Dying Cow 200, Dying Sow 300 - 15/9/12

rottenhat

Well, what do you know? It's that time of year again....

The Dying Cow 200 and Dying Sow 300 will start from Bray Wheelers clubhouse, and there will be intermediate food stops at Laragh, Hackettstown and Woodenbridge (not Leighlinbridge - sorry Dying Sow entrants - but you can get a good lunch at the Lord Bagenal, or just do a shop stop). Entry is €10, and entries must be to me by the 7th of September (PayPal/emailed forms fine). Lights are mandatory on the 300.

The routes take you over some of the lesser-known hills of Wicklow and Carlow, including the notoriously steep hill by the Dying Cow pub, the old Wicklow Gap, and (for those on the 300), Mount Leinster. The 200 is hilly but not savage, the 300 always seems to be tougher than it looks on paper...maybe it's just that I'm losing form by the time it comes to the route check.

Full details including maps on the Audax Ireland website.

Last year's thread.

Any questions, fire ahead.

smacl

How would the 200 route compare difficulty wise with the WW200?

Slogger Jogger

I love that Dying Cow hill. I've managed it a few times. Its a lovely downhill
Must try the pub.. a visit is long overdue.

manwithaplan

Would love to do the 300 but my wife is doing the half marathon in the Phoenix Park that day. Anyone want to mind four kids for a couple of hours!

rottenhat

smacl wrote: »

How would the 200 route compare difficulty wise with the WW200?

It's significantly easier than the Wicklow 200 or the Mick Byrne, but it's not flat.

I wouldn't expect anyone who's been putting the miles in over the summer to struggle on the 200.

rottenhat

Just a quick bump to remind anyone thinking of entering either of these events that entries need to be to me by the end of the week.

If the weather stays like this, it should be a terrific day.

EDIT: oh, and the Leighlinbridge control on the 300 will be manned after all, thanks to the one, the only, the Honkjelly.

cdaly_

I'm gonna attempt the 300. 20 hours time limit is it? How many likely to do this one?

rottenhat

cdaly_ wrote: »

I'm gonna attempt the 300. 20 hours time limit is it? How many likely to do this one?

Good man. I have about a dozen entries so far so you won't be alone. Time limit is 20 hours - as I recall, last year the latest finisher was around midnight.

cdaly_

rottenhat wrote: »

as I recall, last year the latest finisher was around midnight.

Given the Mick Byrne took me 12.5 hours, I'm sure I'll be able to improve on that time...

rottenhat

cdaly_ wrote: »

Given the Mick Byrne took me 12.5 hours

Hmmm...if I remember right, I saw you that day following Eddie Dunne in the wrong direction up the Glenmalure Valley? This may have been a contributing factor.

smacl

Just entered to 200, first Audax for me, and fully expect to be well behind the pace. Took a solo spin out to the Dying Cow pub week before last, and it is one nasty little ramp, but great scenery.

Inquitus

I am gonna give the 300 a lash this year.

rottenhat

smacl wrote: »

Took a solo spin out to the Dying Cow pub week before last, and it is one nasty little ramp, but great scenery.

Man, doesn't anyone enjoy the element of surprise any more?

Inquitus

Whats the paypal details for paying please? Can't seem to find them on the site.

rottenhat

Inquitus wrote: »

Whats the paypal details for paying please? Can't seem to find them on the site.

Same as the contact email address - eoghanbarry72 at gmail dot com. Which I see is not listed. Will correct that, thanks.

wanderer 22

Hi rottenhat,

i'm going to sign up for this, like smacl this will be my first Audax and I fully expect to be at the back of the field..anyway, I can't get on to the audaxireland site from work (some security issue), could you email me a copy if I pm you?

Cheers
Colm

rottenhat

Form sent.

get on your bike

Just to say fair play to yis doing either

cdaly_

Entry emailed. Dying Sow, yikes!...

Inquitus

Form scanned and emailed, monies paypalled.

velo.2010

Sh!te. Too late to sign up for the 200km, I presume? Weather looks good for next weekend

edit: just saw 6am start from Bray. Yikes, bit too far for me to travel over anyway.

cdaly_

200km start is 8am. Dunno if Rottenhat would accept an entry this late though.

rflynnr

Just back from the Dying Cow 200. Contemplated the 300 but the trip over to Bray from the North Side would have meant getting up at 4am, a hitherto abstract concept.

Regardless, chapeau to Rottenhat and his team. I've never done an Audax before and it's quite a different experience from sportives but the organisation was excellent, the food generous and the company (hi to Ruaidhri, Paul, Andy and Andrias) most accommodating. Now looking forward to the Dying Light at the end of October...

slowcyclist

Finished my first Audax and first 200km yesterday. A great day out - well organised and food/support excellent. Well done to Rottenhat and his associates. Will definitely not be the last. Thanks.

Inquitus

Well done to all who completed it, I bailed after 155km of the 300 at the Leighlinbridge checkpoint, I could probably have seen 200km out by force of will, but not a full 300km and another 150km and 7 hours. I had been sick all week and while I thought I had recovered as soon as we set off I realised that wasn't the case. I pinged a spoke after the first checkpoint and had to ride with the brakes half on as the wheel was bent out of shape for the next 40-50km. C_daly was able to true it enough so it didn't rub with the brakes off at the Hackettstown checkpoint but that had done me alot of damage.

Legs were well and truly shredded at this point and I had no power and little energy. The prospect of Mount Leinster, Wicklow Gap and hours spent alone in the dark heading back to Bray didn't compute and the way I was feeling I thought I would reach a point where I couldn't go on, and better to do it in daylight than in the arse end of wicklow in the twilight hours.

Big thanks to rottenhat and the lads for putting on such a well organised event, and a huge thanks to John for giving me a lift home from Leighlinbridge. I will definitely be back to attack this Audax stuff again.

A lesson learned anyways, in hindsight it was clearly foolish to take this on having been sick the 5 days before, I won't make the same mistake again. I fell into bed at 4pm yesterday as soon as I got home and only woke this morning at 9am.

cdaly_

Well, that was fun. Dragged self out of bed at 04:00, got a lift (car is unwell) out from Inquitus (thank very much). Arrived to a dark carpark with only Rottenhat in attendance ("John said he'd be here to open up the clubhouse"...). John arrived, in we went, collected brevet cards, got the usual cautionary speech and set off in darkness.

I adopted my usual strategy of starting at the front of the bunch and making my way slowly out the back. Only this time it was a bit more brutal. Stayed at the front for the first 2.5k and then Bray Head got in the way. I watched a cluster of lights float away up the hill never to be seen again...

I carried on, occasionally catching up with a few riders on the descents before drifting backwards on the climbs. Watched the dawn as I pedalled down the deserted roads of north Wicklow. I kept sporadic company with Ian (an englishman from Coventry over for the spin) who quietly ignored the hills and just kept going. We climbed up out of Ashford, got passed by a latecomer and made a thundering descent to the control at Bookey Bridge (why, oh why do they put the controls at the bottom of descents? I could have got a good 100m up the road for free!). Latecomer stopped long enough to get his card signed and legged it. Others of the bunch I'd last seen floating up Windgate Hill took our arrival as their cue to depart. Tea, bread and jam, cake *scoff, mumble mumble*...

On we went climbing for Agavanagh and the next control at Hacketstown. Mist descended and thickened to drizzle; cooling and refreshing if it wasn't still a bit chill (T'was only about 09:00 at this point). Somewhere along that stretch we came upon Inquitus feeling poorly. Stayed together until the control where we discovered that the 'pling' he had heard just after the previous control was a spoke breaking and he'd been hauling his wheel around against the brakes for about 50k. Out came the trusty spoke key and a truing attempt was made. Got the wheel running again but it was too late. He'd burned up too much on that 50k and retired at the next control in Leighlinbridge.

Tea, sandwiches, cake *scoff, slurp, mumble mumble mumble*...

Incidentally, they don't do flat in Wicklow. Hacketstown to Leighlinbridge was a series of ups and downs ranging from gentle humps to long drags to eye-popping stand on the pedals and then keel over anyway ramps. Got to the Dying Cow hill and conducted the walk of sh...ag that for a game of soldiers, I'm not busting a gut trying to get up there! A nice stroll in the country before clambering back on board when it eased to a decent climb. The aforementioned Ian took it all in his stride. Down to a bottom gear of 30x32 and zig-zag across the hill and away he went. Some time later, a long 3k smooth open descent made the approach to the control at Leighlinbridge a high-speed pleasure.

And tea, sandwiches, cake *scoff, slurp, mumble mumble mumble*...

I stuffed the pockets with spare sandwiches to see me through the long 100k to the next control, said farewell to Inquitus and thanks to Controller John and set off a minute after Ian (who I never saw again). Did I mention Ian and hills. He said he'd done some practice. No fuss, no huffing and puffing, just quietly spins until they're no longer there. I, on the other hand..

So, as I said, I set off and remained solo for the remaining 150k. There had been dark mutterings about Mt Leinster and the Wicklow gap earlier in the day. Now I understood. The 20k into and out of Borris were uneventful and then I got into the foothills; I didn't realise it at the time but they were, indeed, foothills. Turned a corner and the road went up. And up. A brief pause to refuel, water the hedgerow, fiddle with the bike, set the phone to charging and generally come up with any excuse to delay the next bit and off I went. Did you ever cycle up the stairs? You should. Well, maybe not but it was like trying to cycle upstairs. I zigged and I zagged. I nearly cycled into somebody's driveway just for the sheer pleasure of pedalling on something flat for a moment. I zigged some more and, finally, made it up the first 100m! Things got a bit easier less vicious after that. Sit and spin, stop for a breather when the road ahead looked like tilting upwards.

I noticed over the course of the day that my computer gained about 1km on the route sheet. Was it that I went wider on the bends than Rottenhat? Or maybe it was a calibration issue? I reckon it was the zigging and zagging I did on Mt Leinster that day...

I finally reached the top and paused briefly to bask in the glory and admire the view but mostly to allow the sweat to dry so it wouldn't freeze on the descent. Set off again for a flat-out breakneck descent. Aerobars are brill for descending, eat your heart out Greame Obree. Aerobars with brake levers are even better. It's shocking how fast a descent is over especially considering how long it took to get there.

On and on till morning (well, till nightfall). I stopped to refuel about every 25k. At The Gap pub somewhere in or around the Wicklow Gap I was interviewed by a bunch of lads as I sat and washed down a few sandwiches with a measure of cider. As I explained my endeavour they variously expressed admiration, incredulity and generally cast aspersions on my sanity. One of them kindly pointed out the near hole in my rear tyre where I'd scrubbed the rubber away narrowly avoiding a crash 100k earlier in the day...

I'd been descending (at speed, on the aerobars) somewhere near Shileagh when a small van pulled out of a side road up ahead. It trundled slowly down the road and, not wanting to waste all this gravity, I decided to overtake. I moved out in the road nicely placed to whizz by when I saw the front right wheel begin to turn out as the driver aimed for a driveway on the right. Hauled on the brakes, yelling and doing that time slowing down thing where I was thinking: "I could turn into the driveway" "No, gravel at the entrance, I'll go under the van" *slowing a bit now* "What if I turn sideways at the last minute? I'll hit the van side on and it won't hurt so much" *slowing a bit more, back wheel skidding now* "Dammit, too late for that" *still braking, wobbling now*... I came to a halt, leaning one hand on the back corner of the now stopped van while the dog inside barked frenziedly and the driver looked on bemused. Did I mention how aerobars with brakes are even better?

I bade farewell to my drinking companions and set off into the gathering gloom. On came the lights and the descent into Arklow was necessarily more sedate; only swift rather than flat-out. Turned for the climb to the last control at Woodenbridge and was gratified to discover I was doing a decent 30kph on a smooth smooth tarmac surface.

Tea, sandwiches, cake *scoff, mumble mumble mumble*, "Thank you kindly" and away I went.

Only 50k to go but the prospect of making the last dart had been left on a roadside somewhere on Mt. Leinster. A long drag up to Rathdrum in the pitch dark. The Fenix TK11 did a fine job of lighting the road and even persuaded opposing drivers to dip. Then a freewheeling descent to Rathnew and 25k left. Turned off the main road and met nothing for the next (irritatingly lumpy) 15k until Kilcoole. I wasn't looking forward to the climb over Bray Head in the last 5k but I turned out just to be a bit monotonous. The legs were on automatic at this point. A last flat-out descent and 1k to home to be greeted by Rottenhat, Ian, tea and pizza!

A rolling average of 20.6kph and 17h30 door to door. Well happy with that.

Rottenhat kindly offered me a lift to the flat bit of Dublin which was gratefully accepted. He dropped me at Eastpoint (having offered to drop me all the way home) and I happily spun home with neither hill nor hump in the way!

A great day, thank you kindly to Rottenhat for organising and to all the volunteers for brilliant food along the way.

And they all went home tired but happy.


*Things I learned today: Figrolls and bananas taste like banoffee. Whoodathunk...

Planet X

Well done. Superb.

G rock

Planet X wrote: »

Well done. Superb.

+1

On both the ride and the report!

smacl

Did the 200 as a first audax myself. Fantastic event and chapeau to Rottenhat and the guys at the controls for the fantastic organisation and great spread of munchies. As expected I ended up with a few others taking a more relaxed pace around the course, leaving the faster crew to speed off pretty much after the first corner. Only bad note to the day was when one of the guys touched wheels with the person in front and took a very hard spill onto the asphalt, having to have his day cut short rather abruptly. Nothing life threatening but one hell of a crunch to the shoulder, and fair play to Rottenhat for being on hand as an emergency pickup. Hope nothing was broken and here's to a speedy recovery. Highlights of the day for me were all scenic little L-roads I hadn't been on before, the superb food stops, and that killer climb up by the cow. Knowing it was coming this time, and not doing it from a standing start certainly made it much easier, although the 30/28 low gear did make me feel like I was cheating!



Frank crests the hill in proper style



Hill, what hill? Didn't take anything out of me, really...

There should be a shot of Patrick here as well, but I fluffed it, and for some reason he didn't want to go back for a re-shoot. Cheers to Frank, Patrick and the lads from Wexford for the excellent company going around, and looking forward to the next one. For anyone who hasn't done a 200k before but would like to, I'd thoroughly recommend this one as the way to go. Challenging but very doable.

FWIW, one wrong turn and some backtracking left me at 211k for the day over 11hours with 21.7k rolling, last of the 200ers in AFAIK. Worst hill was most definitely Windgates on the way home. Hateful yoke altogether.

Serious round of applause to all those that finished the 300 hundred, a different game altogether. Maybe next year, or maybe just in a booze fuelled dream.

kencoo

Excellent report Cdaly--- you guys must be as tough as nails!!! i did the W200 and thought i was a hero after it!!!!... fair play

rughdh

Many thanks to Rottenhat for organising this and giving up his day to look after us along with HonkJelly, Dan and Emty. Much appreciated guys.