250km to 300km Dublin cycle route

Lambretta

I would be very appreciative if anyone could suggest a 250km to 300km route starting from Dublin - Baggot Street area to be completed in one day and finishing there for a small group cycle avoiding serious hill climbing if possible and with the dark evenings closing in returning on safe well lit up roads where possible.


Many thanks

P_1

Out past Trim looping back via Navan, Kentstown, Rathoath and Kilbride maybe?

ted1

Lambretta wrote: »

I would be very appreciative if anyone could suggest a 250km to 300km route starting from Dublin - Baggot Street area to be completed in one day and finishing there for a small group cycle avoiding serious hill climbing if possible and with the dark evenings closing in returning on safe well lit up roads where possible.


Many thanks

Take the coast road to Gorey and back. Should be just shy of 250

https://www.strava.com/activities/687819113/shareable_images/map_based?hl=en-US&v=1472071425

ford2600

Ah Jaysus lads they are on bikes.


http://www.audaxireland.org/events-calendar/gazetteer/300km-events/five-megaliths-300/

Cut a bit off to reduce.

Man known for his love of back roads

bazermc

250 laps of Merrion Square?

NamelessPhil

The Midlands 300 starts from Dundrum and goes over the Slieve Blooms.

To be honest, because of the distances involved there will be some climbing involved. You can go to the Audax Ireland website and use some of the 200km routes and add a bit on. The 4 Towers 200 is reasonably flat.

There is always the Orwell 200, grim as heck but gets 200km done in a day.

NamelessPhil

I've ridden the Six megaliths 300, there's a fair bit of climbing but it's well spread out and you will be going over Loughcrew. You'll be sick of signs that say "Kells 6km" when you won't be seeing the place for another 50km.

Chuchote

What about going up to Fermanagh and back?

Inquitus

NamelessPhil wrote: »

I've ridden the Six megaliths 300, there's a fair bit of climbing but it's well spread out and you will be going over Loughcrew. You'll be sick of signs that say "Kells 6km" when you won't be seeing the place for another 50km.

I'll second the 6 Megaliths, I did it in 2013 in awful weather, great route, tough day on the bike.

NamelessPhil

Inquitus wrote: »

I'll second the 6 Megaliths, I did it in 2013 in awful weather, great route, tough day on the bike.

You and me both, it began a tradition of most of the 30+ audaxes that I've ridden in weather that is about 9C and wet.

NamelessPhil

The shorter version of the Six megaliths is the King's Mountain 200. It's pretty civilised with plenty of places to stop for a break, Ballivor and Kells are the usual controls, the road surfaces aren't too bad and again it would be easy to adjust the finish to add in some extra kilometres.

ford2600

NamelessPhil wrote: »

The shorter version of the Six megaliths is the King's Mountain 200. It's pretty civilised with plenty of places to stop for a break, Ballivor and Kells are the usual controls, the road surfaces aren't too bad and again it would be easy to adjust the finish to add in some extra kilometres.

Actually there is only one audaxy 300km route out of Dublin on audax website

Some experienced audaxer, say with 30 audax rides, under his/HER belt should really design another one....

NamelessPhil

Ah but the committee says there are enough Dublin based routes at present!

If you want a good 300, the organiser is still taking entries for the Carlingford 300 for this weekend, he'll need them in by Thursday. Ok, it doesn't start from Dublin but it's a great route.

If you are riding a 300, it'll probably take you at least 12 hours, dawn is at 7am approximately and sunset at 7:30pm. Usually most 300km audaxes start at 6am with a 20 hour time limit.

Inquitus

The Dying Sow needs to be resurrected!

smacl

Inquitus wrote: »

The Dying Sow needs to be resurrected!

Was going to suggest the Dying Cow as a good candidate coming from town taking the coast road to Bray, being ~200k circuit from Bray Clubhouse and a lovely route. One stiff climb by the Dying Cow pub itself, but mostly rolling apart from that. You could also skirt the Wicklow mountains by taking the canal as far as its paved, then go Lyons, Athgoe, Punchestown, Ballymore Eustace, Kildavin, Grangecon, Hacketstown, Tinahely, Aughrim, Rathdrum and coast road back up to town. You can make this longer or shorter very easily, loads of options around South Wicklow / North Wexford / Carlow. You've also some nice back road options from Rathdrum to Kilmac to come back via Enniskerry as another alternative.

Carawaystick

The Tara 200 fit's the OP's bill, not too much hill climbing, and the right distance, once you include the spin to Ashbourne and back.

NamelessPhil

The advantage of using a pre-made Audax route is that the route has been checked beforehand and the roads are usually quiet. If you have a GPS the route can be loaded onto it. Many of the small towns and shops on the route are used to mucky audaxers descending on them like a plague of locusts. The shop in Kilmessan even has a track pump.

ford2600

NamelessPhil wrote: »

Ah but the committee says there are enough Dublin based routes at present!

If you want a good 300, the organiser is still taking entries for the Carlingford 300 for this weekend, he'll need them in by Thursday. Ok, it doesn't start from Dublin but it's a great route.

If you are riding a 300, it'll probably take you at least 12 hours, dawn is at 7am approximately and sunset at 7:30pm. Usually most 300km audaxes start at 6am with a 20 hour time limit.

Are you doing Carlingford? Work aligned for me so should be there

OP on start, start as early as possible, that way you can ride in dark when fresh, roads are quite and tired riders are less cranky....

NamelessPhil

I'm not doing Carlingford, I'll probably be divorced! I rode the Nutcracker 300 at the beginning of September and that was a great day out around Kilkenny including Mount Leinster.

ford2600

NamelessPhil wrote: »

I'm not doing Carlingford, I'll probably be divorced! I rode the Nutcracker 300 at the beginning of September and that was a great day out around Kilkenny including Mount Leinster.

Some rough country for a bike, had it in mind to do but achilles said no which hopefully won't be a problem Saturday.

I already had the treat of Mount leinster on Brown stuff

cdaly_

NamelessPhil wrote: »

If you are riding a 300, it'll probably take you at least 12 hours, dawn is at 7am approximately and sunset at 7:30pm. Usually most 300km audaxes start at 6am with a 20 hour time limit.

12 hours, pfft! My last 300 (Priest's Leap) took me 19hours 59minutes. I'm about to sign up for the Antrim 300 which I hope will take me no more than 1 minute longer...

Lambretta

Thank you very much for all responses.

Have completed audax 200km events and plan to do many more and really enjoy the vibe. About to order a Garmin this week and would like to do Carlingford 300 but would be concerned that I may be left at back alone without appropriate navigation. Will none the less check it out now.

The crew that maybe heading out on this cycle may wish to stick to some form of route / continuous loop that does not deviate too far from Dublin as we are not hardy self sufficient in terms of bike mech repair, where people can quit if they wish and get back to base pretty easily - being stuck down in Slieve bloom could be an issue !! So a less scenic route could be on the cards

Carawaystick

Lambretta wrote: »

Thank you very much for all responses.

Have completed audax 200km events and plan to do many more and really enjoy the vibe. About to order a Garmin this week and would like to do Carlingford 300 but would be concerned that I may be left at back alone without appropriate navigation. Will none the less check it out now.

I use the routesheets on Audaxes. They're not the reason I'm near the back alone though...

Red Kev

Your could always try cycling to Wexford and back . Or do Longford, Athlone, Mullingar and back. On both routes you're following the railway and can hop on the train with the bike if something goes wrong or if ye get tired.

Longford -Athlone is a very flat route.

Chuchote

Carawaystick wrote: »

I use the routesheets on Audaxes. They're not the reason I'm near the back alone though...

Where do you get these?

cdaly_

You get them at the start of the ride. If you want to use an audax route as a private spin, you can either use the gpx (usually) available on the event page or you can contact the organiser and look for a copy of the route sheet.

The route sheets are pretty handy but only in an "I wouldn't start from here if I was you" sense as they are simply a set of 'turn left', 'turn right' instructions without any descriptive text. They're useful if you start from the event start and make sure not to get lost. They won't get you back on track if you go astray. You'd want to carry a map (or a gps device with the gpx loaded) also.

Chuchote

Hm.

Great Dublin Bike Ride page is offering a GPX file of the route - what is GPX?

http://greatdublinbikeride.ie/route/

Carawaystick

gpx is a file format, for a route of points recorded by a gps unit.

if you open one in your mapping software, it will show you the route on a map.

Chuchote

Carawaystick wrote: »

gpx is a file format, for a route of points recorded by a gps unit.

if you open one in your mapping software, it will show you the route on a map.

Hmm. It seems TomTom, which is what I mostly use, won't let you use it. What about Maps on the iPad? If I download it will it…

Hmmmm. Tried downloading one on the iPad. It offered me 'Open in…' with the choices being Notes, Gmail, AVPlayerHD, GoodReader or 'copy to Dropbox'. Hmm.

smacl

Chuchote wrote: »

Hmm. It seems TomTom, which is what I mostly use, won't let you use it. What about Maps on the iPad? If I download it will it…

Hmmmm. Tried downloading one on the iPad. It offered me 'Open in…' with the choices being Notes, Gmail, AVPlayerHD, GoodReader or 'copy to Dropbox'. Hmm.

Loads of iPAD navigation apps that will read GPX, https://www.google.ie/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&rlz=1C1ASUC_enIE558IE558&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=gpx%20app%20ios

Chuchote

smacl wrote: »

Loads of iPAD navigation apps that will read GPX, https://www.google.ie/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&rlz=1C1ASUC_enIE558IE558&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=gpx%20app%20ios

Thanks! I'll try one.

Edit: worked! Thank you!

NeedMoreGears

This was a nice one ; starts on Stephens Green though

https://www.strava.com/activities/153881623

310km and about 2500m but only a few hills at the start

sparrowcar

What sort of time frame to do a 200 or 300 spin?
Average speed of 30kph is still 10 hours without breaks so I'm assuming you guys leave early morning and don't return till late evening?

NamelessPhil

NamelessPhil wrote: »

If you are riding a 300, it'll probably take you at least 12 hours, dawn is at 7am approximately and sunset at 7:30pm. Usually most 300km audaxes start at 6am with a 20 hour time limit.

There's your answer.

sparrowcar

NamelessPhil wrote: »

There's your answer.

Thanks. How many proper food stops would you do. As in would a substantial lunch and dinner be taken in or the usual stuff (bananas/sambo/bars/gels)?

cdaly_

It depends. You certainly need to eat properly. On a 200, it'll be rolls from a deli/petrol station. On a 300 or longer, a sit-down main course in a pub or cafe. I tend to carry too much food as I go but the likes of mars bars (or Lidl equivalent) and jelly babies work nicely.

Lambretta

Thanks again for all the suggestions for the 250km to 300km - definitely looking at the Midlands 300 / 6 Megaliths permanent for near future

For practicality and to throw a contribution to charity we may do http://www.cycle4life.ie/ route twice and cycle back to town up Howth hill and out to Killiney and back. At least the DID route will be marked out with mech support for first 100km

The self sufficiency aspect of the Audax could be an issue for our crew.