Carrick Wheelers Sportive 10th August

marcofan

The 4th annual Carrick Wheelers sportive will be held on the 10th of August in Carrick on Suir.

The event was previously know as the Bobby Power sportive it will retain many of the key elements of Bobby vision. There has being some minor tweaks to the route this year the start is a lot easier and the Curraghmore strada bianca section at the end has being removed.

We have retained the excellent marshalling and grub!!

Entries can be submitted below please enter in advance so we can plan food stops properly etc

Any questions let me know

John
http://carrickwheelers.com/?p=3064



http://precisiontiming.primo-solutions.co.uk/ps/event/CarrickWheelersChallengeSportive2014

kayaksurfbum

Any chance of an updated map?

marcofan

the only difference to the map on the site is the start that will head out towards piltown and turn back to owning and cross back above Faugheen for the main Clonmel Kilkenny Road, at the end we will skirt around Curraghmore

i hope that makes sense

ford2600

marcofan wrote: »

the only difference to the map on the site is the start that will head out towards piltown and turn back to owning and cross back above Faugheen for the main Clonmel Kilkenny Road, at the end we will skirt around Curraghmore

i hope that makes sense

Straight up past the convent in Portlaw and onto 5 cross roads would add another handy climb.

Either way looking forward to it, top class event

kayaksurfbum

Why is curraghmore been taken out? i really liked that the last few years.

marcofan

some people would not ride the event as they were afraid of damaging there bikes, (it would be hard to do damage as your going up a gentle drag in there so not going too fast) so we pulled it to try and make the event suit as many people as possible

hopefully we will be rewarded with hundreds of enteries!!!

marcofan

Updated map

http://ie.mapometer.com/cycling/route_3904165.html

ford2600

marcofan wrote: »

Updated map

http://ie.mapometer.com/cycling/route_3904165.html

Is this still going ahead?


http://precisiontiming.primo-solutions.co.uk/ps/event/CarrickWheelersChallengeSportive2014

imskilguy

On the facebook page it says its cancelled due to insufficient numbers
"Iverk Produce Carrick Wheelers CC regret that, owing to an insufficient number of entrants, it has taken the decision to cancel its sportive scheduled for Sunday 10th August 2014. All entry fees paid will be refunded fully."

circular flexing

Doesn't seem like it

https://www.facebook.com/carrickwheelerschallengesportive2014/posts/1510383335863748?fref=nf

marcofan

Unfortunately we have had to pull the plug on the event the number of pre enteries was very low
It seems our approach of having a very hard route was not paying off hopefully we will be back next year with an easier route that will appeal to more people

Thanks to all who had entered we are very sorry to leave you down but we felt a small field would take away the enjoyment for everyone
All the best
John

shaka

Sorry to hear the bad news Marcofan

There is an interesting one in North Kerry this weekend, will head to this one now.
http://www.ring-of-north-kerry-cycle.com

ford2600

shaka wrote: »

Sorry to hear the bad news Marcofan

There is an interesting one in North Kerry this weekend, will head to this one now.
http://www.ring-of-north-kerry-cycle.com

Youghal Vee Challenge is a nice spin to.

TheBlaaMan

marcofan wrote: »

Unfortunately we have had to pull the plug on the event the number of pre enteries was very low
It seems our approach of having a very hard route was not paying off hopefully we will be back next year with an easier route that will appeal to more people

Thanks to all who had entered we are very sorry to leave you down but we felt a small field would take away the enjoyment for everyone
All the best
John

It is a dilemma. There is probably a 'market' for such hard sportives - but it is only ever going to be small and - personally speaking - I dont need to suffer on the bike like I'd have to in order to complete this one, though I've done most of the climbs on separate spins. I'd guess that at most you are targeting 15-20% of the potential sportive rider with such a tough event, so numbers are never likely to be big. I know you will be well aware of this and I suspect that you didn't even get close to what you expected in pre-entries. Maybe just tone it down a bit next year and use the tough but less well known climbs - the Kelly 160 already covers a lot of them. Oh, and dropping Curraghmore was a pity - I've ridden that and it was pretty special/scary/tough ........... but iconic enough for a Bobby Power sportive!

Seweryn

marcofan wrote: »

Unfortunately we have had to pull the plug on the event the number of pre enteries was very low
It seems our approach of having a very hard route was not paying off hopefully we will be back next year with an easier route that will appeal to more people

Thanks to all who had entered we are very sorry to leave you down but we felt a small field would take away the enjoyment for everyone
All the best
John

Hi John,

I believe the problem with low number of people could be due to not enough publicity of the Event. Did many people outside of Boards knew about it?
Secondly, some guys like me that did not register yet would just turn up on the day.

I cycled this Sportive last year and I really liked it. I am far from being a fit cyclist, so it felt like a tough challenge to me, but I believe there are a lot of people out there that can do it easily while enjoying the day.
All in all, sorry to hear the bad news.

marcofan

On the publicity front we were really held up by a well known charity. We offered the event to the charity to use as a publicity/fund raising event the charity strung us along for months by not turning up to meetings and promising to take care of the publicity for the event so in the end we had to seperate ourselfs from the charity.
This only happened a few weeks ago so we were on the back foot.
Hopefully we will be back next year with a different/better event

circular flexing

I wonder if we have reached peak sportive.

Off the top of my head, the following are on this weekend
- Martin Early Tour of Kildare
- Ring of North Kerry Cycle
- The Vee Challenge

I'm sure there's more that I don't know about.

In addition, there's football quarter finals and hurling semi final on in Croke Park.

shaka

That's a good question , was discussing this recently with few lads from club who were all of different opinions on which sportive they were going to do on a certain weekend.

Think there is nearly too much on sometimes, not a bad complaint I suppose.

Bulmers

Shame,was looking forward to trying this one as not around for the SK and nice cycling in that part of the country.

Perazzi

Just one thing why are ye rushing people to be at a certain point at a given time haven said that everyone knows it is a hard cycle and not everyone can say they are super climbers to complete this in a given time

thebouldwhacker

marcofan wrote: »

On the publicity front we were really held up by a well known charity. We offered the event to the charity to use as a publicity/fund raising event the charity strung us along for months by not turning up to meetings and promising to take care of the publicity for the event so in the end we had to seperate ourselfs from the charity.
This only happened a few weeks ago so we were on the back foot.
Hopefully we will be back next year with a different/better event

Sorry to hear about this. I think it has great potential as an event, it would be such a great shame if ye change this to an easier route. Personally I think if you hold the formula of trying to be the hardest event in the country it's reputation will grow as will the attendance and quality of riders. There are plenty in my club who would love to give this a crack, market it right and you could have to turn away people.
Build it and they will come.

Pharma

It's the same with running. People don't want to be put under pressure in these events. They want a nice flat route with no climbs. The most popular road races are flat 5ks where it's easy to complete.

I was at the Iveragh 200 where only about 20 people completed the 200. It's a shame as I love a bit of a challenge.

The bobby power route is one of the best around, it's a shame that there aren't enough nut jobs around to make up the numbers.

imskilguy

ya I hope it doesn't become an easier route. I did Roubaix earlier this year so I was lavishing the chance to go through that estate and hammer it and hopefully sail over some dodgy surfaces.... but here's to hoping next year.
Ya shame people want the flat events... and also.... I hate it that the majority of events are only 100/110km for the next few weeks (except Kelly and Rebel). Whatever happened to a good aul 160km? I can live with 140km and up to 180km...but I don't want it to take over my life any more and become an audax dude

michael196

such a pity, to loose this one for 2014. But as said above, don't change it, . Just Sell it more .

too right on the distance also. A good mix of 100's and 160s is healthy.

also, online pre registration only makes life easy on the day, certainly does not mean that's all ur gonna get.

c'mon Carrick, HTFU and bring it back in 2015. ( have to wait a bloody year now !!! ) .

Bulmers

agree with points above, don't change it, this was why I wanted to do it and there is definitely a market for these types of more difficult events - Mick Byrne 160/200 is an example of this, great event.

marcofan

the reason for the "rush" used to be the gates of cuffaghmore closed at a certain time and the second reason was for the marshals we treated the event like a race with a marshal on every corner so it was not fair to have people waiting a huge amount of time and we also only had the ambulance cover for so many hours

the cut of limit was fairly relaxed to be fair we never had anyone come close to missing it it was just there as a safetly net

nak

I was planning on doing it, didn't enter in advance, but others I know did and we had a hotel booked. All the talk from my husband (he loved it)about the previous years made me want to do it too.

Hope it's on next year, I don't normally do sportives in Ireland, but was tempted by the Strade Bianche section that was in previous editions. Not a fan of flat routes personally.

cunavalos

Hi Marcofan,
Just to second the opinions already expressed here. Having ridden this in each of the previous years I am also one of the ones who would have just signed up on the day and not preregistered.

I think the route as it was close to perfect but as the route is so compact and is never really more than 30 minutes from Carrick, it should not put anyone off as the route can be tailored to meet your capabilities with loads of bail-out options. Was sad to see tullahought removed but know the roads around piltown so maybe this is a better option to start with than a tough climb in the first 10k.

Rathcarlish i am not too bothered with a nice climb but the descent is getting worse and the year that was very wet (2012?) i didnt feel comfortable coming down. i dont see Tipp county council in any rush to repair that section.

Also i dont have particularly strong feelings about Curraghmore, it is something different but at that stage of the day the surface is probably the last thing you want to encounter. i found myself riding in the grass for the last long section heading out the gate.

I have to commend the club and the marshals for their organising in previous years and had actually come to almost expect the same marshals standing almost in the same location year on year. I do hope the club will consider putting the event on again next year and hope to see you there on the start line.