SERC 3 Peaks 2016 (10Apr)

saccades

Anyone else doing this?

Looks the perfect marker to see how winter went and is about half of the Wicklow 200.

8am sign on at Arklow Rocks ground, rollout at 0930.

http://www.mapmyride.com/ie/arklow-l/serc-3-peaks-challenge-route-14780800


Decided to use it as a target after pulling/tearing my MCL at Xmas, would class myself as 4/5th fit and hoping for a steady sub 5 hours.

aimnburn

saccades wrote: »

Anyone else doing this?

Looks the perfect marker to see how winter went and is about half of the Wicklow 200.

8am sign on at Arklow Rocks ground, rollout at 0930.

http://www.mapmyride.com/ie/arklow-l/serc-3-peaks-challenge-route-14780800


Decided to use it as a target after pulling/tearing my MCL at Xmas, would class myself as 4/5th fit and hoping for a steady sub 5 hours.

Doing it and looking forward to it. Just hope it stays dry

saccades

Aye, fingers crossed - just back from a final big (for me) spin and I'm sodden with chilled toes.

Forecast is for drier than today (wouldn't be hard), at least the 2nd part of the course is pretty sheltered from the wind and the like.

aimnburn

Fair play. I was all set for a spin this morning but (to my shame) the dank day put me off. So I quickly found some excuses to not go out. Regretting it now though!

Main issue I've had of late is hitting the wall around 80k in. I changed my eating routine on the last few spins and made 100k without bonking (hehe). So hopefully I'll be grand for Sunday. If the weathers half decent it should be a good laugh.

bazermc

How does this sportif compare in terms of difficulty to the Naas CC tour de foothills, looks the same in distance and elevation gain.

Carawaystick

saccades wrote: »

Forecast is for drier than today (wouldn't be hard),

It'll surely be drier than last year anyway... (also wouldn't be hard)


Slieve Maan and Shay Elliot are bigger climbs than the Naas route. But there's fewer climbs on the Serc route

Wishbone Ash

bazermc wrote: »

How does this sportif compare in terms of difficulty to the Naas CC tour de foothills, looks the same in distance and elevation gain.

They're both on the same day by the way (just in case you register for both!)

saccades

aimnburn wrote: »

Fair play. I was all set for a spin this morning but (to my shame) the dank day put me off. So I quickly found some excuses to not go out. Regretting it now though!

Main issue I've had of late is hitting the wall around 80k in. I changed my eating routine on the last few spins and made 100k without bonking (hehe). So hopefully I'll be grand for Sunday. If the weathers half decent it should be a good laugh.

Forecast isn't too bright for Sunday, my kit has just about dried out from last sunday.

I know I can do the distance, but I'm only just starting to feel "fit" after the enforced xmas layoff and I'm going around with a friend who is way fitter than me who I don't want to hold up too much, so pace will be tricky to judge (He knows he's better but says he's happy to tag around with me). If I don't have to struggle against the wind I'll be fine by taking the 3 climbs v steady.

I'll be wearing MAD mtb gear on a violent green planetx if you want to hurl abuse as you pass me by!

The tax man

saccades wrote: »

I'll be wearing MAD mtb gear on a violent green planetx if you want to hurl abuse as you pass me by!

Was that yourself I was talking to before the hillclimb TT a few weeks ago?

aimnburn

The forecast is for a wet day alright - http://www.yr.no/place/Ireland/Leinster/Arklow/long.html

Will definitely need the wet gear and I'm glad I haven't taken the mudguards off yet. I'm not sure how sheltered the route is, I'm only familiar with about 50% of it.

I'll keep an eye out for you. I'll be riding a baby blue Cannondale Synapse. With Crud mudguards!

Carawaystick

aimnburn wrote: »

The forecast is for a wet day alright - http://www.yr.no/place/Ireland/Leinster/Arklow/long.html

Will definitely need the wet gear and I'm glad I haven't taken the mudguards off yet. I'm not sure how sheltered the route is, I'm only familiar with about 50% of it.

I'll keep an eye out for you. I'll be riding a baby blue Cannondale Synapse. With Crud mudguards!

Not much shelter up here...
https://www.google.ie/maps/@52.9365628,-6.3796012,3a,75y,200.85h,80.67t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sCoQO8PiNCFtaBskGktiAbA!2e0!7i13312!8i6656?hl=en

Seems I was wrong about the weather w.r.t last year

aimnburn

Carawaystick wrote: »

Not much shelter up here...
https://www.google.ie/maps/@52.9365628,-6.3796012,3a,75y,200.85h,80.67t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sCoQO8PiNCFtaBskGktiAbA!2e0!7i13312!8i6656?hl=en

Seems I was wrong about the weather w.r.t last year

Forecast is for lots of rain and gale force winds :eek:

We'll need to stay in a pack or we'll get blown off the roads!

Hopefully it wont be as bad as that.

saccades

The tax man wrote: »

Was that yourself I was talking to before the hillclimb TT a few weeks ago?

:eek: err.... no.




maybe....



Which one of the people I was talking to was you?



I use accuweather a lot for commuting around the course area and it's pretty reliable, it reckons cloudy and breezy.

Arklow to Aughrim should be against the wind, but sheltered (except along the railway line to woodenbridge ~400yds).
Augrhim to tinahely is rolling countryside with a slight head/side wind.
Worse bit will be to the crossroads at slievenmough as the wind will be against us the most I reckon. But then we should have a following wind for the 2 main climbs.
Then loads of shelter to rathdrum, side wind to aughrim then the wind home until the top of the new line (3rd and last big climb) when it'll be a sidewind.

will keep an eye out for your bike and guards.

Going to sign on early doors then go back home for brekky I think.

The tax man

Sorry, that was a badly worded question. SERC TT league hillclimb.
I was in Orwell kit and had a chat with someone from MAD, riding a green bike.

saccades

All black bike with pretty deep section rims?

Fine figure of a man who should be the lead in the new bourne re-boot, able to get the girl, kill the baddies and save the entire planet type of thing from what I recall?

/tips hat.

Was nice to meet you - First time at that kind of thing and I was totally out of my depth that day, didn't enjoy it but it's set a nice marker to work on through the year.

The tax man

saccades wrote: »

All black bike with pretty deep section rims?

Fine figure of a man who should be the lead in the new bourne re-boot, able to get the girl, kill the baddies and save the entire planet type of thing from what I recall?

/tips hat.

Was nice to meet you - First time at that kind of thing and I was totally out of my depth that day, didn't enjoy it but it's set a nice marker to work on through the year.

Sounds like my bike. Not sure about the description of the pilot though.:D

Leroy42

Whats the latest weather looking like for this? Is it still due for wet and strong winds

saccades

Occasional showers with the wind pushing us up the 2 big climbs.

Was up to Glendalough today, blue skies and brief 1 shower with some haily sleet, I'm looking forward to it.


Taxman -

saccades

Jeez, weather at 0915 was very off-putting but cleared up and I can't remember any more rain, big numbers starting ~170ish I think. I got the wind direction arse about face but although it was against us on the big climbs it wasn't debilitating until the top of the final climb, struggling to hit 40kmph on a steep downhill with not a lot in the legs.

Needed suncream at the end, sun was cracking the flags, lashings of cake and soup at the end. non-GPS speedo stats are 114km (cycled to the start and back) in 4hours 45 mins, I know the distance is off as it's set for 38c and I had swopped to a 27c, will double check with a mates strava.

Managed to get around without stopping (except for pit stop at glenmalough) which is a first for me on the big climbs, really chuffed.

aimnburn wrote: »

I'll keep an eye out for you. I'll be riding a baby blue Cannondale Synapse. With Crud mudguards!

99% sure I spotted you at the start and shook your hand, but think you were a little pre-occupied and didn't recognise me (or there were 2 bikes set up as per yours).

Carawaystick

Good day out,
There was a fair bit of cross wind around Knocnananagh, making the few descents hairy, and had to pedal downhill on the drops from the top of the hill above Aughavanna.
Just got water and a banana at Glenmalure and straight up Shay Elliot, No snow there unlike Sliamh Mean.

the resurface of the road from Laragh down to ClaraLara was nice, that was awful last year.

Got swept along by a gang of Slaney Valley lads before Aughrim and helped make the vicious headwind down to Woodenbridge easier to manage.

The last few kms down to Arklow from Thomastown were sore, headwind again and pedalling to go downhill for soup sandwiches and lots of cake.

aimnburn

saccades wrote: »

99% sure I spotted you at the start and shook your hand, but think you were a little pre-occupied and didn't recognise me (or there were 2 bikes set up as per yours).

Yep that was me alright. Really sorry about that, must have looked like I totally blanked you. I was both preoccupied and didn't recognise you until later when I looked down at your bike!

Well done on a good time. Mine was similar. I struggled with two leg cramps, first left then right, around 70 and then 90k in that I was able to cycle through and the last 10k were tough. The headwinds were a right bastard at times too.

The descent down Slieve Mean was hairy. I was on the brakes and two lads flew past me. Some balls they had.

The Garmin clocked the route at 107.4. A good day out, will defo do again next year.

Next up is the Orwell randonnee on Saturday April 30th and then the Mt Leinster Challenge on Saturday May 21st. Last time I did the Orwell spin I was on a flat handlebar weighty beast and didn't really know what I was getting myself into. I wont lie, some tears were shed that day. I'm better prepared this year though

Are you doing either of those?

saccades

No worries, you looked quite pre-occupied - Tis kinda hard to ignore the glow from the bike.

I struggled a bit on the descents, just moved to drops from a bullbar set up (Always had a flatbars) and the brake levers were too far away to modulate properly and being that low/position is still a little odd to me to go faster. Serious arm pump reaching to feather the brakes (still, it meant that I learnt that Rival 22 HRD's have shifter and brake adjustment, sorted the reach today).

No way I'm ready for the randonee @3-4x the climbing of the 3 peaks, another month later and it would be on the list. Think my next targets are Lap de Gaps and I'm eyeing the Mick Byrne too.

aimnburn

saccades wrote: »

No way I'm ready for the randonee @3-4x the climbing of the 3 peaks, another month later and it would be on the list. Think my next targets are Lap de Gaps and I'm eyeing the Mick Byrne too.

Its not quite that bad. There's around 2300 meters of climbing and 3 peaks had over 1500. I'm more familiar with the north Wicklow routes that the randonnee takes in and it will definitely be a real challenge but its manageable. My strategy will be to stay with the pack for longer this time and pace myself more. I usually make the mistake of going too hard too quickly.

The Mick Byrne event is a 200k route isn't it? That'll be a tough mother. I wanted to do W200 but I'll be away when its on. So I'll plan that in for next year.

Good luck with your future spins, see you on the road sometime, its a hard bike to miss alright