Great Dublin Bike Ride 2018 - 23rd Sept

veetwin · 23-09-2018 07:51PM

I would agree with py above. Thoroughly enjoyed the 105k cycle with about a dozen mates.

We all agreed that it was bad value for money. Over €50 for a sandwich and a banana that we queued for 20 mins for. No other options. The ROK is much maligned on this forum but their food stops are far superior offering a much broader range of food with less queuing.

Marshalling and Gardaí were excellent.

Phoenix park should have been closed to traffic for the couple of hours.

Don't think I'd do it again but enjoyed none the less - weather was great considering what was forecast a few days ago.

What was the point of the traffic cones on the descent after Fort Lucan? Downright dangerous IMHO.

Where do the profits of this event go? 7K participants at c€50 pp is €350,000

tonytiger81 · 23-09-2018 07:53PM

Did the 65k and thankful the rain stayed away. Agree that the final stretch had too many stop/starts and realistically the main stretch of the park is usually closed to traffic at weekends so why not send it down that way? Our group stopped for pints at the strawberry hall. Great pints well deserved ðŸ˜Š

squa · 23-09-2018 08:19PM

I've done a few Sportifs over the last 3 years and of them all, this one is probably closer to a leisure cycle. The big numbers meant the bunching for the first 15km and the last 30km reduced the pace drastically. So there was only about 55km in the middle where you can push yourself. But to be honest I'm ok with that because it was great to see so many cyclists out in force.

The first 20km North along the coast was absolutely glorious this morning. I think the marshals and Gardai did a fantastic job, stopping traffic as best the could, which for me was pretty much every junction/roundabout. Despite their great efforts, it didn't stop some tool hurling a few profanities when a Garda stopped everyone at a red light on a busy stretch back into town.

The only disappointment for me was that I too frequently noticed some Type A personalities act like they owned the road. Its no wonder motorists (of which I am one 80% of the time I use the road) lose their patience with cyclists. Regularly I saw groups over taking on the other side of the white line on blind corners and with on coming traffic. As one previous poster mentioned other clowns over taking cars who were patiently sitting in line waiting for a break. On one incident the car in question was actually making a right turn and still cyclists shot past on the outside. It's one of the rare times we as cyclists get the opportunity to shown that we can safely share the road with other users. Unfortunately behaviour like that doesn't help the cause.

All in all a good day out and I'd definitely consider it again next year. We'll done to everyone who finished and best wishes to anyone injured. I did the 105 in about 4 hours..... my main excuses for not posting a faster time are that I had the vomiting bug during the week and I did the last section through the Phoenix Pk with one of the Garda bike units.... plus I'm fat!

Eamonnator · 23-09-2018 08:19PM

Weepsie wrote: »

€5 of that is insurance, there was also an early bird registration too that was slightly cheaper.

Gardai don't do it for free, the mechanics are all paid a flat fee as far as I know, food costs are no doubt deducted.

CI pay tax on income too I think.

Cycling Clubs, who provide marshals, are paid a fee.

It all adds up.

54and56 · 23-09-2018 08:39PM

veetwin wrote: »

Over €50 for a sandwich and a banana that we queued for 20 mins for. No other options.

I think that's harsh.

Putting on a major event like this requires serious professional support and that, along with route planning/management, Gardai and Marshall expenses plus registration administration, your sambo, energy bar, energy/electrolyte drink, tea/coffee, portaloo's, mobile mechanics, broom wagons, goodie bag, medal and pasta/soup etc at the end all cost serious money.

It's easy to be a hurler on the ditch!!

veetwin · 23-09-2018 08:57PM

Je_suis_Jean wrote: »

veetwin wrote: »

Over €50 for a sandwich and a banana that we queued for 20 mins for. No other options.

I think that's harsh.

Putting on a major event like this requires serious professional support and that, along with route planning/management, Gardai and Marshall expenses plus registration administration, your sambo, energy bar, energy/electrolyte drink, tea/coffee, portaloo's, mobile mechanics, broom wagons, goodie bag, medal and pasta/soup etc at the end all cost serious money.

It's easy to be a hurler on the ditch!!

In fairness I don't think I was being a hurler on the ditch. I was merely offering am opinion based on my experience as a participant in various sportives and the ROK Charity cycle.

I left all of those events feeling it was worthwhile and well organised value for money.

I don't dispute that putting on this event was costly and acknowledged the great work of marshals and Gardai.

There a great sportives put on every weekend up and down the country for half the cost of this event with better services and that was the background to my post.

If that makes me a hurler on the ditch then so be it.

squa · 23-09-2018 09:04PM

veetwin wrote: »

In fairness I don't think I was being a hurler on the ditch. I was merely offering am opinion based on my experience as a participant in various sportives and the ROK Charity cycle.

I left all of those events feeling it was worthwhile and well organised value for money.

I don't dispute that putting on this event was costly and acknowledged the great work of marshals and Gardai.

There a great sportives put on every weekend up and down the country for half the cost of this event with better services and that was the background to my post.

If that makes me a hurler on the ditch then so be it.

This event was very well run and obviously that costs money. Especially the amount of marshals involved.

However, I do agree that €50 is a higher price point and the food at the stop didn't reflect that. I've done €30 events down the country with much less participants and therefore less marshals required, but the spread is unreal. Some start with a breakfast and there's usually more food at the stops than my Granny's Sunday dinner!!

54and56 · 23-09-2018 09:45PM

veetwin wrote: »

There a great sportives put on every weekend up and down the country for half the cost of this event with better services and that was the background to my post.

When you combine 7,000 participants with Dublin City you get the highest cost base in the country

Facilitating 7,000 cyclists on two different routes over 105km with a capital city start and finish can't be compared to hosting a few hundred on a sleepy Sunday in XXX (insert your preferred rural town)!!

Wishbone Ash · 23-09-2018 10:59PM

squa wrote: »

...I've done €30 events down the country with much less participants and therefore less marshals required, but the spread is unreal......

At smaller events, especially when it's for a specific cause, much of the food is prepared by volunteers - hence the wide variety on offer as each volunteer brings something different to the table.

You can't compare a small local event to one catering for 7,000 participants.

ED E · 23-09-2018 11:26PM

As a consumer their cost base isn't really relevant. What you pay and what you get are. A well managed "normal" sportif presents, in my eyes, a much much better value proposition.

A bit of the city doesn't really add anything over what Wicklow offers. A little novel maybe but not nearly as scenic.

Borderfox · 24-09-2018 06:49AM

I thought the last 30km was a shambles between the choice of route and merging the 105 and the 65 together. Cant say anything about the food stop as we went to the café in Naul but last year a hefty queue for two heels buttered on the wrong side wasn't welcomed.
The run at the start out of the city is great but I think the run back was a lot safer last year even if it wasn't as scenic as the Strawberry beds.
Last year for me

magicbastarder · 24-09-2018 08:19AM

Chap I know who's a garda (and did the GDBR) said the guys in blanchardstown told him there were lots of offs around junctions with the volume of cars mixed with cyclists, especially getting near the blanchardstown centre at lunchtime. Said they predicted it won't be allowed on that route again.

Wishbone Ash · 24-09-2018 08:55AM

ED E wrote: »

....A bit of the city doesn't really add anything over what Wicklow offers. A little novel maybe but not nearly as scenic.

I'd imagine the purpose of the GDBR is to raise the profile of cycling and encourage more people to get out on their bikes. There were huge numbers of 'occasional' cyclists out yesterday, many of them cycling in 'normal' clothing. If it went to Wicklow, many of them simply wouldn't do it. Scenic usually means climbs.

Starting in the city centre is novel but it's also a 'neutral' venue and has an element of 'take back the streets' about it. I've never heard anyone suggest that the Dublin Marathon should start in Tallaght or Blanchardstown.

Wishbone Ash · 24-09-2018 08:58AM

magicbastarder wrote: »

Chap I know who's a garda (and did the GDBR)....

Saw lots of Gardai cycling the route in full uniform and Garda bikes. Was wondering if they were obliged to do that or did they volunteer to do it? It would be nice to be cycling and getting Sunday premium pay at the same time.

py · 24-09-2018 09:16AM

Atom Ant wrote: »

However,I was curious with all the rain jackets going on. Was I missing something.

I put mine on when I started queueing for the start line but took it off a few minutes before the off. I used it to keep some heat in and appeared to work as it was the legs that were cold as I was standing around.

Borderfox · 24-09-2018 09:24AM

Wishbone Ash wrote: »

ED E wrote: »

....A bit of the city doesn't really add anything over what Wicklow offers. A little novel maybe but not nearly as scenic.

I'd imagine the purpose of the GDBR is to raise the profile of cycling and encourage more people to get out on their bikes. There were huge numbers of 'occasional' cyclists out yesterday, many of them cycling in 'normal' clothing. If it went to Wicklow, many of them simply wouldn't do it. Scenic usually means climbs.

Starting in the city centre is novel but it's also a 'neutral' venue and has an element of 'take back the streets' about it. I've never heard anyone suggest that the Dublin Marathon should start in Tallaght or Blanchardstown.

Dublin Marathon is on closed roads
A lot of the Gardaí around the Blanchardstown/Clonsilla/Clonee are at the roundabouts were standing back doing nothing

merc230ce · 24-09-2018 09:42AM

I thought the marshalling was bizarre in general and downright dangerous at times. The Guards were obviously under instruction to stand back and not direct traffic, but the fact that they were there at all just caused confusion. Most people assumed 'Well if the Guard is there looking at me and not telling me to stop, it must be ok for me to go', which is perfectly logical in my mind. Only I spoke to one of them and in their heads it was 'If you are not getting a hand signal from me you must obey the rules of the road.' So there were cyclists flying out onto roundabouts in front of cars which had right of way, or crashing into the back of other cyclists who had stopped to give way. I thought it was chaotic. If the Guards hadn't been there it would have been safer because everyone would have just cycled normally instead of assuming they had the right of way.

I also think that a field of 7000 requires closed roads. The worst section was just after the 65 and the 105 routes merged and the traffic was quite heavy too (was that around Clonsilla somewhere?) There were some poor motorists stranded in a river of cyclists, completely surrounded, and the thought that kept occurring to me was 'Is that driver going to be more considerate or less considerate of cyclists in the future?' I know what my guess is!

jamesd · 24-09-2018 10:02AM

First time doing this cycle, drove up from Galway in the morning.
Enjoyed the route out of the City and also the middle part of the cycle but the last few km into the city again was chaos and dangerous as everyone is saying.

Food stop was too early, be nicer if it was 50km / 60km in but look maybe it was the most suitable place for a stop, would have liked a few scones / sweets at the stop but the sandwiches were lovely and fresh.

Not a cycle I would do again because of the chaos into the city at the end but I am glad I did it yesterday and got my medal / cap.... (Good over all value I think)

24-09-2018 10:03AM

Would agree with many of the points made.
There seemed to be a much bigger crowd this year, ( or it could be I just started a bit later?), huge queue at the lunch stop, so I didn't bother waiting.
On other years, I seemed to be cycling on my own a fair bit, then joining a group, falling off, joining another group etc, but this year there I was never on mu own.
The last 25km when the 65k group joined didn't work well at all, they seemed a lot slower, and we ended up stuck in traffic chaos.
Having said all that, I will do it again next year as I have done the first 4, and enjoyed the day,

Hurrache · 24-09-2018 10:06AM

magicbastarder wrote: »

Chap I know who's a garda (and did the GDBR) said the guys in blanchardstown told him there were lots of offs around junctions with the volume of cars mixed with cyclists, especially getting near the blanchardstown centre at lunchtime. Said they predicted it won't be allowed on that route again.

When I went through, fair enough the masses may have past by then, but the stewards from Hollystown roundabout into Ballycoolin were not doing a whole lot. A couple of cyclists went ahead of me at one the roundabouts on the N2/N3 link road and the steward was leaning against a fence well away from the roundabout and gave no advice or direction to either the cyclists or traffic.

Later on that afternoon I was joining the M50 southbound at Ballymount and there was some motorcyle ride thing, a **** load of bikers, and I was stopped coming off the road by 2 motorcycle marshals, no gardai. They pulled over onto the slip and stopped traffic joining the M50. Now I didn't mind it but it shows the differences in how marshalling at different events are approached and accepted by other road users.

AmberGold · 24-09-2018 10:18AM

All round a good event, the Smithfield start/finish is better with the run down the length of the Quays.

The foodstop @ Naul needs more thought and couldn't cope with the numbers. The sandwiches were top class and those manning the stop were clearly doing their best. As others have stated bringing the route through Clonsilla was a bad move, tagging on another 30k round the lanes of NCD would have been a better option and easily done. Having cones on the descent into the Strawberry beds was crazy.

Andy Magic · 24-09-2018 11:34AM

merc230ce wrote: »

I thought the marshalling was bizarre in general and downright dangerous at times. The Guards were obviously under instruction to stand back and not direct traffic, but the fact that they were there at all just caused confusion. Most people assumed 'Well if the Guard is there looking at me and not telling me to stop, it must be ok for me to go', which is perfectly logical in my mind. Only I spoke to one of them and in their heads it was 'If you are not getting a hand signal from me you must obey the rules of the road.' So there were cyclists flying out onto roundabouts in front of cars which had right of way, or crashing into the back of other cyclists who had stopped to give way. I thought it was chaotic. If the Guards hadn't been there it would have been safer because everyone would have just cycled normally instead of assuming they had the right of way.

I also think that a field of 7000 requires closed roads. The worst section was just after the 65 and the 105 routes merged and the traffic was quite heavy too (was that around Clonsilla somewhere?) There were some poor motorists stranded in a river of cyclists, completely surrounded, and the thought that kept occurring to me was 'Is that driver going to be more considerate or less considerate of cyclists in the future?' I know what my guess is!

Your post is spot on, I found it the exact same. We were approaching a red light with a guard and we assumed we could keep going but as we got closer we could see he was waving the cars to go through in front of us so we stopped and a guy who was sitting on the back of our group went into the back of us.

Last year the guards were stopping cars at lights to let the bikes through but this year was the opposite so it was very confusing.

Overall it was a good spin but I didn't feel satisfied after it, there was nowhere towards the end to have a good dig, each time we approached a roundabout we would be wondering where to go or looking for those small signs. Also the ramps in the strawberry beds are ****, such a shame because it's a nice road otherwise with a climb at the end.

DJ WIPEOUT · 24-09-2018 11:39AM

Hi everyone,
I turned my 22km round trip work daily cycle into a 105k sportive for the first time with this event and thoroughly enjoyed it! I used my 'Cube - The Editor' commuter bike which is belt driven and comes with 11 gears. Got punished on the ascents (as the cycle went on) with this bike and thoroughly enjoyed opening it up on the descents! In total for the cycle, I clocked 28km/h avg & 63.2km/h max speed in a time of 3:46.
Weather forecasters were thankfully way off the mark! I went with GDBR's weather update of cool and breezy with a chance of showers when deciding on the right clothing to wear! Overwhelmingly, it seems most people found the merging of 105 & 65 routes & car traffic was a disaster and I'd agree.
Can anyone help me out with the following: (i) is it possible to know the time of the fastest 105k cyclist to benchmark against? and (ii) did anyone else pay for the 'FinisherPix' photos (€15) - how, when and where are these to be obtained?
Thanks and well done to all! Viva the Irish cycling revolution!!!

Andy Magic · 24-09-2018 11:44AM

DJ WIPEOUT wrote: »

Can anyone help me out with the following: (i) is it possible to know the time of the fastest 105k cyclist to benchmark against? and (ii) did anyone else pay for the 'FinisherPix' photos (€15) - how, when and where are these to be obtained?
Thanks and well done to all! Viva the Irish cycling revolution!!!

We were the first back, not sure if we were the fastest of the day though, attached is my ride data.

Not sure about finisher pix, i wouldn't mind looking at them myself. I know last year they sent a mail when they were all ready to view.

Lewotsil · 24-09-2018 11:44AM

veetwin wrote: »

I would agree with py above. Thoroughly enjoyed the 105k cycle with about a dozen mates.

We all agreed that it was bad value for money. Over €50 for a sandwich and a banana that we queued for 20 mins for. No other options. The ROK is much maligned on this forum but their food stops are far superior offering a much broader range of food with less queuing.

Marshalling and Gardaí were excellent.

Phoenix park should have been closed to traffic for the couple of hours.

Don't think I'd do it again but enjoyed none the less - weather was great considering what was forecast a few days ago.

What was the point of the traffic cones on the descent after Fort Lucan? Downright dangerous IMHO.

Where do the profits of this event go? 7K participants at c€50 pp is €350,000

I raised this point a few weeks back when my OH signed up .........this parish is full of ROK knockers and the money goes to charity and you get so well looked after. Where does the money go on this ?

DJ WIPEOUT · 24-09-2018 12:01PM

Andy Magic wrote: »

DJ WIPEOUT wrote: »

Can anyone help me out with the following: (i) is it possible to know the time of the fastest 105k cyclist to benchmark against? and (ii) did anyone else pay for the 'FinisherPix' photos (€15) - how, when and where are these to be obtained?
Thanks and well done to all! Viva the Irish cycling revolution!!!

We were the first back, not sure if we were the fastest of the day though, attached is my ride data.

Not sure about finisher pix, i wouldn't mind looking at them myself. I know last year they sent a mail when they were all ready to view.

Thanks so much for sharing your stats (impressive and well done) - just to have some idea of how I did ;-) Out of curiosity, did you start from the front of the pen?

Borderfox · 24-09-2018 12:08PM

I presume it goes to Titan (who run it) and then after the Gardaí and Marshalls are paid whatever is left goes to Sport Ireland to promote sport?

Andy Magic · 24-09-2018 12:13PM

DJ WIPEOUT wrote: »

Thanks so much for sharing your stats (impressive and well done) - just to have some idea of how I did ;-) Out of curiosity, did you start from the front of the pen?

Yeah I started in the front, I joined as the first bikes were leaving ðŸ‘

Wishbone Ash · 24-09-2018 12:40PM

Lewotsil wrote: »

.........this parish is full of ROK knockers and the money goes to charity.....

I take your point but I suppose the vast majority of those doing the ROK are not 'local' and it works out as a very expensive trip when you factor in overpriced accommodation for perhaps 2 nights and expensive restaurants.

I say most of those doing the GDBR did not require accommodation etc.

Kamu · 24-09-2018 02:39PM

merc230ce wrote: »

I thought the marshalling was bizarre in general and downright dangerous at times. The Guards were obviously under instruction to stand back and not direct traffic, but the fact that they were there at all just caused confusion. Most people assumed 'Well if the Guard is there looking at me and not telling me to stop, it must be ok for me to go', which is perfectly logical in my mind. Only I spoke to one of them and in their heads it was 'If you are not getting a hand signal from me you must obey the rules of the road.' So there were cyclists flying out onto roundabouts in front of cars which had right of way, or crashing into the back of other cyclists who had stopped to give way. I thought it was chaotic. If the Guards hadn't been there it would have been safer because everyone would have just cycled normally instead of assuming they had the right of way.

I also think that a field of 7000 requires closed roads. The worst section was just after the 65 and the 105 routes merged and the traffic was quite heavy too (was that around Clonsilla somewhere?) There were some poor motorists stranded in a river of cyclists, completely surrounded, and the thought that kept occurring to me was 'Is that driver going to be more considerate or less considerate of cyclists in the future?' I know what my guess is!

I'm pretty sure I was just behind you at that red light as you were talking to the guard.

There were times I knew that I didn't have right of way and was going to let the traffic pass, just to look behind me and see a crowd of cyclists; no hope that they were going to stop to give right of way, so i kept on going.
That didn't matter too much as, mostly, cars were letting us go. There were times, specically some roundabouts, that was hairy and I wasn't sure was it safer to let a car go and get stampeded by the oncoming group, or keep going and possibly go bumper to bumper with a car.

Great Dublin Bike Ride 2018 - 23rd Sept

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