Tour De Foothills 2018

Naas Cycling Club

The wheels are in motion for Naas Cycling Club’s Tour de Foothills. Annual Cycle in
association with Saplings School for Children with Autism and Special Needs, Kill,
Co. Kildare.

The 2018 Tour de Foothills will take place on Sunday 15th April and there will be two routes, 65km around the Blessington Lakes and 110km around the foothills of the Wicklow mountains, so there is a route to suit all cycling levels and abilities.
Pre register and pre-pay online at https://www.naascyclingclub.com/tourdefoothills/ or sign up on the morning of the cycle at Finlay Motor Group, M7 Business Park, Newhall, Naas from 8am.
All Online entries go into draw for Velorevolution Cycling Kit (full details on website)
Both 65km and 110km routes leave at 9:30am. Safety, medical, mechanical
and broom wagon support vehicles, road markings and refreshments are all included.

Saplings Special School, Kill, is a co-educational, autism specific special school,providing high quality education for pupils with autism and complex needs. The school offers a range of child centred, autism specific education which draws on a range of evidence based interventions. There are currently 24 students attending the school between the ages of 5 and 18. All students have a primary diagnosis of autism and a secondary diagnosis of a mild, moderate or severe/ profound learning disability.

NCC’s previous collaborations with Saplings has resulted in a new sensory room,adaptive climbing wall and specialist equipment being provided for the children’s use.
Saplings Special School for Children with Autism and Complex Needs is hope to purchase a top of the range 75 inch touch screen interactive whiteboard.
It has an electronic height adjustable stand so can be used with the smallest four year olds ,and older classes.
Additionally Saplings hope to procure 7 iPads for the classrooms and also a top quality digital camera and a printer/ scanner,so that the children can complete project work and display it for staff, their peers and their parents on the screen.
Investing in this type of technology would be hugely beneficial to the school.

So please take the opportunity on Sunday 15th April to get out on your bike and enjoy the cycle.

Further information at:
Twitter: @naascyclingclub
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ncctdf/

py

Really enjoyed this event last year. Good route, good food stops and great marshalling....as per other Naas club events. To top it off, it's for a worthy cause.

Mercian Pro

It was always my first sportif of the season until the Haul de Naul got in ahead of it. Booked in and looking forward to it.

Grassey

I'm signed up too. I'll be optimistic and hope for the first ss pink boards jersey outing of late spring...

P_1

Signed up this morning when I got the call that the new bike would be ready. Quick question, what's the Naas Road like traffic wise at 7ish on a Sunday morning? Safe enough to cycle?

Naas Cycling Club

Ok so we're ready for tomorrow morning... Few housekeeping notes !

1- Registration is open from 8am.

2- Parking available in Merlin Car Auctions, (Car Park A).

Due to M7 upgrade our usual overflow parking beside Finlay Motors is not available this year. Please follow signs for Car Park B whick is located 2 mins away in Naas Retail Park ( Right Price Tiles / B&Q).

3- Please be mindful of the road surfaces along the routes as the winter has taken its toll on the roads.

4 - Enjoy your Cycle and make sure to 'Smile' when you see Naas Photography Group 😄🚴ðŸ¼*♀️.

On behalf for Sapling's School for Children with Autism 'Thank You'

Wishbone Ash

P_1 wrote: »

... Quick question, what's the Naas Road like traffic wise at 7ish on a Sunday morning? Safe enough to cycle?

Take care when you come to the end of the slip roads as the hard shoulder ends and traffic will be emerging at speed and you may end up in that 'no man's land' between traffic on the carriageway and sliproad. There also tends to be quite a bit of debris on the hard shoulder.

Grassey

P_1 wrote:

Signed up this morning when I got the call that the new bike would be ready. Quick question, what's the Naas Road like traffic wise at 7ish on a Sunday morning? Safe enough to cycle?

Depending on where you are coming from I find going parallel to n7 on the bike more enjoyable, rathcoole, kill, Johnstown, Naas. I plan to do the reverse of that to get home.

easygoing39

I cycled up and down the Naas Rd for the Martin Early Tour of Kildare last year,no problems at all.At the Red Cow on the way into Dublin I took the bike route across the bridges and thru the Luas car park,handy and safe.

Inquitus

Wishbone Ash wrote: »

Take care when you come to the end of the slip roads as the hard shoulder ends and traffic will be emerging at speed and you may end up in that 'no man's land' between traffic on the carriageway and sliproad. There also tends to be quite a bit of debris on the hard shoulder.

Unless very quiet it's dodgy as feck, have done it a few times heading to my mate in Saggart, busy roads and traffic don't generally bother me, but the on and off ramps there are defo dangerous imho.

Mercian Pro

I'm sure the weather must have been good on some previous TdFs but somehow, I can only remember the wet ones. Despite the rain and SE wind, it was a great event yesterday - organisation, marshalling and food stops were all first class. Being part of a club group really paid off in the wind especially on the Hollywood to Donard leg.
Two things really stood out - the warm welcome in Donard and back at the finish from the parents from the Saplings school and the great photos that were already up on the event FB site last night. Thanks to all involved including Naas CC of course.

terrydel

Mercian Pro wrote: »

I'm sure the weather must have been good on some previous TdFs but somehow, I can only remember the wet ones. Despite the rain and SE wind, it was a great event yesterday - organisation, marshalling and food stops were all first class. Being part of a club group really paid off in the wind especially on the Hollywood to Donard leg.
Two things really stood out - the warm welcome in Donard and back at the finish from the parents from the Saplings school and the great photos that were already up on the event FB site last night. Thanks to all involved including Naas CC of course.

I waited at Hollywood turn for the guy I was cycling with, Galego of this board, didnt know if he was in front or behind me, turns out he'd had a tyre blow and had to abort! So lost the group I was with. There were two guys ahead of me and I had to kill myself to catch them but it was worth it! That section was the worst of the lot!

Naas Cycling Club

Mercian Pro wrote: »

I'm sure the weather must have been good on some previous TdFs but somehow, I can only remember the wet ones. Despite the rain and SE wind, it was a great event yesterday - organisation, marshalling and food stops were all first class. Being part of a club group really paid off in the wind especially on the Hollywood to Donard leg.
Two things really stood out - the warm welcome in Donard and back at the finish from the parents from the Saplings school and the great photos that were already up on the event FB site last night. Thanks to all involved including Naas CC of course.

Thanks for your support and kind comments

Naas Cycling Club

A massive THANKS to everyone who made today's Tour De Foothills for Sapling's School for Children with Autism happen.

Kudos to ALL our participants today on a wet & cold morning.

Long range forecast for April 2019 is looking a little better!!

Plenty of photos from yesterday courtesy of Naas Photography Group are shared on our Facebook page

https://m.facebook.com/ncctdf/