Tour De Conamara 140k

kpbryww

Two club cyclists 1st timers on "The Tour" looking to join a group spin on Tour De conamara 140k if there is anybody spining alone or a group that can extend to two more.

at1withmyself

There will be over a 1000 people on the road so you'll have no issues getting into groups on the road. The route itself is fairly flat at the start so its easy to move around the groups.

Don't worry about getting in the groups as it will just happen, just enjoy the scenery, tis a great route!

Boscoirl

Enjoyed this yesterday despite the dull weather. 12 of us from the Club did it together and a another 4 from the leisure group did it at their pace.

We averaged ~30kmph to Leenaun. Stopped for a pint(or two) which resulted in our average speed dropping to 26-27 by the time we got back to Clifden.

jamesd

Enjoyed it, nice not get rain on the 140km.

AxleAddict

Yeah - a bit of a shame it was so misty early on - it really is a beautiful route when it's clear and sunny (although, for my money, Westportif still manages to cram in the most eye-candy per KM of any sportive I've done in the last few years).

For extra pain, I did the Tour of Mayo the following day too, starting in Ballyhaunis it also passes through Leenaun - strong westerly winds made for hard going between Westport and Leenaun (in fairness, the winds were forecast so....) and each time I was passed by a car heading the other direction with bikes on the back (presumably people heading home from the Tour de Conamara the next day) I was beginning to question what on earth I was doing (with another ~120KM still to do at that point). The only thing that kept me going was the knowledge that the route turned eastwards after Leenaun - so...so good to finally have a tailwind

statto25

Did the 140km and enjoyed it despite the misty conditions. Felt leggy around 100k but a gel sorted that. Anyone know how the guy who crashed coming into clifden is? We awere heading home and there were guards and an ambulance around a rider.

brownian

Not a bad spin. Went out for 50 on the Sunday...the afternoon turned out glorious.

who_ru

statto25 wrote: »

Did the 140km and enjoyed it despite the misty conditions. Felt leggy around 100k but a gel sorted that. Anyone know how the guy who crashed coming into clifden is? We awere heading home and there were guards and an ambulance around a rider.

i didn't see that but the last 5km or so was very dodgy with traffic and cyclists coming in close contact - a club with about 12 riders ripped it into clifden around 4pm with an SUV stopped right at the final turn by the petrol station - how 5 or 6 of them didn't crash into it i'll never know. that was my 3rd tour in a row, might try something else next year although it comes at a goof time and can get you in shape early.

jamesd

who_ru wrote: »

i didn't see that but the last 5km or so was very dodgy with traffic and cyclists coming in close contact - a club with about 12 riders ripped it into clifden around 4pm with an SUV stopped right at the final turn by the petrol station - how 5 or 6 of them didn't crash into it i'll never know. that was my 3rd tour in a row, might try something else next year although it comes at a goof time and can get you in shape early.

Ring of beara is the same day and excellent

AxleAddict

I did the Ring of Beara for the first time last year - after a recommendation from a friend - you certainly won't go hungry, thats for sure - my recollection is that it was food-stops galore with some bits of cycling in between. The general atmosphere of the event was very social and it definitely seemed to be aimed very squarely at the leisure cyclist who wants to have a good time rather than blast around the route as fast as possible. That said, I didn't enjoy it as much as I thought I would - maybe after all the good things I'd heard about it, I had conjured up some unrealistic expectations in my mind. There was also a bottleneck along the route where they were stopping people to check that they were part of the event - seemed like a recipe for disaster with large volumes of cyclists arriving at the same time! The event seems to sell out quite fast the last couple of years, so they're obviously doing more things right than wrong, and probably benefiting from some people who've switched from the (increasingly expensive) Ring of Kerry too...

I normally manage to squeeze in somewhere between 30-40 sportives a year, typically two a weekend during the summer months, so I reckon I've seen the good, the bad, the long, the short, the wet, the dry, the cheap, the expensive, the easy, the hard, the large, the small, the windy, the calm, the flat, the lumpy, the scenic, the dull, the organised, the disorganised and everything else in between

Of course, everyone's experience is different and what might be a great sportive for me, could be miserable for someone else.