REK 400, 2/6/2012

rottenhat

Details

I'm now taking entries for the REK 400. For my money the REK is a true audax classic - a tough but satisfying ride through beautiful countryside that I'd stack against any ride I've done here or abroad. It should go without saying that you will want to be in good shape for this one, but if you already have a few 200s and a 300 in your legs, you should be well able for it. I have moved the start time forward to 6am as I think you'll gain more from the extra sleep than you lose by the later finish. However this means that you can expect to finish around 2am at the earliest so good lights are absolutely essential.

I will also point out that tough as the REK is, it's significantly easier than the other 400 this year, the Brown Stuff, and anyone aiming at an SR series this year should be planning on doing it. After that you have two more months to prepare for the 600 on the August bank holiday weekend.

The closing date for entries is Monday, May 28th so I will take entries at the Mick Byrne 200 if you're planning on doing that one.

rottenhat

Couple of previous threads:

2010

2009

I should point out that the routesheet has been extensively corrected since those early days and was just about perfect last year.

vigorelli

After last years 7pm start and ride through the night, lovely as it was, I'm looking forward to seeing the first 300ish of this in daylight.

Part three of an audax triple whammy starting this weekend with the Three Provinces 300, followed by the Mick Byrne 200

rottenhat

Just a quick bump to remind you that entries close on Monday, and that I'll be at the Mick Byrne 200 if you want to give them to me there.

lennymc

this sounds epic, maybe one for next year. Ill do a couple of 200s this year, maybe a 30 and then the 400 in 2013!

see you on Sunday for the MB!

cnz8euq6x7syj2

Count me in Rottenhat. I have put the entry in the post but it wont arrive until tomorrow.

How many recruits/lunatics have you got down for this so far?

rottenhat

I have fifteen so far, not including yourself and myself. Bound to be a couple of dropouts before Saturday and a couple more entries from the usual chumps who haven't quite grasped the meaning of the word "deadline" but it's looking like 15-20.

CramCycle

rottenhat wrote: »

from the usual chumps who haven't quite grasped the meaning of the word "deadline" but it's looking like 15-20.

Who you calling a chump?

rottenhat

Yesterday was one of the worst days on the bike I've ever experienced. Actually to be fair, it wasn't really the day that was the problem. No, the early parts of the day were warm enough that by Carrick-on-Suir I was worried that I was getting dehydrated. We had the customary lunch at the Tea Rooms on Sean Kelly Square, while being serenaded by some secondary school kids playing trad in front of the mural. The fun didn't really start until Graiguenamanagh, and the rain stayed fairly light until Blackwater where we (me, Vigorelli, LastGasp, Cadex and Will Turner) decided to stop for a hot meal. Peeling ourselves out of the hotel restaurant at 9:30, we headed off into a steady, heavy rain with visibility rapidly dropping. We made decent progress up the coast road to Arklow and through the Wicklow valleys but the closer we got to Dublin the heavier the rain got and wilder the wind. Pools of fog had formed in the hollows along the road from Rathdrum to Laragh and by the time we hit Calary visibility was barely 25 meters down the road. There was so much water on my rims that braking did next to nothing - barely managed to judder to a halt to make the turn-off to Enniskerry. I actually could not slow down enough to make the first turn in the village, and had to drop all the way down and use the road back up as an emergency braking ramp. Got in to Dundrum at 3:30, shivering, knackered and hungry. Don't know what it is about 400s, but the bad weather seems to wait for them - the Brevet Cymru in 2010, the Beara 400 last year, and now this.

Seweryn

rottenhat wrote: »

Got in to Dundrum at 3:30, shivering, knackered and hungry. Don't know what it is about 400s, but the bad weather seems to wait for them - the Brevet Cymru in 2010, the Beara 400 last year, and now this.

Wow... I know I wouldn't be able to cycle that sort of distance, as I never did close to 200km in a day. Huge respect to people like you! I commute to work in all weather conditions, but my 22km each way look like stepping outside the door and straight coming back in comparison to an achievement like this.

I do not know what is going on with the weather, I am not even fancy going out today.

Take a rest and enjoy the weekend!

Planet X

Nice one.

cnz8euq6x7syj2

I thought i would put my twopence in too....Its a bit long winded so apologies from the start.

I started late as per usual. I was just arriving in Dundrum as everyone was heading up the road.I grabbed onto the back of the group and the day started. Weather was ok but the forecast was bad. Didnt fully realise it was going to be as bad as it was.

Worst day on a bike ever. Some sections seemed to go on forever. The rain started as we left Carrick and was pretty much torrential from 630 onwards. I had two waterproof layers on but they were pointless. With that level of rain there is nothing that is waterproof. You just had to grin and bear it.

Started off chatting with the others but realised it would be best to try and get cracking while it was dry and we had the wind. Ended up coming out of Enniskerry with Paul, Pat, Niall and Will. Before long it was myself Paul and Will. We stayed together all the way to the first control at Carnew where Will decided he didnt have enough food to go on so he stopped to wait on the second group.

Myself and Paul felt good and ploughed on planning to stop in bunclody to break up the next stint to carrick which would have been too long at about 110k. We didnt stay long in Bunclody as there was a power cut. The local spar shop manager felt sorry for us and gave us a free bottle of water. We got going again quickly and after some really nice scenary but some very rough roads we made it to kiltealy.

We had a quick stop for some water, sambo and icecream before going off up the road again. We made some good time over the next stint and arrived into Carrick passing through New Ross amongst other places. We had a considerable amount of climbing done by this stage, think it came up as 2000metres at about 190k. Paul and myself decided against stopping for a massive feed at Kelly square. It was lunchtime and it would have wasted more time plus we would have been sluggish afterwards. We stopped at a supermarket and got some very suspect food. Possibly the worst I have ever had. You could break windows with the bread. We were just about to leave and we saw the second group coming into town. A quick wave at the lads but they were too busy flying in to even see us. They certainly didnt look like the average tourist in town for the clancy brothers festivel.

We started climbing again as we headed towards Kilkenny. Weather had now started to rain lightly which was the sign of things to come. This was possibly my favourite part of the whole cycle as we passed some beautiful scenary and some nice little towns including Thomastown.

Somewhere after this we came across a guy walking in his pet FOX on a lead. Bizzare to say the least.

We got back to Kiltealy again and by now the rain was very heavy. Another sambo and water and we were quickly on our way. The km ticked away very slowly once the rain started to get heavy. Rain jackets were pointless although i did put on arm and leg warmers which made a difference, well for a while anyway.

We rolled into blackwater after passing through enniscorthy. I was soaked to the core by now and these 20k took forever. Blackwater was our final stop of the day. We got some nice food, coffee and water and i put on my final layer and myself and Paul got cracking. The wind had completely changed and was blowing from the North. Great head wind all the way home!! Some people at this stage were asking us where we had come from and where we were going. They were amazed at how ridiculas our journey was and to be fair so was i at this stage.

We left Blackwater at about 720 and it was dark with the cloudcover and the rain. There was no drafting whatsoever as it was impossible with the spray. Myself and Paul pretty much cycled two abreast with Paul keeping the pace and me lighting the road ahead. We headed north and passed through courtown and up the coast to Arklow. We then cut inland and the wind calmed a little. The rain was unbelievable at this stage. We had patches of fog which made visability next to nothing. Any descent at this stage was trecherous. Brakes were pointless. You were better off talking the breaks into stopping as it had more effect. Felt the wheels slide from underneath me a couple of times too so it was survival mode from there on.

Dont know how many frogs we met on the road from blackwater. Hundreds I would have imagined. It was like some crude mobile phone game of dodging the frog as they hopped across the road. Try as we did to avoid them we must have ran over dozens of them. It just goes to show the level of rain that the frogs thought the roads were in fact rivers!!!

The route back to Dundrum was very rough with every km seeming like 20. We were on autopilot at this stage trying to keep the heart rate to stop hypothermia from setting in. I got into Dundrum police station at one in the morning and got my "receipt". The gardai were half laughing at the state of me while feeling very sorry for me. I was hoping that maybe they would offer me a lift home but no sorry i was on my own. Instead one guard told me he would give me a mop to clean the floor after dripping a good 5 litres all over it.

i fell into home a half an hour later. Straight into the shower to peel off my clothes which took an eternity. I couldnt have been wetter if i had have jumped into the Irish sea. i then put a blanket over myself, dressing gown and jacket all on at once while shaking uncontrollably. I looked like Papa smurf i was so blue!! I cooked a pizza and plently of chicken and woke up at 340 after falling asleep in the middle of eating the pizza half on the kitchen floor. Straight to bed and I was wide awake at 830 and up and about. Very suprised at how well the body was. Thought i would be completely bent out of shape but not at all. Still sore two days later but nothing unusally bad.

Big thanks to Rottenhat for organising the route and taking charge. Fair play to all who ever contemplated starting it and kudos to everyone who made it around. I would really like to thank Paul for his unbeliveble knowledge of the entire route. I would still be in Thomastown if it wasnt for him and not to mention the hours of banter and laughs we had along the way. Great man to have for company on a spin like that. It made the day fly looking back.

I will definately be checking the weather forecast before i commit to a 400ker again.

CramCycle

Hope everyone made it back, sounded like a tough one, when it started raining on Saturday night, I felt bad, when it didn't stop until the next day, I felt worse for all who went out.

vigorelli

We rolled out from the Stephen Roche monument in Dundrum at 0600. Over Djouce and towards the Shay Elliot memorial at Glenmalure I watched Paul, Geancster and Will disappear and was glad that the temptation to try and keep up would soon be gone, and I could settle into a sustainable pace.

A look at the profile for this route can be deceiving. The highest climbs, the ones whose names you can remember are all done withing the first 60km. Afterwards you face a relentless series of nameless, energy sapping lumps and drags through mostly quiet, gorgeous countryside.

rottenhat, LastGasp and I stayed together until the first stop in Carnew (86km), where we had a quick stop to fill the bottles and sign the cards.

We were now a fivesome, afer late starter Cadex caught us and Will came back to us. A glance at the many windmills showed that our good progress through Carlow, Wexford and into Kilkenny was wind assisted. rottenhat kept reminding us of the rain forecast. I made a mental note to expect a slowdown and some discomfort later as I peeled off the armwarmers. The garmin was showing over 20 degress, though it felt less than that.

Marty's Tea Rooms on Sean Kelly Square in Carrick on Suir (175km) was a welcome rest stop. Someone said they had seen Geancster and Paul nearby. The food and service was great, the double espresso and Coke even better. As we rolled out, the front seemed to be moving in and some drops began to fall. Out the road, the pessimists stopped to put on overshoes. I sided with the optimists figuring that it might be a while before it became heavy.

On another nameless drag we debated whether the "Steep Ascent" signs were really warranted. As we turned east, facing the wind for the first time, the village of Windgap was deemed well named. After Thomastown, the reward for one 8km climb was a beautiful 6km brakeless descent into Graiguenemanagh (240km) for another short stop, where I finally put on the rain jacket.

After Enniscorthy, the elevation began to level out and the village of Blackwater (290km) on the east coast was very welcome for a proper sit down meal and layering up for the remaining 120km. I removed my rain sodden jersey, mitts, socks and changed into heavier jacket, Sealskinz socks and long finger gloves and a hat. The rain was pounding outside as it got darker. From the restaurant I watched Cadex's lights turn themselves on and off as the rain played havoc with the electronics.

We rolled out of Blackwater at 9.30pm, resigned to another 5 hours on the road. Though we didn't mention the distance remaining, we thought of it as a relatively flat 50km to Arklow, then 30km to Laragh, and 40km from there to the finish. I could hardly see through my glasses but without them was worse with the rain pounding my eyeballs, so I hovered behind the group, just out of the spray zone and followed the blurry shapes ahead. I reminded myself that it was for occasions like this that I had trained in the cold and rain during the winter.

I thought I was hallucinating when I saw frogs hopping across the road, which they did much of the way home. By now the grimpeurs were bouncing up the hills, seemingly as energetically as they had 300km previously. My weary legs had to be gently coaxed up the hills in the granny ring. I only got out of the saddle to briefly exchange butt pain for leg pain, and soon sat down again.

At the brief stop in the shelter of the closed service station in Woodenbridge, I gathered whatever scraps of food I had left into my jersey pockets and calculated how I could ration them to fuel me home. I rode on slowly with only LastGasp's taillight for company, mostly in the centre of the road to avoid the large pools of water, only deviating to avoid a frog or the occasional car.

The others caught us coming into Laragh and we filled our bottles at the tap outside the cafe. In Roundwood I thought about throwing my brevet card at rottenhat, but I would still have had to cycle home. Somewhere else I thought that jettisoning a bottle of water would makes the hills easier, though I'd probably have shed more weight by squeezing water out of my clothes. I cursed every gram of the bike, gear, lights, and soggy clothes that I had been carrying. The last kilometers always seem the longest and most frustrating and I tried to concentrate on one pedal stroke at a time.

I repeated in my mind... eat, drink and keep pedalling. I ate the soggy paper wrapper stuck to an equally soggy sandwich, and I enjoyed it.

With all the water everywhere, my brakes were pretty much useless at this point, so I went down the long awaited descent at Calary ahead of the others to avoid having to rely on the brakes any more than necessary. Worried about descending too far and having to climb back up to the junction for Enniskerry, I waited at the earlier left turn, and then followed the others to Enniskerry, where the roads were a bit more familiar and I counted down the kilometers. Slowly it dawned on me that the finish was nigh. I was very happy to cross the M50 and back to Dundrum, 21 hours and 15ish minutes after starting out.

The journey home was pretty horrible too. Shivering, I changed into dry clothes and started to drive home. The 24 hour tesco garage in Dundrum was closed from 3.30 to 4.30 (!). Twice I stopped at the side of the road to shut the eyes for a few minutes. It was well after 5 when I got to a 24 hour garage in Navan and got some coffee and red bull to ensure I got the rest of the way home safely. Next time I will make sure I have some kind of stimulant in the car for the end of the event.

Thanks to the lads for the company, a wheel to follow when I needed it and great knowledge of the route which made it all much easier than it might have been.

http://app.strava.com/activities/9972523

Planet X

Just out of interest guys, and I'm assuming alot of Audaxers use leather Brookes saddles.....what happens to these saddles like in the above accounts, they get thoroughly soaked?
Do they get wrecked?
Brilliant write ups guys.

monkeyslayer

fair play lads. tell me somebody took a photograph of the frogs??

CramCycle

Planet X wrote: »

Just out of interest guys, and I'm assuming alot of Audaxers use leather Brookes saddles.....what happens to these saddles like in the above accounts, they get thoroughly soaked?

Mudguards saves the bottom of them, your ass saves the top

You can also get proofide or similar leather treatments which will slow the absorption of water by the leather, ergo, saving the destruction.