Des Hanlon Memorial Classic 2016

Big Ron

It is only a couple of weeks away. The A4 race is advertised on the Carlow Cycling Facebook page (sorry I cannot post a link) as 57km this year which is shorter than other years. Does anyone know the route?

vermin99

vermin99 wrote: »

Hoping on competing myself this year,here's the route https://www.strava.com/routes/3686142

Not queite sure why the link wont work,if you go onto the facebook page,go back to the16th of Febraury and it's there

Big Ron

vermin99 wrote: »

Not queite sure why the link wont work,if you go onto the facebook page,go back to the16th of Febraury and it's there

Thanks for that. No problem with the Facebook page. I just cannot post a link because I haven't enough posts on boards. Thanks again.

Plastik

Great race, great course, thanks and well done all at Carlow! Good A3 distance too - north county Dublin organisers please take note :pac:

Break went early in the A3 and we were gone for the day. Everyone rode fairly honestly until a few km from the end as we didn't get a gap anywhere on the second lap and the last we heard there was a group trying to bridge to us. Didn't have the legs to get up in the sprint unfortunately.

buffalo

Plastik wrote: »

Great race, great course, thanks and well done all at Carlow!

Was that yourself in the prizes too? Well done if so!

Plastik

Aye, ta, picked up a bag of goodies, though I'd have swapped them all for the points :rolleyes:

buffalo

Just to add that it was a great event as always - thought the 'National Series' signage made the turns particularly clear this year. And the shortcut on the last lap was very welcome after 140km or so!

edit: and many thanks to the kind young gent from O'Leary Stone who gave me some gentle encouragement on the final time up the Castlecomer drag. Badly needed!

manwithaplan

Great event alright although perhaps not as 'epic' as the traditional route, where the hills really came thick and fast and the roads almost had grass growing up the middle. Safety first though!

It made for different racing, with the A2 and A3 race won by breaks that formed on flattish sections and the A4 race ending in a sprint.

Brilliantly run as always and the sign on/start venue was a big improvement.

smurphy29

Indeed, manwithaplan, a curious edition of the A3 race with a maxi-break forming before any of the traditional action points and getting a substantial gap over the course of the first lap. With the Cork Giant lads still in the bunch it looked initially like one of those breaks that was just getting a headstart on the climbs before the real business began, but turns out that was far from the case.

Think the new route was a bit easier. Hard climb after the left turn but the final climb of the day was certainly easier and the descents - which have often caused me a spot of bother - were a lot less technical. A couple of very steep ramps though. Still a great race. I managed to fall off my bicycle with 20k to go on the rolling section at the foot of the final climb. The main bunch split into several groups on the previous climbs and I was in group number two but a rider got his derailleur tangled up in my front wheel and down we went. After taking a mi6nute to lie in the ditch I got back in with another group and finished. The lads in that group were gassed!