is a bit better than it is now

Limestone1

http://www.weather-forecast.com/locations/Dublin/forecasts/latest


If it stays like this forecast then I'll pop along too .....

xz

Weather, Shmeather, there'll be hot tea and coffee, and plenty of food. Something to look forward to........................oh, and climbing, many, many climbing:D;)

DirkVoodoo

Turns out I won't be able to do this, gutted!

g0g

Saw the bit above about requirement of "licences"?

Here are some more basic level questions. If I only got a bike recently and am not a member of any club/organisation can I still enter on the day? Assume there's no requirement for a racer and a hybrid would be fine? Do these things have people pointing out the route along the way or do you just bring a map? I can imagine over a long distance like that that there'll be big gaps between cyclists, so I guess you can't just assume you'll follow the person in front!
Thanks!

xz

g0g wrote: »

Saw the bit above about requirement of "licences"?

Here are some more basic level questions. If I only got a bike recently and am not a member of any club/organisation can I still enter on the day? Assume there's no requirement for a racer and a hybrid would be fine? Do these things have people pointing out the route along the way or do you just bring a map? I can imagine over a long distance like that that there'll be big gaps between cyclists, so I guess you can't just assume you'll follow the person in front!
Thanks!

There will be some marshalling along the way, maps of routes are normally provided, and as regards the type of bike you ride, that's entirely up to you, sure you could ride a Penny Farthing if you were that way inclined

fenris

Probably going to give the short loop a go as a test of my hopefully heeled Achilles tendon!

AstraMonti

I 'll be doing this, hopefully the weather still stay dry.

g0g

Thanks for the reply. As for the other question....

Am I ok to enter if I'm not a cycling club member or affiliated to any Irish cycling association or whatever it's called?

Blowfish

g0g wrote: »

Thanks for the reply. As for the other question....

Am I ok to enter if I'm not a cycling club member or affiliated to any Irish cycling association or whatever it's called?

From previous answers, yes, you'll be fine to enter.

2x4

A one day Cycling Ireland license wil be available on the day for €5.

Inquitus

How does the 98km stack up against the 90km from the SKT? Comparable spins, or is this a step up in difficulty? I am tossing up whether to ride the short or the medium, and have no idea of the terrain, and have no faith in mapmyride for elevation.

Tnx,

Inq

xz

Inquitus wrote: »

How does the 98km stack up against the 90km from the SKT? Comparable spins, or is this a step up in difficulty? I am tossing up whether to ride the short or the medium, and have no idea of the terrain, and have no faith in mapmyride for elevation.

Tnx,

Inq

you'll do this if you did the SKT, but there is one major climb on the 98km route, Glenmalure (Shay Elliott), info on it here http://www.climbbybike.com/climb.asp?qryMountainID=9818

the route from the start to Ashford is relatively flat, then it's rolling roads, and the climb, and fairly OK from Roundwood back to the finish

brayblue24

fenris wrote: »

Probably going to give the short loop a go as a test of my hopefully heeled Achilles tendon!

If it's any help I suffer from the achilles too but it never affects me on the bike

Captain Havoc

I'm coming up, staying in Dun Laoghaire Saturday night

snollup

Anyone heading out from northside (Dublin) to this?

Limestone1

Looks like clear blue skies, in the morning anyway, so I'm going to try getting there for 8:00 - 8:15 to make the most of it.

AstraMonti

Since this is not a mass start, do boardies want to meet a specific time and head along all together? How does 8:30 sound?

Captain Havoc

Anyone fancy heading out with me in the morning, I'm around Cornelscourt?

AstraMonti

Captain Havoc wrote: »

Anyone fancy heading out with me in the morning, I'm around Cornelscourt?

Nice, want to meet at the Garda station in Cabinteely Village 8:00 AM?

Captain Havoc

AstraMonti wrote: »

Nice, want to meet at the Garda station in Cabinteely Village 8:00 AM?

Ok

2x4

Thanks to Wicklow Co. Council for filling the three major potholes coming down from the Shay Elliott towards Laragh. However they were unable to do any repair on the loop from bottom of Slieveman over Brown Mountain back to Greenanne. This road needs major work done on it. So please be careful on this stretch of the route. Extra caution needed here.

Limestone1

AstraMonti wrote: »

Nice, want to meet at the Garda station in Cabinteely Village 8:00 AM?

Ok sounds good to me, will aim for that.

2x4

Weather is looking good for today. Plenty of tea and sandwiches ready at Bray Wheelers clubhouse and at Kirikee Hall. Good luck to everyone riding the Joe Loughman Randonnee today.

xz

A big thanks to everyone that turned up for this, It was a great day, although I wimped out and just did the 98km, Met Captain Havoc, Limestone1 and I presume it was AstraMonti with the white PX, thanks for coming out guys, I know Captain Havoc came a good distance for this, so fair play.

hf4z6sqo7vjngi

Really enjoyed this today, the climbs on Slieve Mann and Shay Elliot took a lot out of the tank. I was very tempted to take the right turn instead of left for the shorter course:p, half way up Slieve Mann and i was saying why oh why. Met a few sound guys from Bray Wheelers who gave a relative novice a good few tips (i was wearing the white BMC gear looking fairly ****ed after each climb).

Food stops were super with a good selection to get stuck into (top of Shay Elliot was a god send). Thanks to Bray Wheelers for putting this on.

AstraMonti

Thanks for a nice day out today! I hadn't really seen the route and wasn't expecting that much of climbing. Was flying along with Tom (Captain's Havoc friend) until the food stop at 60k (lots of food and smiley faces). Unfortunately the food stop was just few meters away from Slieve mann, but honestly I don't know where else they could put it. Anything before that it would be too early and anything after that it would be too late. Anyway that killed me totally but twas grand, I suffered all the way home along with Captain Havoc. The stop at the top of Shay Elliot was godsent, especially that cake, yummy. It was also really nice talking to the two lads at the top.

It was quite sad though not to see more cyclists out, the route was beautiful and challenging.


Irrelevant to the event but a good day almost ended in tears as a stupid driver cut in front of me in bray forcing me to lock the brakes and eventually fall down to avoid him. He stopped to check if I was ok and I was fine and so was the bike but I was so mad and angry at that time that I couldn't think clear and call the Gardai. I only ended swearing at him... As I was going away and was calming down I deeply regret not calling them, the guy deserved it.. A lesson learnt there, hold your feelings for later and think clear. At least no damage was done.

Limestone1

Good day out even if the route was more lumpy than I expected. Great credit due to Bray wheelers as it was very well organised -well stocked food stops,well marked route and even had motorcyclist marshalls stopping traffic for us on the roundabouts around Ashford.
Thanks to Captain Havoc and Astramonti for the company - got split up on Brown mountain -I met Tom again at Glenmalure and headed back with him but got dropped on the way home when I started to suffer. Had a nice run back then with one of the Think Bike crew. I bypassed the clubhouse on the way home as I was running late.
Good to meet a few more boardsies too, xz and then Lastgasp who happened to be passing ...

g0g

Outside of Gaelforce and the Great Ireland Run this is the only organised event I've entered this year, and my first pure cycling one. Have to say I was absolutely blown away by the organisation and hospitality! If all cycling events are like that I'm a convert!:)

Just did the 98km route as wasn't sure about about the longer version. I'm bl00dy glad I didn't do the long one after the haul up that Shay Elliott hill! It nearly broke me and the friend I was cycling with.

So nice having all those motorbike marshalls flying past and stopping traffic etc etc - would have been useful to have a couple of motorbikes going up and down the route during Gaelforce I have to say!

The food provided was so much more than I would have expected. A feast both at the break point and at the end, plus that water stop at the top of the tough hill saved my life! Toblerone seemed like a fair reward after 3km of hell!:cool:

The great weather and the blissful descent from Sugar Loaf down to the N11 topped off what was a great day out!

I even think I saw a couple of lads with Boards.ie jerseys at the break point, but have no idea who they were other than one had a Planet X (?) bike.

AstraMonti

g0g wrote: »

I even think I saw a couple of lads with Boards.ie jerseys at the break point, but have no idea who they were other than one had a Planet X (?) bike.

Twas me with the planet X and the old style jersey and also Captain Havoc in the pink one.

Captain Havoc

Cadex, Limestone1 and jackyback are all banned for not protecting a Mod.

Only joking guys, it was good to meet ye, xz and 2x4 (and anyone else I forgot). I actually wrote a big long report this morning and just as I was just at the end of the novel, I closed the net by accident and only found the will to write it again now.

I should start at the start, last night there was a meeting of mods and a certain amount of alcohol may have been consumed and I also smoked a few (a lot) of fags. I got to sleep about 1ish, woke up and met Astramonti and Limestone1 at Cabinteely and we headed to Bray. I knew I needed some revival food so I bought a breakfst roll, jambon and two cans of coke to get me around. Met one of the guys, Tom, from my club, hopefully the guys did a job on trying to convert him to being a boardsie The four of us rolled out together.

We were on the slip road onto the N11 when as if timed with military precision, LastGasp is coming up the N11 in his boards gear and then there was 5. We head down the N11 at a good pace, Tom has a bit of a Schleck moment but it's grand. At Ashford LastGasp chickens out heads back for home. The road starts going up. The guys have to wait for me a lot. We start decending, pretty dangerous stuff with potholes and gravel, I wobble on one corner going fast enough. Limestone1 is with me a lot of the time but I'm fooked. At one point all four of us are in a group, grand sound, I'm hiding well, going up wee drags but we hit a hill, I give it effort and I'm totally wrecked. I know that anytime I put in an effort, I can't recover at all. We eventually get to the food stop where I down a bottle of water in one, devour tea, cake and something I couldn't leave there: a milka and daim bar- seriously ye have to try this, nom, nom, nom, mmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

One point of note is that this is my first sportive on my new LOOK. Before hand I knew one of the points of riding long on a new bike is having a pain in the knee which I did afterwards, which is also due to the amount of climbing. The LOOK handles much better on corners than the LIDL bike. It's not uncomfortable as appears to be a problem with a lot of carbon bikes. I think though having a race set up on the front is going to make me a much stronger rider, no more I'm tired, let's get into the granny ring.

At the food stop I thought the guys were having a bath when they said we'd only done fifty something k. I thought we'd done 70ish and we were more than half way through. I hadn't checked out the route at all in advance and I didn't know how many climbs or nothing. Up we go the first climb of the day Slievemann, this was the main climb and I was thinking, get this over and that's the worst of it. The legs are turning, the sun makes an appearance, I'm sweating buckets. There's pensioners and triathletes overtaking me, the scenery though is beautiful and I'm certainly going slow enough to appreciate it. I can here the trickles of the streams, there's a mini-waterfall, trees and flora of the mountains. I get to the top of the climb, I slowly crash into the guys (but don't fall)because I can't unclip due to being to weak and having cleats with loads of float.

The sun goes in and we head down a long and fun descent turn a corner and we're climbing again, this time it's Browns mountain, a long drag. The sun has made a reappearance. I can see Astramonti up ahead of me the whole time. I thought I'd get him on the descent. When I get to the top the sun goes hiding again and I start to descend, I go for it. The road has loads of potholes which kind of adds to the fun as they're all very visable. I hit a gravel patch and a wobble again but I stay calm and keep control of the bike. I meet a guy having a good chat, then we're in a bit of a group, we catch up with Astramonti who stays with me until the end.

Astramonti is complaining that he can't put in effort and his legs are gone. I know he's lying. Here's my theory: on top of Slievemann after considerbly aging waiting for me, the three guys drew straws to see who would babysit Captain Havoc all the way home. Unfortunately poor old Astramonti drew that short straw but thanks for staying with me anyway

I'm informed that the next climb is the last but is fairly steep. As soon as we turn the corner to go up Shay Elliott my legs start to cramp, I hop off the bike to have a stretch after the little bridge. The sun has also come out to say hello again. I start to climb, the pensioners and triathletes are overtaking me again. It goes on and on, we get to the top and there's a much welcome food stop. I grab a bit of Toblerone (the chocolate not the boardsie) and a bottle of water.

The descent into Bray is fantastic, good road and a couple of nice descents. When we arrive in Bray I horse down some tuna sangers and a couple of cups of tea. We get a really nice cert, it was so good, I forgot it when leaving but I felt I had to turn around to get it.

All in all it was a great day. I know I mentioned about poor road surfaces but the heavy rain was only recent so there's nothing Bray Wheelers could have done about that, except give us the warnings that they did give us, we're all grown ups and it's not a race. It was a super challenging route and I'm glad I made the trip up from Kilkenny for it. The reason the route is so good is that there's a kind of warm up period, tremendously challenging middle part followed by gentle and enjoyable warm down period, not to mention that Wicklow has some of the best scenery in the country.

Well done to all involved.