Giants causeway sportive 2018

saccades

Anyone else entered?

When I booked in may I didn't pay attention to the altitude of the route map and just looked at torr head (looks pretty hard, certainly after ~155km) but there appears to be some savage lumps in the middle too?

Anyone done this and the climbs in Wicklow or corrabut climb and compare?

Have accommodation booked for two nights so planning to stay for the after party too.

Sinbad_NI

Couple of big climbs on the way, but nothing steep, just decent length.

Killer is the 20+% on the 3 sections of Torr.

talkabout

Torr Head is a killer, really tough. Great day out tho

benneca1

talkabout wrote: »

Torr Head is a killer, really tough. Great day out tho

Yes Torr head is the one the rest not bad just don't go at them too hard. Torr head is vertical and has a false top

AxleAddict

As others have pointed out, the Torr head route is not one but multiple climbs (with some descents in between - I recommend you use them as an opportunity to recover between climbs rather than pushing on). The good thing about the Causeway Coast Sportive is that the last water stop is right before the first major climb to Torr head - from there you should be able to make out the bobbing helmets of other hardy souls who've opted to make the climb - and - if you're not feeling it, especially since Torr Head is right at the end of the route - you can always opt for 'Easy Street' - although from what I hear, its not exactly 'easy' - just flatter than Torr. Alternatively, you can opt for the middle distance route (85mi/137km) - and still do Torr Head - hopefully the legs will feel a little fresher by the time you reach it than they might have had you opted for the full distance route (115mi/185km).

The other climbs are longer but no-where near as steep as Torr. Fingers crossed the weather is better this year, because last year (at least in the morning) it was dire - between rain pouring from the heavens and huge pools of standing water on the road you were getting soaked one way or the other - given the deteriorating state of our roads in the North lately there could be all sorts of nastiness hiding beneath a puddle.

Good luck!

saccades

Cheers, plan to do the full course - I'm water proof so should be fine in the wet. Can't be worse than w200 3-4 years ago when it was like being in the shower at home.

Read that the torr climb hits 40% in places, that can't be right surely?

27 on the corrabut was hard enough.

AxleAddict

saccades wrote: »

Read that the torr climb hits 40% in places, that can't be right surely?

I believe the maximum gradient is around 23-24% (unless it spikes up sharply on the inside of a hairpin or something) - but definitely not as much as 40%, and the average gradient is around 15-16%


https://www.cyclinguk.org/article/great-rides-giants-causeway-northern-ireland

saccades

That was a good spin, big thanks to the people that stopped to help.

Picked up a puncture, Valve on the replacement inner tube got stuck in the pump. Sound fella lent me his pump so stuck my 2nd spare tube and I got going again, only for this tube to die after another 20km in an odd deformed way. No tubes left and in a phone dead zone so started to walk.

Two lads lent me a tube and their pump to get going again. Bumped into a support car and got some pliars for the valve and a backup tube (plus bought one later).

I replace tubes in the saddle bag every winter so grumpy they were so bad.

Dark hedges was a cool place for a photo, torr head was completed without stopping. (very, very slowly mind as I thought it was higher than it actually was), very tough but mainly due to distance into the event as there are bits you can rest on.

Well ran event, good atmosphere and we had decent weather apart from the gentle rainfall at the start.

Pasta at the end was glorious, well recommend the event.

magicbastarder

mate of mine did it, said torr head was the hardest he's ever worked on the bike. looking at the cushendall climb too, that's a good haul, 7km @ 5%.

Mercian Pro

Well done saccades.

It's been on my to-do list for a while but always seems to clash with the Rebel Tour. Only got back to Dublin at 6.30pm on Friday after a week's cycling in France and reckoned driving to Ballycastle straight after dinner would have cost me a fortune in brownie points (or more likely a divorce).

Did you stay in or Ballycastle or Belfast or drive up on the morning?

saccades

magicbastarder wrote: »

mate of mine did it, said torr head was the hardest he's ever worked on the bike. looking at the cushendall climb too, that's a good haul, 7km @ 5%.

Yeah, that was a prolonged grind. The descent was glorious though.

Stayed up in ballycastle the Friday and Saturday, original plan included the missus, but she changed her mind. Meant a nice chilled set of pints after the event and then a lazy read of a good book in the morning. Heaven.

marathon50

One that was on my bucket list for a couple years and got to do it on Saturday I have to say very disappointed. It was a great course very tough but the road management was very poor. We did the 185km and found a lot dangerous junctions were not even marshalled and some of the ones that were it was a poor effort. They need to take a leaf out the Wicklow 200 book and get some cyclists to look after road management.
Torr Head great and unusually type climb with all the downhill between the 4 climbs really enjoyed that.