Best descents (road) in the country.

fat bloke

Just reading the fastest speed willy waving thread there. Lots of dodgy descent reports on steep but crap roads and kamikaze sheep.

So, what are the nicest biggest widest fastest descents around? I'm talking head down, wind at your back hopefully, top gear and pushing pedals.

I nominate the Embankment from Brittas to Tallaght. Always a crowd-pleaser on the way home.
The Wicklow Gap in the direction of Hollywood (it's a lot dodgier down into Laragh).
Top of the Corkscrew to Lisdoonvarna - newly resurfaced, bit of a rollercoaster.
The Cork/Kerry border main road whether heading for Killarney or Baile Bhúirne is a cracker as well.
Top of my list though is the last section of the Sean Kelly challenge. Once you come on to the main road it's a long long flat out downhill gut-buster all the way nearly to the finish. Cracking road. -taken from the site:
"Then through Kilrossanty Village and along the Mauma Road as far as Kilbrien before joining the R672 at Beary’s Cross. Here, riders can breathe a sigh of relief. Though it is still over 13km back to Dungarvan, it is almost completely downhill."

smacl

Nicest descent I had last year was balligasheen into glencar. Not very wide, but a good surface, and nothing short of spectacular. A fair old climb up from Waterville on the other side, and a fantastic spin back around the lakes.

Personally, I don't like them too steep. Glenmacnass is great whereas Kilmashogue has me hanging onto the brakes.

daragh_

fat bloke wrote: »

Top of the Corkscrew to Lisdoonvarna - newly resurfaced, bit of a rollercoaster.

+1 Nicest bit of road I've been on.

seamus

N81 into Tallaght is OK as descents go. Not steep enough really, I find myself spinning out around 56km/h and then there's not enough gravity there to go much faster. The entire road from Brittas to the Square is nice though because usually you can average well above 40km/h for the entire thing.

I find the Wicklow Gap into Laragh to be fine. The only problem is that on Saturdays and Sundays you inevitably have to deal with Busses and Camper Vans both holding you up but also driving on the wrong side of the road coming the opposite way.

On a weekday morning in late Autumn you can get a really nice run on it.

The descent into Kilmacanogue is my favourite at the moment. Just unadulterated downhill and a nice wide road, effortlessly bumps you above 70km/h.

There's also a beautiful piece of descending on the Leinster Loop course. 5.5km of descending @ -5%. Country road but they're failry wide and open.

Personally, I don't like them too steep. Glenmacnass is great whereas Kilmashogue has me hanging onto the brakes.

Kilmashogue violates my "distance you can see to be clear" principle. Until you get past the Tibradden car park, it's simply impossible to get above 40km/h without taking a serious risk of death if you meet something coming the other way.

buffalo

Howth, going past the graveyard. Good surface, visibility. Bit of work required at times, but momentum carries you on. All you need to is get the traffic lights at the bottom.

ROK ON

Conor Pass into Dingle. Without parallel in this country. 6.5km at 6%. wide roads with good surface.

The wall into Glengariff. 1km mostly at 10%. superb road surface.

County bounds into Kerry from Ballyvourney.

The Vee into Clogheen. Not steep but long with sweeping roads and nice surface.

Glenmacnass into Lauragh.

Hmmzis

Lugalla for me currently is the best fun. Though the max out chainset favorite is taylors rd comming down from 3rock.

g0g

+1 on descent from Sugar Loaf to Kilmac

I know it's dangerous at the bottom, but coming down from Djouce Hill (long hill?) towards Enniskerry is fantastic except for the houses/farms at the bottom!

Sally Gap towards Kilbride is probs my favourite if you get a tail wind and assuming you're aware of the sharp turns further down!

Harrybelafonte

buffalo wrote: »

Howth, going past the graveyard. Good surface, visibility. Bit of work required at times, but momentum carries you on. All you need to is get the traffic lights at the bottom.

And watch out for people pulling out from the graveyard.

smacl

g0g wrote: »

I know it's dangerous at the bottom, but coming down from Djouce Hill (long hill?) towards Enniskerry is fantastic except for the houses/farms at the bottom!

The old long hill is a favourite of mine as well, and though I try to keep as near to the centre of the road as is reasonable, it always feels like a risk. Johnny Foxes to Kilternan is another one of those.

velopeloton

Healy Pass.

andy69

Coming down off the WolfTrap in the Slieve Bloom Mountains (either way...to, or from, Kinnity), but the 'from' Kinnity direction is wider and drops at about 15% i think at points.
Head down...74km/h easy enough. Yee-haa!

greenmat

buffalo wrote: »

Howth, going past the graveyard. Good surface, visibility. Bit of work required at times, but momentum carries you on. All you need to is get the traffic lights at the bottom.

Have to say don't like that descent off Howth towards the village. Have had too many near misses. The 2 sets of lights and the hidden junction between them could be the death of you, also the junction after the church.

My favorite one so far is the Wicklow way towards Laragh, 85km on a quiet midweek day but I imagine it could be very crowded on the weekends.

Lashed

smacl wrote: »

Nicest descent I had last year was balligasheen into glencar. Not very wide, but a good surface, and nothing short of spectacular. A fair old climb up from Waterville on the other side, and a fantastic spin back around the lakes.

+1 You'll never reach a great top speed on this one but on the right day the scenery is stunning.

For top speed, I like Mushera between Milstreet and Rylane, Cork in either direction. Used to be my regular training spin, Sniff sniff

manwithaplan

buffalo wrote: »

Howth, going past the graveyard. Good surface, visibility. Bit of work required at times, but momentum carries you on. All you need to is get the traffic lights at the bottom.

With the advantage of one of those 'light up' speed limit signs that you can trigger at 60 kmph or so.

Lashed

Lashed wrote: »

+1 You'll never reach a great top speed on this one but on the right day the scenery is stunning.

For top speed, I like Mushera between Milstreet and Rylane, Cork in either direction. Used to be my regular training spin, Sniff sniff

The descent off Musheragh on the Cork side used to be spectacularly good, but they resurfaced it with that horrible spray and chip stuff so now there are large collections of gravel at random spots all over the place.

Diarmuid

ROK ON wrote: »

Conor Pass into Dingle. Without parallel in this country. 6.5km at 6%. wide roads with good surface.

I did this to get back to Dingle after the Ras Mumhan stage, it's a very good descent...

fixie fox

If it's 'safe' you want, it would be hard to beat the Conor Pass into Dingle. Nice bends but with none blind. And a spectacular view which you will actually be able to appreciate. It's not a 'free-fall' though - you will have to pedal a bit to get top speed.

If it's 'technical' you want, probably the Helay Pass going south. It's safe in the sense that you can see through all the bends, but it's dodgy as there are stone walls and drops if you overshoot.

Jawgap

Spelga to Kilkee......

Great surface, fast sweeping turns, nice views and a decent coffee shop at the end.