Mondello 24

Darkglasses

https://mondellopark.ie/mondello24/

This sounds like incredibly good craic, even for a snail like myself. Hoping to pull a team of four together

crosstownk

A work colleague sent me this earlier this week. I might be half interested in getting a group from work.

Surely it'd be better in summer rather than October when the weather could be a lot less than optimal. Rule #5 might be needed.

Darkglasses

crosstownk wrote: »

A work colleague sent me this earlier this week. I might be half interested in getting a group from work.

Surely it'd be better in summer rather than October when the weather could be a lot less than optimal. Rule #5 might be needed.

Summer would've been great, I guess Covid restrictions made it difficult to plan

I'm up to 1 definite and two maybes for my team :eek:

magicbastarder

are more than one team member allowed on track at the same time? there's a mention that it's a drafting event.

magicbastarder

magicbastarder wrote: »

are more than one team member allowed on track at the same time? there's a mention that it's a drafting event.

There's categories. Solo and teams of different sizes I assumed it a le monde type effort for teams and is based on the number of laps completed?

The lockdown and 2/5km rule might have been good training for laps :pac:

WOT

At Audax pace of ~15km/h it’s 360km, 102 laps, 2000m of climbing. (Edit, not 8400, more like 2000m)

At KOM pace of ~46km/h it’s 3x the above.

Doing it as a relay seems like it’d be a lot of standing around (at Mondello, in October, in cycling attire), whereas a team working together on the track would be good fun and maximum track time for everyone.

Plastik

WOT wrote: »

At Audax pace of ~15km/h it’s 360km, 102 laps, 8400m of climbing.

At KOM pace of ~46km/h it’s 3x the above.

Doing it as a relay seems like it’d be a lot of standing around (at Mondello, in October, in cycling attire), whereas a team working together on the track would be good fun and maximum track time for everyone.

There's nowhere near that sort of elevation gain. You'd barely clock 2000m in 100 laps.

Personally, I couldn't fathom an event like this at Mondello. The Nurburgring it isn't. It's boring enough to lap the place for an hour when racing.

magicbastarder

WOT wrote: »

At Audax pace of ~15km/h it’s 360km, 102 laps, 8400m of climbing.

not that i know the track, but i think it's *at* 82m elevation - not that there's 82m of climbing per lap. seems to be very flat.

WOT

magicbastarder wrote: »

not that i know the track, but i think it's *at* 82m elevation - not that there's 82m of climbing per lap. seems to be very flat.

Yes, I got this wrong. Very different at +15-20m per lap.

Fugs!!

Me and a buddy are thinking about it. We only average about 25kph on the road.

Mr. Cats

If a team entry means 1 rider on the track at a time, would 2 individual entries, working together, make more sense as a team?

daragh_

I can see it being slightly problematic when you have a mix of solo riders and 4 man teams on the track at the same time.

A 4 man Team Time Trial effort involves a good bit of discipline and attention at the best of times. Navigating around slower/differently paced riders at 4 o'clock in the morning will be interesting.

Mefistofelino

For teams, its a relay rather than a team time trial

daragh_

Mefistofelino wrote: »

For teams, its a relay rather than a team time trial

AFAIK as a team you can ride any combination you like - much like the RAI. Same organisers. I mentioned it as someone has suggested it upthread.

Mefistofelino

daragh_ wrote: »

AFAIK as a team you can ride any combination you like - much like the RAI. Same organisers. I mentioned it as someone has suggested it upthread.

This is what's mentioned in the FAQs:

"As a team you get to race in relay with your friends. You can decide on your team strategy and change it as needed throughout the event"

Admittedly less than crystal clear. Eight man teams in full TTT mode will end in flames.

Mr. Cats

It’s 275 for an individual and 775 for an 8 person team. Very unlikely that all 8 could race at same time for that price.

Darkglasses

WOT wrote: »

At Audax pace of ~15km/h it’s 360km, 102 laps, 2000m of climbing. (Edit, not 8400, more like 2000m)

At KOM pace of ~46km/h it’s 3x the above.

Doing it as a relay seems like it’d be a lot of standing around (at Mondello, in October, in cycling attire), whereas a team working together on the track would be good fun and maximum track time for everyone.

Thinking about it as a casual - for the relay you could do short stints during the day-time (even 30 minutes) so that nobody's waiting around too long, and then do longer 2 hour stints over night so that everyone gets a decent bit of kip?

magicbastarder

yeah, i suspect i'm going to be dragged in to this - in october, the weather isn't going to be dependable. say a team of four, an hour on and three off, could be cold and boring unless your team mates are good fun.

Darkglasses

Had four in my team, but one has dropped out :(

If anyone is looking to join a team of four, feel free to post here

Darkglasses

The booking portal for garage places opened this morning

koutoubia

The VCB 4 man RAI guys are in with one exception...we have dropped one rider and replaced him with a stronger one.

BRING

IT

ON!

Darkglasses

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117759812#Comment_117759812

We've decided to power on as a team of three. 8 hours out of 24 is not so bad anyway.

magicbastarder

what sort of strategy are you going for? an hour on, followed by two hours resting?

Darkglasses

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117935172#Comment_117935172

If it's dry: We'll do short 30 minutes on the first day - so nobody gets bored waiting too long. Overnight it's two hours, so everybody gets a chance to sleep. Then 2 hours on the following morning to just get the thing over with

If it's wet, we'll get rid of the short stints so we don't have to be going in and out of the wet much

saccades

Sack off the 30 mins swaps, you'll lose more time in the swap than you'll make in the extra freshness. Especially at road speeds if you are drafting smart.

I find that keeping to one time profile is much better. If you are doing a couple of 30 minute stints followed by a 2 hour stint you are going to hate the 2 hour stint and **** up your pacing unless you are very disciplined and watching your heart rate or power output, that's hard when you are tired, you'll just hate it. It's only 24 hours, just grab a nap as and when. It also means you can keep track of expected swap overs, can lose so much time if you **** this. A board can help, do you have a pit bitch/mechanic? Invaluable even if only making cups of warm tea.

Sleep is hard to come by when your pumped with adrenaline.

Less of an issue on a supported race track with a 4 man team but at the end of your session out of the damp kit and into your kit for the next session. Dry = warm, especially so during the night. Get an event shelter or that 100 euro thing from decathlon. Can be made 100% private, and lets you stand to get changed, a godsend after many hours in the saddle.

Also get a proper stable table (bikes will be lent against it) a godsend. Good, comfy seats are also great (and a lookfire). Wicker baskets (don't hold water) are great for holding snacks on the table.

my experience is 12 hour solo or 24 hour pairs on a MTB so kinda relevant (don't think you need to fill syringes with chamois crème so you don't have to try to remove dripping wet muddy kit tbf).

Oh, lights? Dunno if the course is lit, find an MTB mate and nick theirs.

py

Does anyone know if spectators are welcome at this? I was going to pop by and have a look at some stage throughout the day/night.

meercat

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117960371#Comment_117960371

I’d imagine so. They’re actively encouraging friends and families to have bbq’s and a party atmosphere.

Darkglasses

Did anyone get an email about the online rider briefing this evening?

Edit: It's a pre-recorded video going out, I had misunderstood it as a Zoom call kind of thing

Darkglasses

Very helpful video-briefing went out this evening, feeling a lot less nervous and a lot more excited now. Weather forecast is not so bad too 😊

Raam

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117563063#Comment_117563063

I did a 24h in the Nurburgring years ago with the same kind of thing going on. Plenty of space for everyone to do their thing. I've never ridden Mondello though.

Morris Garren

I heard from one of the participants that there is a 'Le Mans Style Start' which means the cyclists have to run across the finishing straight, jump on their bikes and off they go. I'd nearly go and watch that bit just for the fun if it. Never seen it in cycling before, imagine it would be interesting if raining

eeeee

"I heard from one of the participants that there is a 'Le Mans Style Start' which means the cyclists have to run across the finishing straight, jump on their bikes and off they go. I'd nearly go and watch that bit just for the fun if it. Never seen it in cycling before, imagine it would be interesting if raining"

I've done it on track before, so, so much fun and muchly hilarious!

magicbastarder

best of luck today to anyone taking part.

nilhg

Best of luck to all, and to those reading this while they're chomping at the bit to get going, remember the real race only starts at midnight....

magicbastarder

looks like the rain has arrived now (going by the rainfall radar)

nilhg

Link to leaderboard below, some of the solo riders putting up impressive numbers when you compare to some teams

https://partner.racetimer.se/results/relay24h?race_id=4997&minimum_lap_time=60&show_all=true

magicbastarder

some great team names in there - deceunick slow step, for example

eeeee

Anywhere with a list of who's on what team?

magicbastarder

UCD are setting some pace - if each lap is 3.5km, they're averaging about 38km/h.

secman

A lad from Gorey cc avgd 42kph for his first stint this morning, was back on at 5pm but haven't seen it yet.

magicbastarder

sure i'd be able to average 42km/h for my first stint, if my first stint was less than a minute or two long.

dahat

Teams with plenty A1 riders on show for a brief look through Instagram. Fair play plan to all, mad event .

Darkglasses

Just arrived home now, spectacularly hard but so glad I did it. Format is excellent really, race went really well.

As a very mediocre rider it was incredible to see the quality of the best 4 man teams and solo riders up close. Shared a garage with one of the solo riders who basically didn't stop for the full 24 hours, some character. Obviously amazing to see the UCD team zip around for 24 hours like they're on rails.

For myself, my team managed somewhere around 669km combined, which I'm delighted with. I contributed something like 150km which I'm also very pleased with. Great achievement that an event can be organized which happily accommodates slower folk like me and the mad men who won their categories.

Few little kinks to be ironed out for next time, and also the weather was horrific

magicbastarder

yeah, a chap i know was doing it and said the weather really was a struggle, said a few of the inclines were right into the wind.

how easy is it to get into a rhythm at mondello, or do all the twists and turns make that difficult?

Darkglasses

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118032567#Comment_118032567

Yeah the start/finish straight and the drag up from Tarzan were right into the wind, I'm sure i wasn't the only one blown about by crosswinds too. Very hard weather-wise.

I thought it was fine getting into a rhythm, IMO it's a quite nice circuit. Maybe different for people going a bit quicker than me

magicbastarder

dunno how accurate it is, but a couple of the segments on strava show 0.5% and 0.7% inclines. they probably feel like three times that into a headwind.

eeimcaw

Did the event as a 3 man team as one of the lads got injured beforehand.

Was a brilliantly organised event. Garage were great base for the day and having hot food in the cafe for the 24hours was very handy.

Steward were very friendly and they didn't go to town enforcing rules on pitlanes etc. Only seen one fella puncture during the event and was talking to one of the stewards and was only 2 small incidents reported and nothing serious. Had any amount of bottled water available for the teams to take throughout the event.

Track itself is nice and wide so felt very safe and could sweep around most corners by just letting off the cadence except for the final corner into the finishing straight. Was no rules on passing so could pass on either side but that was because the track is so wide and coming out of corners you drift across the road. Surface is good but wasn't as smooth as i thought it would be but guess with cars speed around there is bound to be plenty of wear and tear.

The rain did put a dampener on the event, started raining about 19:00 and rained heavy till 11/12 and then mist till nearly 6/7 in the morning. Was great buzz around the pitlane before the rain came in. Luckily it never got cold, was about 12 degrees during the night.

First time doing such on event and team finished 19th overall so happy with that.

All credit to the solo riders, machines!

Dr_Colossus

Searched for results to see what sort of distances people/teams had clocked.

Very impressive results from the solo riders, 1st place with 199 laps of 3.5km totaling just under 700km or over an average of 29km/h, wow. Top 3 all over 190 laps so very tight at the top.

One 8 man team only got in 27 laps or 94km, any idea what happened there as even if one or two riders took ill/injured surely they had enough cyclists to continue especially given the hefty entrance fee.

https://www.myrunresults.com/events/mondello_24hr/4216/results

magicbastarder

there are some teams not listed on that page - a chap i know was in the pace makers who finished on 179 laps but aren't listed.

Darkglasses

Yeah the timing is something that needs to be tweaked for next time I think - riders were issued with paper numbers with a chip inside, and after 24 hours of rain and wind a lot of them disintegrated or could have been lost during a jersey change. Also obvious that a fair few laps weren't counted, you can see from the timings that some of the laps marked in red are exactly the length of two laps

meercat

Did this event solo and really enjoyed it. Great camaraderie amongst riders and crew.there were some solo riders unsupported too so massive respect. Tough conditions overnight added to the challenge for everyone. Heard they will do it again in June.