SKODA Granfondo Hibernia

sullivlo

harringtonp wrote: »

Its a doddle of a climb compared to Wicklow or Sally gap.
If there is a good westerly you will fly up it.
Its ramped with short flat/downhill stretches in between.

Cool, thanks. Will give it a bash.

harringtonp

dunworth1 wrote: »

signed up for the 150km

Just signed up myself too and looking forward to it.

Actually being a local event our club offered to refund 20E to each fully paid up member who completes the cycle, needless to say there has been a good take up.

Even though the biggest climb on the 150 is by far the Hand, we often refer to the road out by the estuary as the hilliest flat road in the county. Strava won't show much on it but it always feels either up or down.

On the other hand if you have the normal prevailing wind expect to fly along the section from Kilkee to the bottom of the hand once you get over the wee hill just outside Kilkee.

Boscoirl

Have cycled the estuary road as far as the Ferry, and its lumpy alright

dunworth1

Boscoirl wrote: »

Have cycled the estuary road as far as the Ferry, and its lumpy alright

ah its not too bad :pac:

harringtonp

At least you'll be fresh then.

Just wondering at Skoda events does the front of the field usually take a stop (as is usually the case in the Tour De Burren) or ride through (as was the case in the 2 years the Etape Hibernia ran) ?

And if riding through are there any roadside water stops in this event ?

seanin4711

hows is it in comparison to Gran fondo Belfast?
quare lumpy that wan!

Esroh

harringtonp wrote: »

At least you'll be fresh then.

Just wondering at Skoda events does the front of the field usually take a stop (as is usually the case in the Tour De Burren) or ride through (as was the case in the 2 years the Etape Hibernia ran) ?

And if riding through are there any roadside water stops in this event ?

If thats the Sky Etape Hibernia was it not on closed roads and run in the way the GF Giro is in the north with prizes etc. All about the clock !!

harringtonp

Esroh wrote: »

If thats the Sky Etape Hibernia was it not on closed roads and run in the way the GF Giro is in the north with prizes etc. All about the clock !!

It was, closed roads and timings, don't think there were prizes. Bit shorter too at a little over 130k

greenspurs

Looking forward to this on Sunday.
Weather is looking good also !!

diarmaidol

Roll on indeed, however... having been in west clare all last week, the weather on the forecast and reality haven't exactly been matching very well. Will be my first time doing 150km.

MLC61

Entered this thinking that it would be reasonably flat. Completed the Tour de Conamara reasonably handily, however the Strava profile of the route looks very undulating with lots of short sharp hills. The total metres climbed is similar to Conamara with no real hills which is a bit of a concern. Has anyone any experience of the route?

diarmaidol

I've not cycled it but have driven all the roads. It's defiantly rolling but I think strava has the gradients wrong. No way it's a 1% average ride. I've done a few 1% gradient rides in North Clare and theres always a couple of kickers in there. I just stuck a quick version of the route into bikemap.net and it came back with about 900m which I would think is a more accurate gradient over the ride.

MLC61

Thanks - sounds more manageable. Am now looking for accommodation for the Sat night if anyone knows of a B&B or hotel? Arrangements have fallen through.

greenspurs

MLC61 wrote: »

Thanks - sounds more manageable. Am now looking for accommodation for the Sat night if anyone knows of a B&B or hotel? Arrangements have fallen through.

Would be the same for me !!
Ennis area is fairly full !

Anyone know what kind of numbers they have??

seanin4711

What time the 150km roll out?

diarmaidol

Event Timings

The 150km and 100km events will both start at 9.30am from Treacys West County Hotel.

Event sign on

There are two sign on events. Al Hayes SKODA Garage on the Gort Road, Ennis will host a Pasta Party and sign on event on Saturday from 4pm to 7pm. On the morning of the event you can sign on at Treacys West County Hotel from 7.30am and 9.15am.

Car Parking

The parking for the event is at Clarecastle GAA grounds. There will be no access for cars to the hotel grounds on the morning of the event.

mountclare4

Late registrations at Al Hayes Garage on Saturday between 2-6pm and West County at 7.30am onwards

Whats happening

Looks like from their email this morning both routes have 8km added to avoid busy roads, so assuming all in the 1st half.

Coolcappa

Does anyone know if you can set off early... before the official 9.30 start time.

Boscoirl

Did the 100km+in the end. Didn't have enough Km in the legs over the last few weeks. Was starting to struggle just before kilrush.

The little hills were relentless. The only flat piece of road was in Ennis I think.

Overall it was a good day. It could have been organised better. The marshals on the route were great, had good banter with most of them.

Thanks to guy from portumna cc for the company for the last 20km or so. I struggled to get in a group I could hang onto and spent lot of the day by myself.

harringtonp

Very enjoyable and well organised event. Hopefully it will become a calendar fixture and stay priced at the 40 Euro mark (the TDB started cheap but soon went upwards) where it is great value for money.

One suggestion to the organisers would be to have the water stop somewhere else. In these events many in the front group would be quite happy to ride through. Water is always a problem and a well positioned road side water stop (with a box of bananas perhaps, nothing else needed) would sort this out. Top of the hand was too far for this, somewhere between Kilkee and Quilty would be ideal for this purpose.

seanin4711

165kms for me all up.
Nothing like another 100miler in the bank.

Whats happening

Someone got the sums wrong on this one.. For what was meant to be a 150K, and even after addin an additional 8K on the Friday before, in the end clocked up 169K from hotel to hotel, not taking account of 3.5K too and from carpark. That's the same as the ROK, and not a small margin of error either.

Having never rode that part of the country before found the lack of mile markers a let down, none until 15K to go, unless i'm mistaken, nor anything on the climb to say how far to the top or even if it was the climb itself, only the powerbar flags that came into view with 300 meters to go gave an indication I was nearing the submit.

All said, good day out, and the weather helped compared to today. Marshalls on all junctions stopping traffic for cyclists and two good food stops, hope it becomes a yearly sportive as a beautiful part of the country to experience on a bike.

MLC61

Clocked off at 168km. The last 20 were tough as wasn't prepared for the additional 10km.
That being said, it was a fantastically well run event. The marshals were superb and the food stops were great and very well run.
The undulating terrain mitigated against getting in with a group as the continual small hills tended to split the group very quickly. That and the wind made it tough.
The scenery was spectacular.
Will definitely do it again if its run.

nichonairec

Generally well organised and enjoyable. Plenty of friendly and helpful marshals and seemed to be great support on the road. Liked the idea of the bike mechanic at the stop also. Two points I would make is:

1. Would have been nice to know where the extra distance was being added on

2. Have seen overwhelmingly positive reviews of the food stops but we were a bit disappointed by the food stop at Kilrush for the 110k. We weren't particularly late getting there (60k by. about noon) but they had run out of bananas, cake and seemingly the hot water was getting scarce as they were giving out 'half cups' only. There were plenty of sandwiches to be fair, so it was adequate but not near the standard of other non charity sportives. No real seating area either. Maybe a lot more presented on the 110 than expected but something for them to look at for next year.

jamesd

Boscoirl wrote: »

Did the 100km+in the end. Didn't have enough Km in the legs over the last few weeks. Was starting to struggle just before kilrush.

The little hills were relentless. The only flat piece of road was in Ennis I think.

Overall it was a good day. It could have been organised better. The marshals on the route were great, had good banter with most of them.

Thanks to guy from portumna cc for the company for the last 20km or so. I struggled to get in a group I could hang onto and spent lot of the day by myself.

Thanks passed onto the Portumna CC member, he said your welcome anytime.

harringtonp

Whats happening wrote: »

Someone got the sums wrong on this one.. For what was meant to be a 150K, and even after addin an additional 8K on the Friday before, in the end clocked up 169K from hotel to hotel, not taking account of 3.5K too and from carpark. That's the same as the ROK, and not a small margin of error either.

Not sure where yous are getting high 160s from guys.

https://www.strava.com/activities/659774619

shows 157, rode about 1km (but not much more than that) before switching it on and switched it off right at the end so 158-159.

diarmaidol

harringtonp wrote: »

Not sure where yous are getting high 160s from guys.

https://www.strava.com/activities/659774619

shows 157, rode about 1km (but not much more than that) before switching it on and switched it off right at the end so 158-159.

While your time is impressive, you didn't stick to the course ;-P

You took a short cut through to Kilkee the reset of us followed the R486 into Kilrush ;-P

D.

Tifosi

Clocked 111km, thought altogether was well run, have to agree with the food stop at Kilrush wasn't great to be fair. Relentless hills to Kilrush and back.

Marshals and Guards were great as were the Clare people that were on route, massage at the end was a welcome

death1234567

Whats happening wrote: »

Having never rode that part of the country before found the lack of mile markers a let down, none until 15K to go, unless i'm mistaken

You are. There were signs with numbers ( 1 - 9 ) on the roadside every 15km.