Tour de Kilkenny 2011

damoz

Did the 110 today. Some tough climbs in there - so a good workout. Round in 3:50 which was good enough for me considering how little ive been on the bike this year.

funnights74

Did the 160, pretty vicious, but a good day all in all, enjoyed the grub at the end, congrats to all the organisers and marshals, a touble free day afaik, didn't hear of any tumbles Roll on the skt.

mccutchie

Did the 160 in 5.55 with the C4sc Hibernia Cycling team. Tough route and a great test. Well done to MCC on a very well run event and for a great cause. Who ever said Kilkenny was flat :-)

plumber77

Probably one of the last few people to finish the 160 along with my girlfriend.Was one tough challenge but got up all the hills without havent to get off which has me feeling very satisfied.Thanks to all in Kilkenny for the welcome,the food,the tea,the encouraging scribblings on the road and also Inistioge hill :rolleyes:..

xz

plumber77 wrote: »

Probably one of the last few people to finish the 160 along with my girlfriend.Was one tough challenge but got up all the hills without havent to get off which has me feeling very satisfied.Thanks to all in Kilkenny for the welcome,the food,the tea,the encouraging scribblings on the road and also Inistioge hill :rolleyes:..

were you wearing a wiggle top and black dhb shorts? and your GF in blue and white gear?

dastardly00

I had a great day yesterday doing my 2nd ever sportive. It took me 4 hours to do the 110km route excluding the two 10 minute food stops I had, which I'm pretty happy with!

I found the long climb after Graiguenamangh grand, I got into a nice rhythm and kept the legs spinning. The climb at Inistioge was tough, but I managed to get through it pretty quickly. However my legs weren't prepared for the couple of climbs after that! :eek:
The food and water stop were really great, especially the water melon and oranges.

It was great to chat to some other Boardsies along the way as I didn't know anyone else when I was starting, thanks and I hope to see ye again at another sportive!

Well done to all the organisers from MCC for putting on a great event and I'll definitely be back next year!

FrankGrimes

Excellent event and challenging route, having done it 2 years ago knowing what was coming helped cos when I first did it I was surprised at how hilly it was, but yesterday it made for a good session.

Arrived down late so missed the start by a little over 10 minutes so spent the first hour flooring it to try catch up but never quite made it to the very front group, would've been nice get pulled along in that front group for a while at least but it just made for a higher workrate overall so was beneficial overall.

Very well organised event and it was good to briefly chat to many boardsies along the way, the boards.ie jersey was quite prominent.

Will chalk this on up for next year's list and if you can arrange for it to be rain-free again, that'll do nicely! Thanks.

daragh_

dastardly00 wrote: »

The climb at Inistioge was tough, but I managed to get through it pretty quickly.

Bit of an understatement. You flew up it like a man possessed. I hate you

dastardly00

daragh_ wrote: »

dastardly00 wrote: »

The climb at Inistioge was tough, but I managed to get through it pretty quickly.

Bit of an understatement. You flew up it like a man possessed. I hate you

Thanks! I put it all down to that steak I had for dinner on Friday....

aquanaut

dastardly00 wrote: »

Thanks! I put it all down to that steak I had for dinner on Friday....

Think I was chatting to you for a bit until the need to have a p*$$ got the better of me and I had to head for the hedges!

Joxer_S

I found a key to a merc on on the road in Goresbridge, was at the tail end of the 70km group at the time, hope it made it's way back to the owner.

dastardly00

aquanaut wrote: »

Think I was chatting to you for a bit until the need to have a p*$$ got the better of me and I had to head for the hedges!

yeah I was wondering where you had disappeared to!

redzone

1st sportive I have done and I really enjoyed it.
Echo everything that has been said already about the organisation, the foodstops, marshaling -tractor and trailor as a road block at one junction, road markings were great.

Best of all was the friendliness of all who took part - met some great people along the way.
Barretstown is a charity close to my heart so well done to everyone who took part and thankyou to all those who gave their time to help run this event.
I'm sure its going to swell in numbers in the coming years and thats great news for Barretstown. I will defo be back.

Sr. Assumpta

Some photos on our website now....

http://www.marblecitycyclers.com/gallery/tour-de-kilkenny-2011/

A few Boardsies feature, some incognito....

plumber77

xz wrote: »

were you wearing a wiggle top and black dhb shorts? and your GF in blue and white gear?

Yep that was us

plumber77

daragh_ wrote: »

Had a great day. Did the 110k

Met piles of Boardsies, some in the jersey, some in disguise. QUOTE]

I was one of the in disguise boardies.met ya at the top of that steep little climb after Inistioge and threatened to post any attempt you might have made to dismount

xz

plumber77 wrote: »

Yep that was us

she was quite hungry, she took loads of sandwiches from the table we were sitting at.lol, so you 2 would not have got a cert either, they ran out of paper just as I was about to get mine:(, but hey, we got a souvineer mug:D

plumber77

Thats definitely her .Yeah no cert for me either but was'nt that bothered.Would have be very dissapointed if I didnt get a mug though.

xz

Have to say though, as an event, it ranks highly with the rest of them. The clubmate I was with for the day does most leisure cycles and Randonees around the country and he was saying to me that this one would be in the top 3, which is a remarkable acheivement, for such a young club. He could not believe how well organised, and ran that this event was when he did the first one, which I believe was only a few months after the clubs inception, he talked me into it last year, and I went back this year (though found it tougher, but that was down to me) and I will be back again next year.
The weird thing is, the whole county seems to know about this event, judging by the amount of local encouragement there was the whole way around the route.....and if you must know, the ROK and the SKT Waterford were the other 2, but he didn't specify an order

Jawgap

Sr. Assumpta wrote: »

Some photos on our website now....

http://www.marblecitycyclers.com/gallery/tour-de-kilkenny-2011/

A few Boardsies feature, some incognito....

Nice snaps - bit too much smiling on Woodstock though:)

Seweryn

Jawgap wrote: »

Nice snaps - bit too much smiling on Woodstock though:)

They smiled while they saw that sharp bend and believed that the heel ends there .

Chips Lovell

I decided to go incognito for the day.

corkchef

like to echo all the rave reviews posted here and say what a wonderfully organized day it was! whoever the mad cyclist who was who picked the route must like hills! no..love em i'd say. love doing these events and this was second time in the tour de kk. now if only cork had some nice flat runs like woodstock and inoistige! really look forward to next year hopefully with some faster legs! loved the lemon cake and watermelon!

Captain Havoc

corkchef wrote: »

whoever the mad cyclist who was who picked the route must like hills! no..love em i'd say.

You can thank The DocMan

unionman

Another great T de KK, thanks to MCC for creating an excellent standard the first year and sticking with it despite the challenge of the huge growth in numbers since 09. It thrives on a lot of hard work and preparation and ye deserve every bit of praise for the result. Well done, chapeau.

I did the 110km in 4.30, not nearly as impressive as some of the times clocked up here, but quite possibly a PB for me. I really enjoy the climbs on this event, it's a cracking route. The last 4km to the food stop at Listerlin are quite possibly the longest kilometres in the known universe.

I travelled there and back with daragh and Gasco, we had a ball. Met loads of Boardsies, el tonto was by far 'best in show' with his understated ensemble. Nice to meet aquanaut, Jawgap, dastardly, and a whole other bunch whose names I've blanked on.

See you next year.

tourdekilkenny

Yes the keys to the Merc were indeed reunited with its owner, thanks for handing them in.

We also had a few pairs of gloves handed in which we'll be happy to return to their owners.

DirkVoodoo

I got a "Hi Dirk" from a dude in a boards jersey at the start but I didn't know who you were, sorry.

Met Daithi BC en route, xz at the start, taxman and James (apologies, you said your boards one, then your real name and once I got the real name it sort of pushed the boards one out of my brain!). Also good to see Frank Grimes out and about again.

Great cycle, I rode a lot of it as a passenger on the Tonto train. Staring at his Zebra printed ass was taking its toll and I opted for the shorter route after the food stop.

Well done to MCC and all the effort that the likes of Toblerone, EH, Captain Havoc and of course the ever chirpy and fantastic Sr. Assumpta put in. Fantastic.

Diego Murphy

DirkVoodoo wrote: »

I got a "Hi Dirk" from a dude in a boards jersey at the start but I didn't know who you were, sorry.

Met Daithi BC en route, xz at the start, taxman and James (apologies, you said your boards one, then your real name and once I got the real name it sort of pushed the boards one out of my brain!). Also good to see Frank Grimes out and about again.

Great cycle, I rode a lot of it as a passenger on the Tonto train. Staring at his Zebra printed ass was taking its toll and I opted for the shorter route after the food stop.

Well done to MCC and all the effort that the likes of Toblerone, EH, Captain Havoc and of course the ever chirpy and fantastic Sr. Assumpta put in. Fantastic.

I think that was my good self that you met Dirkvoodoo. I seem to remember that it was at the main food stop and you made a comment about wanting more sun to work on your tan. I'm glad your wish didn't come to fruition because it was tough enough with all the hills, without adding a beating sun to it.

Excellent event. Finished it in 6 hours and 4 minutes. Very enjoyable event and extremely well marshalled.

The tax man

Big thanks to all involved at MCC for another wonderful event. 'Twas a shame the Captain couldn't ride but was good to catch up at the sign on.
I had planned to ease the legs back into such a distance,seeing the last sportive I entered was the Mt Leinster challenge,but from the off that plan went out the window.
Jumping from group to group I ended up with el tonto for a while and we were soon joined by dirk.
Big mistake came when I buried myself to chase down el tonto who had gained a few hundred meters on the group Dirk and I were in. I caught his wheel just at the bottom of that 4K climb. Then it became the Dirk train with knackered me hanging on for dear life at the rear. Couldn't stay with the guys and had to pace myself till the food stop. Cursed all the way up that drag to the stop.
After some lovely grub I headed back on the shorter route in a group of four others.
At one point a large Collie type dog sprinted out from a garden at us,the guy in front of me took aim with his water bottle and fired at the dog. This slowed the dog down enough to stop him from going straight through my front wheel. By the time I saw the dog and it saw me he was in a four legged slide and straining it's neck sideways to avoid smashing it's head off my forks. Needless to say my life flashed before me.
Then the last climb finished me off with a bad cramp.
It doesn't matter about the pain and hurt I put myself though during the day,if I return to my car with a smile on my face it's been worth it.
See you all next year.;)

hexG

Plastik wrote: »

waited for my bro there and towed him literally the rest of the way around!

In my defence, I did say a few times to carry on ahead without me

A lot more hills than I was expecting. Loved some of them (Woodstock and the steep one near the 150k mark were great fun) hated some of them (the one right after the food stop hurt a bit!).

Overall, great day out. The food was quality, too. The jaffa cakes and salad sandwiches made my day to be honest. Big thanks to the MCC gang.