Iveragh 200

maryishairy

Is a fee of €35 rather excessive for entry to an event like this? The An Post Series is €20 and runs like clockwork. I'm sure other sportifs/ charity cycles would be in and around the same level.

How can organisers justify €35?

manwithaplan

maryishairy wrote: »

Is a fee of €35 rather excessive for entry to an event like this? The An Post Series is €20 and runs like clockwork. I'm sure other sportifs/ charity cycles would be in and around the same level.

How can organisers justify €35?

I'm allergic to giving out about sportives but I have to admit that I was thinking along the same lines.

Anyway it suits me to do this and I won't be thinking about the price as I slog my way up that climb named after the bishop with 170k in my legs.

thebouldwhacker

just signed up, gonna do the 130k. Is there a TdM meet for this?

cantalach

thebouldwhacker wrote: »

just signed up, gonna do the 130k. Is there a TdM meet for this?

Asked from a show of hands from TdMers before training this evening. Of about 41-42 present only 2 hands went up! Hmm...

ROK ON

thebouldwhacker wrote: »

just signed up, gonna do the 130k. Is there a TdM meet for this?

I'm hoping to start 130 @ 9.
Form is poor so I'll be taking her handy.

thebouldwhacker

ROK ON wrote: »

I'm hoping to start 130 @ 9.
Form is poor so I'll be taking her handy.

I might just side into the 'taking her handy' peloton if you don't mind.... I'd hate to see you there all on your lonesome.

thebouldwhacker

cantalach wrote: »

Asked from a show of hands from TdMers before training this evening. Of about 41-42 present only 2 hands went up! Hmm...

Never give the chance to back out..... I thought there was a meet but hadn't heard anything. I have it organised to go down now so may as well take advantage of it:)

michael196

Td M ? ? ?


anyhow, nearly time to get the gear on, just as it its starts to rain in the sunny south east.......


sounds like a bunch starting at 9 am ....

manwithaplan

I'm doing the 200 and I reckoned 9 might be a bit late to start. I'll be away from the family long enough and I'm not sure I want to be still on the road at 5.30. On the other hand, I don't fancy paying for the privilege of doing 200k solo. Anyone know if there are likely to be many around at 8ish? If not, I might wait for the 9am crew, providing a north dublin skanger is welcome;)

Edit - TdM = Tour de Munster

michael196

i know 9 is a little late for 200 k, will try get the Bean an Ti ( b&B) up earlier with the brekkie. but i guess 9 is the default.

thebouldwhacker

I wouldn't mind hitting the road a bit earlier but like you would prefer to have the group for company than an early solo. What ever ppl think...

Leroy42

9 is late alright, I'd be up for roll out at 8. Doing this for 1st time, so might plan for 8 and the 9am group will probably catch me up. coming down to Killarney from Dublin for the w/end with the family so sooner I can get back the better

I can pretend to be a lone breakaway in TdF, doomed to failure but heroically ploughing on!! then I'll give a pathetic attempt to hang with the bunch before drifting back to oblivion.

manwithaplan

I'll be at the start at 8 in a swords CC jersey. If that suits anyone else, we'll head on. If not, I don't mind waiting for a bunch.

ROK ON

Jaysus. 8 am - ye're all mad.
Are ye all staying in Waterville?
I live in Kerry and it takes me an hour to get to Waterville.
I'll see how I feel in the morning, I maybe there at 8.

cantalach

manwithaplan wrote: »

I'll be at the start at 8 in a swords CC jersey. If that suits anyone else, we'll head on. If not, I don't mind waiting for a bunch.

There is a small contingent of Cork-based TdMers (myself not included) who are aiming to start at 8:00. All are handy cyclists but are first time TdMers so they won't be wearing TdM kit. I can PM you a mobile number for one of them if you want to join them.

cantalach

ROK ON wrote: »

I live in Kerry and it takes me an hour to get to Waterville.

So you reckon Waterville is an hour from Kenmare which in turn is 1:15 - 1:30 from Cork. Glad I've opted out!

ROK ON

cantalach wrote: »

So you reckon Waterville is an hour from Kenmare which in turn is 1:15 - 1:30 from Cork. Glad I've opted out!

Sorry to hear that, I know you were looking forward to this one.
The beach we regularly go to is Derrynane. It never takes me less than 45minutes to drive to Derrynane (50km on the nose). Waterville is another 14km. Now, Im not a fast driver. Some folks will do it in far less time.
I think the roads are more suitable for taking it handy behind a wheel.

I'll try my best for 8am.

thebouldwhacker

Funny enough I am staying there... Shall we say 8? We can enjoy the pace and food stop a bit more then.

cantalach

ROK ON wrote: »

Sorry to hear that, I know you were looking forward to this one.

Yes, I was looking forward to it. But tbh I had a completely sleepless red eye flight back from holidays last Saturday and between pressure at work and training, I'm absolutely knackered this week and don't need a 5:00AM start. I know, I know, what would Johnny Hoogerland say...HTFU

manwithaplan

cantalach wrote: »

There is a small contingent of Cork-based TdMers (myself not included) who are aiming to start at 8:00. All are handy cyclists but are first time TdMers so they won't be wearing TdM kit. I can PM you a mobile number for one of them if you want to join them.

Thanks Cantalach. It looks like there's a general move for an 8am start so I should be OK without the mobile number.

I'm staying in Tarbert with my wife's family. I was aiming to get on the road for 6, although I'm now thinking 5.45.

thebouldwhacker

Weather isn't looking too good, gonna bring my mud guards.... euro be damned! This is Kerry ffs!

vistafinder

Fecking hell that was hard yesterday. All was fine until we started going west after coming out of the black valley. Gale force wind in our faces for the rest of the day except the last 30k. id say toughest sportive in Ireland even without the gale think someone said 2800m ot climbing. lucky to get into a bunch after the first food stop. Got dropped for a while around Valentia island where the wind got worse on the north side stopped behind a trailer at one stage to put on my jacket and no way could I put it on it was flapping around so much. Coomnaspig was fun all I could was laugh out loud when i saw it, still by myself had a quick look around to make sure no one saw laughing to myself. Got back on going down the otherside. Thank god the wind was at our backs all the into Waterville. Fair play to the organisers for a real chalenging course. Thanks to the volenteers for all the soup,tea,food and there time. Us cyclists need our head examend after being out in that fo 8 hours but I dont think i would change anything about it. Whats next

Leroy42

First off, have to admit that I only did the 130 course. was late arriving so missed the bunches heading off so started out on my own. had also forgotten my gels so was hoping there'd be a feedstation somewhere.
Haven't been to Kerry in years, never mind cycled any the route,so hadn't got a clue what to expect.
wind was with us all the way over Dunloe, which given its a loop meant that we faced a headwind back to Waterville.
really tough course, I have done the W200 a few times including the misery of 2011, but I would say, given that I skipped 70k, that this is harder.

will defo be back next year. great food spread at the course stop and then at the HQ, showers were welcome as well. I enjoyed it, well maybe 'enjoyed' is the wrong phrase, but I'm glad I made the effort to come down from Dublin. maybe next year I'll actually take the time to review the course profile!!

michael196

I met manwithaplan after the 70 K feed, and we pretty stayed together for the rest of the day. myself , buddy tom and a man with a trek jersey stayed together from the feed back to waterville. i was happy to call it a day at that stage, mostly because of suffering going up coomaciste,been wet through, but manwithaplan had a plan to go onto the 200, so a little reluctantly, i got ready.

out to the car to pick up a gel, shivering, i was thinking i cannot go ahead if i am shivering, but i noticed a dry base layer in the car, then a dry jersey then i remembered i had a banesto winter jacket, so all the wet gear off, and the dry gear on.

man with a plan was circiling waiting to go. manwithaplan dragged us around, hills no bother to the man. heading into skellig a mountain on the left with a TV mast on top, and I thought, where there is a mast... there is a road .....

we went around valentia, took the sprint on valentia !!! and back , and eventually faced the coumanaspig, the long approach, didnt help, the wind was behind us, only manwithaplan made it up there in the saddle.

heading back, I eventually faded and died with about 4 km to go.

only 12 i believe took on coumanaspig.


its a serioulsy challanging route, i wonder what it would have been like without the wind and rain. Talking to an experienced RAS rider afterwards, who did this during the RAS, coumanaspig will cause u to throw up.

A real contender for the toughest sportive....

completing this one, is a real accomplishment...this is one u must be ready and trained for.

Well done to Eoin and jamie (?) for putting this one together. We will be back.

ROK ON

Did 130 (actually 134) a full hour slower than last year.
Couldnt get HR up. No effort. Never felt bad, but I couldn't muster an effort.
Dropped about 8 times. Dropped on climbs - no worries I expect that and nearly always get back on.
Dropped on descents and on flat. Just didn't have it.

Unfit and fat. Too much time at the dinner table and not enough time on the bike. An Italian bloke came from Milan for this sportif. He was struggling with wind and weather. He summed up the day nicely - very tough event but at least I stayed on the bike on the hills.
I echo his sentiments.

Showers were good. Food at 70km was good.
Wasn't there supposed to be a feedstTion at Derrynane House?

I was out of water at that stage. That climb is 1.0 km at 10% with the only solace being it was completely sheltered from the wind.

Met Lescol, Manwithplan and The bould wacker.

Big thanks to Wacker for waiting several times for me. Gent.
Sorry I was so slow.

Pure embarrassment as these are my training routes.

Fair play to the lads that headed back out to do the 200.
A tough day on the bike but happy to have done it?

manwithaplan

I was sitting at the breakfast table in Tarbert at 5:45 tucking into the Weetabix when the father-in-law came in from an 80th birthday party. He looked at me and said "I don't know which one of us is the bigger gob****e". I'm still not sure.

Tarbert and Waterville occupy the same county in the same way as Ireland and Papua New Guinea occupy the same planet. Two hours in the car at 6 in the morning wasn't the ideal start.

I met ROK ON, thebouldwhacker and a bunch of their mates and we set off. There was lots of banter and I really enjoyed chatting to the lads. The first couple of climbs were fine and I was blown away by the scenery. There were long sections of cycling without seeing a house and the mountains are stunning but the scary descents on dodgy roads meant that you couldn't get too lost in it.

After the feed stop (you could have fed the WW200 participants on what was stuffed into the back of that car), I climbed out of Black Valley and one the Kerry lads, Michael196 and his mate Tom were close behind. We rolled on and there was a bit of a regroup before the drag near Sneem. Michael196's savage efforts on the descent and the subsequent flats blew it all apart though and it was the four of us again all the way back to Waterville.

The climb of Coomakiste (apologies for the spelling) wouldn't have been too tough but it was blowing a gale and I was almost blown off the bike a couple of times. We rolled back down to the GAA club and I worked on Tom about pushing on to do the 200. He was saying no but I could see him weakening. By the time we had a nice feed of soup, sandwiches, brack, bananas and coffee inside us back at the GAA club, he had convinced Michael to do it and the four of us headed off again.

Michael must have had EPO in his tea because he drilled it to Valentia. Two other guys had joined us and I didn't notice that David (Kerry man on a Trek) had been dropped. He told me later he had a pain in the guts and had also dropped his chain. I would have waited had I known - he finished it fine and wasn't that far behind us at the end. Strong man.

We had an impromptu sprint prime on Valentia which Michael took with ease. Michael had pointed out the TV aerial and there seemed to be a line up to it which I assumed was for sheep or something. Roads are supposed to wind a bit to lessen the gradient - they must have had a shortage of tarmac down Portmagee way because this one just went straight up. You can see it from way out and it just looks ridiculous.

I stayed in the saddle and took on Couminaspig. I was trying to spin it up but I had to work really hard. There's one turn in it and the wind came in behind at that point. I knew I would make it then although I was almost derailed by a motorist that had stopped for a chat to a cyclist who was walking up leaving me no room to go by. I would have had to go down to clip in so I let a roar and they made some room. It's a hoor of a hill but the saving grace is that it's not hugely long (maybe 2 and a bit k).

We pissed it back to Waterville with Tom hammering it in the lead for the last 5k.

Great day out. I enjoyed it massively and it was great to meet a bunch of really sound guys. The organisers were really friendly and the food and hot showers were top class (Waterville GAA club has great facilities - Micko must have swung a grant for them or something). I thoroughly enjoyed a good feed of porter back in Tarbert that night and the mother in law put up a big dinner too. It's not often you take in more calories than you burn on a 200k day.

Someone asked here at one stage if Kerry really is the Kingdom when it comes to cycling. On Saturday's evidence, the answer is definitely yes.

eoin88

A few friends are planning on doing the Ring of Kerry this year, however after doing the West Cork 200 yesterday I thought I might give this one a shot instead. Is anyone else planning on giving it a blast this year?

manwithaplan

When is it? I think my annual summer pilgrimage to Kerry is a bit later this year so I will probably miss it. I couldn't recommend it highly enough for a good tough day in the saddle in a beautiful part of the world.

It's nothing like the ROK though - it's considerably more boutique! I think you are doing the right thing trying to round up a few people. It's the kind of event you could find yourself on your own in with the distance, the climbing and the small numbers.

lescol

July 22nd, hope the weather is kinder to us this year! There are a few of us definitely going again.

http://www.iveragh200.com/

manwithaplan

I'll be a week late, unfortunately. Have fun.