suir valley 160km sportives

Rallymad

Any body do this today very tough not a bigcrowd but quick pace great route but in my opinion the food stops were a joke goodie bag at start bannana bottle of water and a tiny gel . First foodstop had prepacket rolls bannanas water and no teaor coffee second stop bannanas and water did get tea off people looking after hall looked like they took that on them selves fair play. Second stop brack i think it had butter hadnt a microscope to check oh yes bannanas and water no tea coffee again . Maybe people were happy but my tired legs needed a little suger boost . They should take a look at the other sportives that are around the country where the cyclists are looked after for 35 euro there was no value . Rant over.

dedocdude

didnt ride it but agree for that coin u want better value - any of the organizers on board with it this morning?

touts

Lots of complaints from the 50k and 65k about the lack of marshalls. Several junctions (eg Coming into Newcastle) had no one on them and groups had to come to a complete stop to check for traffic. Apparently some people got lost but given the signposting was good it may be more down to the individuals than the organisers. Even the 3 day race had issues. On twitter it seems some guy was ahead of the pack in the last km but he says he was denied the stage win when he went wrong on a turn because the Marshalls were not ready to direct him.

Basically they were too ambitious having 5 events (family cycle, 50k 65k 160k and road race) all on at the same time and did not have enough people to man them all. They could easily have had them spread out over the three days but my guess is the idea of having all the groups finish in O'Connell Street within an hour or so was too attractive a proposition. But even then it didnt attract a crowd I'd guess there were maybe 100 people there who were not cyclists when I finished the 65k.

In terms of food and drink during the race I wouldnt be too unhappy. At Newcastle I got handed a Banana, flapjack, fruitcake, ham and cheese roll and a bottle of water. There was also tea and swissroll. I wouldnt have been able to get back on the bike if I ate all that but at least it was more than we normally get from an event like this.

After the race was a bit different. A voucher for a slice of pizza (Drink NOT included) from a greasy truck wasnt the most appealing. And there was a general sense of anticlimax. It is nice to have a chance to sit down with the lads and chat about the ride but there was nothing arranged in a hall or someplace like that. People hung around on the street for a while and once it became apparent that there wasnt even a sign out sheet people just shrugged their shoulders and dispersed. Would it have killed them to even give out certs? I've been on small charity fundraisers with 60 people that gave out certa and charged only €15. It seemed to be a case of we've got your €30 now **** off home and get your kids down here to pay to get into the Bouncy castles. As to the displays from equipment suppliers well there were two stalls. One flogging bikes for between €1700 and €9000 (yes €9000 I'd say they did a roaring trade). And the other stall was the lads selling the gels we got at sign in.

Its a great idea and hopefully they will learn for next year but today was not what you would expect for €30.

dedocdude

30 quid to ride 30 miles? pricey

Id say drop the organizers a line with your feedback - think they ran sportives last year so should have learned a bit from it

smalltalk

I did the 160km spin yesterday and really enjoyed the route,the three big climbs were nicely spaced out with good flatish stretches in between in which to recover.I was alone on the road between Galbally and Ballyporeen and found the signage and directional arrows really good and they even got me safely through the Zombies in Mitchelstown:). The food stops were grand and fair play to the lad in Ballyporeen hall who made the tea and coffee,on the subject of "goody bags" I would rather not get one and pay less for the sportive.
The big problem for this sportive is the weekend that it is on where it is up against the tour of kilkenny and the Wexford wheelers sportive,I hope it continues 'cos its great prep for the SKT.

Pharma

Good route, good fast company, no nonsense, no junk at food stops. All in all a cyclists sportive, not for tourists.

Complete opposite of the ring of Kerry, both enjoyable.

I prefer this type. Some of the gorging that goes on at most sportives is ridiculous. You do not need 4 cakes, a bowl of pasta, three sandwiches, a gel and some fruit pastilles every 30k to finish a 160.

No wonder the country has an obesity problem

hawkwing

I thought the food for the 65k was more than enough.However 30e for just over 30miles = about 1e/mile which is way too much.no wonder people are tempted just to ride along without paying.15-20e for that distance would be more realistic and just cut the food to bananas and water--less than a 2hr spin so what more does anyone need to eat.

touts

I'd fully agree food wise. I had the water, banana and a couple of nibbles of the oat flapjack out of the pack and left everything else behind. I would say they had spent close to €10 on each of the packs and most of it went to waste.

What people want is a route with junctions marshaled for safety and someplace to sit down afterwards and chat. These were seriously lacking on Sunday but could be easily solved next time.

Vizzy

I did the 65km yesterday and have a few thoughts;
Firstly I thought that the marshalling (or lack of) was Ok but I am local so I knew all the roads. The only junction that I found a bit dodgy was a "4 crossroads" near Fourmilewater.
There certainly were Marshalls where you needed to go from one road to another(e.g. coming into and leaving Ardfinnan, entering Newcastle,joining the Clonmel/Dungarvan roadcoming back in to Clonmel etc)
The way I would describe the signposting was "keep going unless you are told different".
By coincidence, and having read some of the comments last night, I was driving most of the 50km route today and there were loads of signposts.
On the food, I think that you either like that type of food or you don't. Personally, I stopped for a cup of tea only and TBH I should have kept going 'cos it took ages to get the muscles warmed up again.
I think that a lot of the food was sponsored or at least subsidised by a certain bakery.
I spoke to 2 or 3 of the organisers today at the race finish and they are delighted to get any feedback, good or bad, so that the event can be made bigger and better next year.
This is the first time that the Sportives were run and there was an overall turnout of about 300,not bad when you consider the other, more established Sportives that were also on this weekend.

Jim Bowen

I did the 160 and really enjoyed it. It wasn't too taxing apart from the last climb which was a bit of a burn up to the Nire. I have no complaints but it was a bit of an anti-climax at the end.