Anyone want to cycle to Poland for the Euros?

mahoo

Hi all. Me and a few mates are planning to pedal to poland this summer for the Ireland v Spain game in Gdansk while raising some money for charity. The idea is to get a team of 11 together, pull on our green jerseys, get the ferry to hollyhead and start pedaling. ive worked out a rough route which takes us to Hull, ferry to Rotterdam and then across Holland, north Germany to Gdansk. its 1490km and we're going to give ourselves 2 weeks to do it. ill post up further info when i have it but in the meantime id like to see if anyone out there is up for the challenge. please get in touch if you're interested. Age range at the moment is 26 to 50 so all welcome!
cheers
matt

mahoo

balls.. i would have to go and put it in the wrong forum! can you shift it to the general cycling forum mods. cheers
(this doesn't bode well for my powers of organisation )

Beasty

mahoo wrote: »

can you shift it to the general cycling forum mods. cheers

Done

Seve OB

fair play to ya, that be some cycle

I don'ty think I'd even be able to get the plane to Poland without getting Divorced!

Lemag

Instead of wearing the Irish Football jerseys you could wear this. Should help with overcoming any language barriers which you may encounter.

mahoo

stevieob wrote: »

fair play to ya, that be some cycle

I don'ty think I'd even be able to get the plane to Poland without getting Divorced!

One marriage has already been put on the line

Lemag wrote: »

Instead of wearing the Irish Football jerseys you could wear this. Should help with overcoming any language barriers which you may encounter.

Ha. They are class... although i cant see a pic for 'Have you seen my bike?' and 'my arse hurts'

mahoo

Ok. Website is pretty much finished. As part of it i had to choose the best 11 Irish soccer players of all time. the idea is to get the jerseys made up and cycle in them (two weeks of handwashing ahead). what would your first 11 be?

http://pedaltopoland.com/?p=21

mahoo

Im looking at getting some one off cycling jerseys made up for the trip.. 11 hopefully but they're obviously going to be in different sizes and i want them to have nos 1-11 on the back... anyone recommend a good place for getting something like that done for a reasonable price? where were the boards.ie jerseys done?

jimm

I just heard Pat Kenny saying that he will be talking to the lads on his show this morning. Best of luck with it mahoo.

mahoo

jimm wrote: »

I just heard Pat Kenny saying that he will be talking to the lads on his show this morning. Best of luck with it mahoo.

Thanks jimm! Pat was a gent. Last minute packing to do now as usual and off in the morning!

Planet X

Best of luck lads. Plenty of Vaseline now!

Captain Havoc

Best of luck lads.

Inquitus

Just seen youse on the RTE news, best of luck.

ednwireland

what the hell are they using the vaseline for ? (i dread to think)

jimm

ednwireland wrote: »

what the hell are they using the vaseline for ? (i dread to think)

Or bring plenty of "arse-os" chamois creme FTW.

Planet X

Pat Kenny, on the radio this morning mentioned "The Big Jar Of Vaseline" that they had.
Shudders.

Jawgap

hasn't cycling in to Poland been done before.......

jimm

Planet X wrote: »

Pat Kenny, on the radio this morning mentioned "The Big Jar Of Vaseline" that they had.
Shudders.

9 blokes......spending the guts of 2 weeks together......I'm sure they're gonna need it. (to prevent saddle sores, of course)

mp31

Inquitus wrote: »

Just seen youse on the RTE news, best of luck.

+1

Marcin_diy

http://euro2012.trojmiasto.pl/Na-mecz-przyjada-rowerami-z-Irlandii-n58761.html

thats a news from Polish ( Gdansk) online portal www.trojmiasto.pl

It is about you

joker77

Big congrats to mahoo and the rest of the team - they've made it to Poland!

http://euro2012.breakingnews.ie/news/cyclists-pedal-1949km-to-poland-555350.html

Seve OB

well done lads for making it in one piece.

now go and find the Russian Bird and give her my number

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?threadid=2056664734

mahoo

thanks for all the support! sorry i havent been on here during the trip. i attempted to write a diary while on the road but i only managed one entry. the days were very long and i barely had a moment to myself. by the time we'd showered, eaten and got reeady for the next day it was time for bed. im going to sit down and put something together in the next few days though.

in the meantime the highlights:
1949km in 15 days (14 really as we only did 29km on day6 - which is then 137km/day average)
longest day 174km on day 11 to Gustrow
fastest day 25.2kph average on day 12 (we were eager to see croatia game - also day we crashed)
1 tub of assos chamois cream used (to answer the vaseline speculation)
last 5 days were a killer on the arse
1 bad crash when a wheel was clipped and 3 came down heavily at 35kph. one suspected chipped elbow.
3 or 4 other minor spills
2 broken derailler hangers (pain in the arse getting replaced)
217 toys out of the pram. generally around lunch time or when we coundnt find our accommodation.
worst country to navigate - holland
easiest - poland
low point - Day 6 getting off ferry in hook of holland in cold torrential rain. decided to abandon cycling for the day in the Hague after a minor crash due to the wet and a near case of hyperthermia for one of the team.
high point - Day 15 arriving in Sopot (Gdansk really) at the beech just as the sun was setting and with a bar conveniently positioned beside us.

overall it was tough but totally doable. im totally inspired by two of the team who had only just managed to do one 100km cycle before we went and still managed to complete the whole trip. just shows what you can achieve if you commit yourself to something.

i now understand the phrase 'cycling in to form' too. on day 7 i thought i wasnt going to be able to do it. my legs were dead and my joints were getting really angry. i just took it easy and a day at a time and by day 10 i felt really strong again. our fastest days actually all came towards the end. its like your body realises its not going to get a rest and just adapts.

plenty of lessons learned along the way too. we started cycling properly as a team on day 4. i think we would have saved ourselves a few soar joints if we'd cycled slower and stuck together on the first 3 days over the hills of wales and england. To start with, myself and conn took it in turns navigating up front with the other as sweeper pacing people at the back. by day 4 we realised it was better to have both of us up front navigating to minimise missed signs and we set a pace that kept everyone together. sounds obvious but as a group, only 2 of us had cycled in a group before so it took the lads a bit of time to get used to it.

plenty of things went right too. we only had one case of cramp on entire trip. we stretched and made sure everyone took their recovery shakes each evening and kept well hydrated on the bikes. took a few guys a while to get the hang of eating right but i managed to avoid having a bonk at any stage.

anyway. this has turned in to a bit of a ramble. back in dublin now trying to grasp what i just did. it seams so long ago already. sitting on the plane on the way home i turned to conn and said 'how the hell did we manage to do that?'. he couldnt answer either

thanks again for all the support. donations are still coming in but it looks like we'll have raised 25k approx!

Cheers
Matt