Wicklow 200 2015

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bcmf wrote: »

....I never said such a thing. Where I was standing there was gravel ( I had no brush) on the corner and as the corner was a very sharp fast left hander and just as you came out the road rose sharply so my encouragment was 'Get outta of that big ring there is a pox of a climb right here'

Christ that was a hoor of a hill to turn into...

RayM

fillup wrote: »

As for that Numpty in the other thread giving out about roundabouts, feck off we were busting our nuts for the day and you were sitting in a car. Give some respect and kudos to us Olympians who fought and tamed the worst of Wicklow has to offer.

I was going to post this in the other thread, but it's locked. Driving between Greystones and Kilcoole this afternoon, I saw quite a few near misses - and none of them were the fault of cyclists. A lot of car drivers seem to think it's ok to overtake cyclists at the brow of a hill, ignoring continuous white lines, trying to squeeze past (very tired and wobbly) cyclists with inches to spare, and forcing oncoming cars to take evasive action. On a Sunday afternoon, you'd think people would be a bit more patient. Could have done with some Gardai patrolling the area.

bcmf

Adalyn Abundant Oboe wrote: »

Christ that was a hoor of a hill to turn into...

Cant say you werent warned!

Wishbone Ash

Great day to be alive and in the saddle. My first WW200 and the weather played ball. Met a few Boardsies - billyhead, fillup, NeadMoreGears. iwillhtfu, Triple Minor and a few other who's names I didn't get.

And bcmf and Queen's Gael doing an excellent job at marshalling.

Well done to all taking part and all involved with the organising.

320k for me door to door - https://app.strava.com/activities/320598735

iwillhtfu wrote: »

Gave Wishbone Ash a shout as he was going up and I was going down on the climb up by Glendalough....

Apologies for my delayed response - I was in a daydream when you called!

ronoc wrote: »

...Didn't spot any boardsies but I was in a la Vie Claire jersey and you probably passed me taking a rest

Passed you on the Rocky Valley - La Vie Claire is my all time favourite cycling kit.

wowy wrote: »

...Was overtaken by someone in a pink boards jersey at about 6.30 this morning coming through Shankill. Wishbone Ash presumably?

Spot on - well guessed.

D9Male

bcmf wrote: »

....I never said such a thing. Where I was standing there was gravel ( I had no brush) on the corner and as the corner was a very sharp fast left hander and just as you came out the road rose sharply so my encouragment was 'Get outta of that big ring there is a pox of a climb right here'

I would have fallen on my arse if it weren't for you telling me to use the small ring. Thanks!

I really enjoyed it. Great event, well run. In bits now. 23.9km/h average. My Strava says 209km????

irishrover99

Wasn't on the w200 but seen some things that made me laugh. I passed a guy doing it on a bike from the Dublin city bike scheme. Not sure if he done the 100 or 200. Also seen a lad in a KOM jersey walking and looking really worse for for wear

WAPAIC

RayM wrote: »

I was going to post this in the other thread, but it's locked. Driving between Greystones and Kilcoole this afternoon, I saw quite a few near misses - and none of them were the fault of cyclists. A lot of car drivers seem to think it's ok to overtake cyclists at the brow of a hill, ignoring continuous white lines, trying to squeeze past (very tired and wobbly) cyclists with inches to spare, and forcing oncoming cars to take evasive action. On a Sunday afternoon, you'd think people would be a bit more patient. Could have done with some Gardai patrolling the area.

Agreed but one or two of the club groups were far more reckless. If cars passed them in a similar fashion there would be outraged posts all over here. Most were grand, just one or two groups being careless clowns

D9Male

I had a chuckle at the polka dots walking up Slieve Maan alright.

irishrover99

WAPAIC wrote: »

Agreed but one or two of the club groups were far more reckless. If cars passed them in a similar fashion there would be outraged posts all over here. Most were grand, just one or two groups being careless clowns

Biggest clowns of the days were the hundreds of numptys of those big motor bikes go around. Nearly got taken out by one, there so reckless.

terrydel

Got it done, whohoo!
8h10mins or so (lost 3k ish when my cateye speedo stopped working coming onto Wicklow Gap), today of all days! Never had a single issue in 3 years with them. D'oh! 24.5kmph avg iirc.
Happy with the time, goal was just to finish. Cycled from greystones to Laragh with a very nice chap and that really helped as I felt ropey all the way, I think cos Im not used to cycling at that hour, or eating! Got up the Gap nice and steady, stopped at the top to fix my speedo and off again. Pretty lonely for me until well onto the N81 when I met a fellow cyclist and got chatting into the stop near Baltinglass.
Didn't get a whole heap of group cycling, which is my only disappointment, as I know I could have broke the 8 hours had I done so, but sure that's how it goes.
Very happy with my climb up Slieve Maan (first time ever), very few passed me and to the guy who remarked I'd an engine on my bike, thanks for the ego boost!
Went up Shay Elliott well too, tho I've done it before and knew what to expect. My climbing Im happy with, but Im not fast on the flats, but Im small and light so cant have everything.
Last the stretch from Avoca for about 20k odd is seriously tough going, my legs where pretty much done at the 7%er 0.89km climb marked near the end on the WW200 website climbs section, was hanging on for dear life. Death by a thousand cuts in the last 60k isn't it?!
Great day, great weather, and worth the serious dose of nerves I had most of last week.
Hope everyone enjoyed it as much as I did.
Enjoy a good, well earned rest, that's what I'll be doing!

nilhg

Great day out, really enjoyed myself today ( apart from the 5 minutes where my leg locked solid with cramp at the food stop in Rathdrum), saw lots of boards jerseys of various vintages but between the jigs and the reels only got to speak to needsmoregears who seemed to cross my path all day.

Despite a severely creaking BB on my Felt we made decent progress and I came home in 7hrs 30mins which was a good improvement for me.

A well organised event, gets better and better to be fair, on a decent dry day, what more could you ask for. Many thanks to the marshals and organisers, I'm looking forward to next year already.

Wishbone Ash

Meant to say in my previous post serious kudos to the lad who took a spill on the descent into Hollywood. He continued on after leaving half his skin and clothes on the road.

bcmf

D9Male wrote: »

I would have fallen on my arse ?

Many did.....
Me: SMALL RING
Them: WHAT?
Me: Too late
Them:Aw Foooooook

Don't Chute!

204kms. Took about 9.5 hours moving time. Felt great until just after Hacketstown and then i blew up. Seriously suffered up Slieve Maan and actually thought I was done. Shay Elliot went slightly better but was getting bad cramps all over. Dehydration is a big problem for me. Must have drank ten or more bottles with electrolyte but still wasn't enough. At home now and feel really bad. But I still had a great day!

My mate broke a spoke coming into Hacketstown and got sorted by one of the mechanics! Realised today that I'm just not a climber, but actually did quite well on the flat/rolly bits especially Laragh to Avoca!

My longest ever cycle and it will probably stay like that. Utter respect to the likes of Wishbone Ash who do that and lots more regularly, seriously impressive guys! I may be very tired but also very happy to have done it.
https://www.strava.com/activities/320548600

fillup

Great to meet DevonP, needmoregears (after many ships passing in the night one the 'tarf seafront) and the inspirational Mr Wishbone Ash!

Don't Chute!

By the way anyone know what happened to the guy who came off near the end of the decent off Shay Elliot? He looked very bad. Hope he's okay. Looked like a young fella too.

MugMugs

If you didn't see us you probably heard us from cuchulainn. Well done to everybody today. We towed the line and landed it in 9.5 hours. Fit for bed.

black and amber wrote: »

By the way anyone know what happened to the guy who came off near the end of the decent off Shay Elliot? He looked very bad. Hope he's okay. Looked like a young fella too.

Think he was Armagh and was taken away by the red cross.

Wishbone Ash

black and amber wrote: »

.. Dehydration is a big problem for me. Must have drank ten or more bottles..

I'm the opposite - I rarely feel thirsty. I think I had 4x500ml bottles today. (+ the tea/coffee at the stops).

Don't Chute!

Wishbone Ash wrote: »

I'm the opposite - I rarely feel thirsty. I think I had 4x500ml bottles today. (+ the tea/coffee at the stops).

Unbelievable! To me anyway. I sweat buckets unfortunately. Really don't know how to address it:(

Unknown Soldier

zindicato wrote: »

grand day out for the 200 had to stay and accompany my best mate as it was his first w200 finished it anyways lots of stops and lots of encouragement when he arrived at the finish line he shouted his head off and was nearly crying... little over 260kms for me cycled to and fro
https://www.strava.com/activities/320646047

Did I tell you to take your rubbish home with you per chance, when you were sucking on a gel? You were in a boards.ie top? I mentioned the top to you earlier in the spin I think it might have been you! I didn't mean any offence! Litter was really p1ssing me off.

Anyways... that was a great day out on the bike. Tough!

To get to the last food stop you even had to climb up a hill! :eek:

It was good fun though, the weather helped... a lot. There were some great descents too.

I met loads of people, I'd chat to a sheep on the side of the road tbh

I had hoped to meet Crocked of this parish this morning but it was jammers at 6:30am :eek: The place was packed!

I ended up heading out with an LTC buddy.

I only nearly came a cropper once at the 170'ish point where there was a marshal telling people to get into a low gear for a hill around a corner.

fupp me!

I knew I was in the front small ring but I didn't realise I was on about 13 at the back. I nearly came to a standstill. Di2 saved me! I came so close to falling over

For the day I only had two other mistakes. I was out to take it really, really handy.

The first was doing that Hollywood hill in the big ring, I'm a fool. It was only for the last 20 meters or so when I was following a fella that I was wondering why I couldn't spin as well as him.

Then I looked down.

The other was becoming part of a "snake" train down the N81 to Baltinglass.

We were flying! We merged with a group and we ended up with a much smaller train of about 5, and I was on the front for about 10 minutes.

I expended a lot of energy doing that. Good fun but it worried me as we were only at about 80 km

Still I slogged my way through. I wanted to do it at my own pace and my buddy hooked up with the Clondalkin CC crew at about 130 km, so it was cool.

I did the rest solo at my own pace. Slow and steady. Probably slower than I needed to but I was scared. I never knew what was around the corner.

Anyways, managed to avoid a W200 DNF!

Special thanks to all the marshalls etc. You did a great job and I tried to tell you that as I passed.

Extra special thanks to all the Nordies who were on the Spin. You have great cycling etiquette by calling out what was going on, and when you were passing on the right etc.

I thought that was great.


The people who ditched their gel packs and general rubbish, sandwich packages etc? Total tools IMO.

Seriously.

That really p1ssed me off.

Way to go to throw sh1t over a beautiful country side!

*sigh

Well done everyone who did this. You should be proud of yourselves, be it the 100 or 200.

Unless you threw rubbish in hedges :mad:

Unknown Soldier

black and amber wrote: »

By the way anyone know what happened to the guy who came off near the end of the decent off Shay Elliot? He looked very bad. Hope he's okay. Looked like a young fella too.

He was fine(ish) I met him near the toilets at the end. I'm nearly sure it was him. Young skinny fella

I commented "fupp and I think I have had a rough day?!?"

He had a lot of scapes, "Tis but a scratch" stuff.

Wishbone Ash

Well done D on your tough ride today. No bother to you after this.

Unknown Soldier wrote: »

...Special thanks to all the marshalls etc. You did a great job and I tried to tell you that as I passed...

Hope you didn't forget bcmf at the southern-most junction!

Unknown Soldier wrote:

Extra special thanks to all the Nordies who were on the Spin. You have great cycling etiquette by calling out what was going on, and when you were passing on the right etc.

Agree.

And a big thanks to SCC (Armagh) who sheltered me down the N81. By the time my turn came to go in front we had turned off and broken up!

bbolger

Super day out today, cracking weather and the marshalling and food stops were great.

Did the 200, 7hrs rolling time, chuffed with that.

Headwind up Wicklow Gap but hung on with a fast group from Rathmines/Thinkbike. Some guy shouted "Jaysus lads where's the fire!?" as we hammered along :-)

I know I know it's not a race...

Spent the last 80-90km doing up & overs with a guy from Fingal Tri, suffering in tandem.

Got to Greystones leisure centre and the Garmin read 197km as I stupidly forgot to restart it on the Shay descent. Had to spin down to the village and back to get to the 200km mark - so technically I finished twice to the applauding crowd at the end :-)

Wishbone Ash

bbolger wrote: »

....Got to Greystones leisure centre and the Garmin read 197km as I stupidly forgot to restart it on the Shay descent. Had to spin down to the village and back to get to the 200km mark - so technically I finished twice to the applauding crowd at the end :-)

And you still managed to do it in just a few minutes over 7 hours! :eek: Savage!

bbolger

Wishbone Ash wrote: »

And you still managed to do it in just a few minutes over 7 hours! :eek: Savage!

The Shay descent is prob 50km avg so may have done myself out of a sub 7 hour time... Tut tut, always next year.

ckeego

RayM wrote: »

I was going to post this in the other thread, but it's locked. Driving between Greystones and Kilcoole this afternoon, I saw quite a few near misses - and none of them were the fault of cyclists. A lot of car drivers seem to think it's ok to overtake cyclists at the brow of a hill, ignoring continuous white lines, trying to squeeze past (very tired and wobbly) cyclists with inches to spare, and forcing oncoming cars to take evasive action. On a Sunday afternoon, you'd think people would be a bit more patient. Could have done with some Gardai patrolling the area.

Believe me, as a local rider, it is the same every day of the week.

Greystones/Delgany and on into Kilcoole is a very dangerous road. Bizarre as it sounds, the N11 to Ashford is the safer option.

Pigeon Reaper

Thanks to the marshal who told my wife to sit and have a muesli bar while he fixed her puncture after a tube blew as she passed him. She said she was suffering at that point and being able to sit and eat instead of replacing the tube was a big help to her.

laraghrider

Well that was glorious. Didn't really avail of much of the food stops as our club had fantastic support for us and had more than enough food, gels etc... I did get a cup of tea and a rather delicious caramel slice in Rathdrum. That was such a tonic.

Got some lovely groups but got very isolated from the top of Wicklow Gap until just before Glen of Imal turn off. As we came through Baltinglass a good group with about 4 or 5 Lucan riders at the front were leaving so we blended in. Thanks Lucan you took us all the way to the base of SM. Myself and a fellow Reservoir Cog worked with you at the front but to be fair the yellow and blue did most of the pulling. Good groups very hard to come by from the mountains until after Redcross. I'd given up hope of a group again as I was passing tired broken lone riders one after another until this absolute train came over me and they were hammering it. Jumped on and I don't think my garmin read less than 40kph (save for the horrible drags) all the way home. We motored. There was a girl at the front of it, no idea who she was but jesus she was a train. Just kept pulling and we blew past group after group. It was like a proper race train. Brilliant.

All in all 7:20 and just north of 27 avg.

EDIT: Saw a great argument at the top of SM. Some lad in club gear lying in the ditch: "lads, i'm f**ked" "get up will ya you're embarassing yourself" "no seriously I'm done, i've nothing" "ah get up for f**k sake" "would you ever f..." and on it went. It was great

yop

Great day and the sunburn to prove it! Went around with brother in law and my mate, his mate went on the beer on Saturday so suffered no end!! Meet a few boardsies (I was in the jersey with the green writing) and a few names mentioned but for the life of me I can't remember them!!!
Scenery was fantastic and the marshals and foodstops and people at the reg and finish were extremely friendly and helpful and all had a smile on their face.
Next year I will sign up for the 200, I'm still 2nd on "Cresen hlll" or something, thats what happens when someone shouts "race" at the foot of it!
And that mental decent... class, clicked up my max 71kmph speed that, some crack!

Well done to all, especially the 200 lads/gals, savage achievement

yop

laraghrider wrote: »

EDIT: Saw a great argument at the top of SM. Some lad in club gear lying in the ditch: "lads, i'm f**ked" "get up will ya you're embarassing yourself" "no seriously I'm done, i've nothing" "ah get up for f**k sake" "would you ever f..." and on it went. It was great

ha ha, the same thing was going on behind me, passed a group of girls who was just troddling up one of the climbs after Rathdrum and some lads behind them shouting *Will ye shut up fkn talking and ride the fkn bike*, it got a laugh anyway!