130/60km Sportive Ratoath 16th March

furiousox

I was passing through Ratoath today and saw some signs for a 60/130km sportive on March 16th.
I think it's for charity and the support & facilities look good but...E40??

https://sites.google.com/a/gaa.ie/ratoath-gaa-meath/home/tour-de-meath/tour_of_meath

Dermot Illogical

They had it at a stupid price last year too.
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056507479

t'bear

Dermot Illogical wrote: »

They had it at a stupid price last year too.
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056507479

It is steep for what appears the normal support and food. Am a local and this is putting me off

RobFowl

Seeing a lot of sportifs charging daft prices. We run ours at €10 and it more than covers all costs.
TBH best bet is to join a club then go on a training spin. It'll be just as good and free to boot :cool:

t'bear

I have emailed the organisers pointing out the general negative feedback on the entry fee for this one, as they will know of some of the feelings about the cost.

Iwernia

We are going to run our event for a tenner as well, it can be a long and expensive year if you try to fit in 2 to 3 events a month from here to Sept especially if the other half wants to participate as well.

rob w

Im a local aswell, and was originally interested till i saw the price! Ill save it for something else!

godtabh

Do you reckon they'll do the group entry for €20 for a group of 5. If thats the case I'd be up for it if a few more were interested.

tommy

Had a look at the link, and was just wondering where it mentions the word “Charity” !! am I missing something?

furiousox

I think you're right actually.
Last years event was E40 as well and was "in aid of Ratoath GAA hurling and football"

glennbhoy

was going to do this but now thinking 40 euro better spent

orwell randonee is 30euro

just seen this with free gilet for signing up early

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=132089770299187&set=a.126014010906763.23698.125852094256288&type=1&theater

furiousox

Anyone go?

Tombo2001

I did it.

I'd agree that e40 is a lot, but its obviosuly a fund raiser for the club so personally I dont mind.

Overall i enjoyed it. Weather was very good, blue skies the whole way, blessed.

Was it well organised? Overall yes, food was good, there were lots of volunteers and for most of it was well signposted.

Issues would be
- A lot of it was on busy roads, indeed a small stretch of it was on motorway. At one point this involved cyclists moving from the left lane to the right lane on an approach road into the motorway. Did not enjoy that one bit. Not a single Garda there to manage the traffic. That was dodgy as hell tbh.
- Very busy until the 60k mark in Tara, but after that I was cycling on my own for the next 70k and saw little or no one en route. Hardly anyone did the longer route, or if they did they were the cyclists who went out first.
- Signs were very good until the 100k mark, but then they just disappeared for about 20k......I got completely lost around the Dunboyne bypass, ended up cycling into Clonee and on towards Leixlip. Since I amnt from the area I didnt really know where I should be going, but when I saw the Welcome To Kildare signs figured I was on the wrong track.

Overall.......happy enough with it. Weather made the difference.

RobertFoster

Tombo2001 wrote: »

- A lot of it was on busy roads, indeed a small stretch of it was on motorway. At one point this involved cyclists moving from the left lane to the right lane on an approach road into the motorway. Did not enjoy that one bit. Not a single Garda there to manage the traffic. That was dodgy as hell tbh.

Only looked at the map now. It didn't really take the M2 around Ashbourne? That's crazy.

Tombo2001

RobertFoster wrote: »

Only looked at the map now. It didn't really take the M2 around Ashbourne? That's crazy.

Yep....
Was surprised as I thought legally bicycles couldnt go on the motorway....

Billy.

RobertFoster

Yep, it's against the ROTR:

the following must not enter a motorway: [...]
cyclists

I'm not sure if special privileges can be obtained. Poor form from the organisers tbh.

Felloffmebike

RobertFoster wrote: »

Only looked at the map now. It didn't really take the M2 around Ashbourne? That's crazy.

Not 100% certain but I think the M2 around Ashbourne may not have motorway status. Although I think it has a 120k speed limit which might suggest otherwise. Could be wrong about that but either way it's pretty irrelevant in safety terms and whether they are legally allowed or not it's some dangerous place to send/bring people on bikes. I wouldn't be doing it myself.

RobertFoster

It started out as an N route with a 120km/h limit when the bypass was built in 2006, but it became a motorway in 2009. I wouldn't fancy it myself either.