Great Dublin Bike Ride 2018 - 23rd Sept

I did the 65k yesterday and have to disagree with some of the sentiments offered thus far.

We thought the food stop was excellently run, much less queuing than last year and the food was pretty decent.

I really liked both the start and end of the route but felt the middle section around Ballycoolin was really boring to cycle through industrial estates on big wide roads with nothing to look at. There is a novelty to riding through built up areas with traffic restrictions and the rural areas work well too but these areas feel like they are only included to make up the miles. I'd rather have done a few laps of the Phoenix Park than a few of these sections!

I also picked up on the poor interaction with traffic, particularly when we were turning right at a few roundabouts - on two occasions cars on the roundabout yielded to the bikes while on the roundabout and the garda didn't manage the situation very well at all. Other junctions were marshalled faultlessly.

Did witness a few dangerous overtakes, particularly when the faster group merged in with us but I can understand the frustration as I found a lot of people to be very poor at keeping to the left hand side and riding with multiple riders side by side leaving very little room for faster people to pass.

My main complaint was with closing (did they actually) the start pens so early - I was absolutely freezing by the time we started moving and it took me a good few km to warm up properly.

Wishbone Ash wrote: »

(There was no queues when I reached the Naul - in and out and back on the bike in 5 mins).

Likewise, myself and the chap I ended up doing the whole spin with got there and it looked busy but we were able to walk straight in, grab a sandwich, a banana and queue for no more than 30 seconds for a coffee then outside to eat on the grass for 10 minutes. As we were leaving a queue had formed outside and was already back past the portaloo's. It looked like a queue you'd be in for at least 30 minutes.

We were lucky to have gotten there just before it got really busy.

I gave two shoutouts to a pink boards.ie jersey on the route

Weepsie wrote: »

Think there's a Pink Boards Jersey lurking in the back of this one

https://www.facebook.com/greatdublinbikeride/photos/a.1415302828604905/1415307355271119/

That's me - well spotted!

Borderfox wrote: »

I gave two shoutouts to a pink boards.ie jersey on the route

I got a shout out from someone having a pint at the Angler's Rest, was that you?!

From a drivers perspective in the Clonee / blanch area, I can say that roundabout and junction management was very poor in relation to directing drivers. There was loads of guards visible, but were literally doing nothing except talking to each other. They seemed to be leaving the work to the marshals. The marshals seemed to think the guards should be doing more and weren’t clear on directing cyclists or cars. As a result, at roundabouts and and traffic lights drivers weren’t clear if the marshals were going to give instruction, and / or were the guards supposed to be directing traffic. Just seems that the scope of responsibility wasn’t clear and whoever was actually responsible at each junction didn’t assert themselves properly with drivers or cyclists. I have no problem giving preferential right of way to cyclists at events like this, but jaysis it was confusing.

I don’t want to bash the guards, but I think it would have been much less confusing if they weren’t there at all.

Je_suis_Jean wrote: »

I don't disagree ref the lack of clarity/assertion by the marshals/Gardai on the roundabouts but if only one group had to be retained shouldn't it be the Gardai? They after all have statutory power to stop/direct traffic as they see fit. What authority if any would a volunteer with a high viz and a flag have to stop traffic? What would happen if drivers didn't voluntarily obey a marshal?

I think he means that, as in most sportives, if there are marshals present, they merely indicate to cyclists if it is clear to proceed - they don't stop traffic. That is, normal ROTR apply.

Borderfox wrote: »

I gave two shoutouts to a pink boards.ie jersey on the route

Rogue-Trooper wrote: »

I got a shout out from someone having a pint at the Angler's Rest, was that you?!

tonytiger81 wrote: »

no that was us at anglers

Y'all looked very comfy at that table with yer pints!:p


@Borderfox - apologies if I was the pink jersey you gave a shout-out to cos I didn't hear you!:o


Didn't see anyone else rocking Boards attire on the ride actually.

Wishbone Ash wrote: »

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.

Sweeping generalisations that tarnish a good event imo. 
Overpriced Accomodation and expensive restaurants :) ..... never knew such value was to be had in Dublin!!  Killarney/Kerry has plenty cheap accommodation.......think you have Dublin centric blinkers on
PS -  thousands of ROK cyclists are from West Munster (count the cars in the many car parks on the day and most have racks for multiple bikes) ....... 
I am not against GDBR - I am pro anything that is cycling related which is why I get annoyed when the ROK knockers in this parish start banging their drums.

Doop wrote: »

On a lighter note.. the photos are up... :pac:

Only a few of my good self in Phoenix park.. they're pricey tho...

Got a link?

Lewotsil wrote: »

Sweeping generalisations that tarnish a good event imo. 
Overpriced Accomodation and expensive restaurants :) ..... never knew such value was to be had in Dublin!!  Killarney/Kerry has plenty cheap accommodation.......think you have Dublin centric blinkers on
PS -  thousands of ROK cyclists are from West Munster (count the cars in the many car parks on the day and most have racks for multiple bikes) ....... 
I am not against GDBR - I am pro anything that is cycling related which is why I get annoyed when the ROK knockers in this parish start banging their drums.

I think you've a bit of a chip on your shoulder there Lewotsil. My reading of WA's post was that he nailed the facts i.e. the GDBR due to it's location is participated in MAINLY by people who don't require either overnight accommodation or restaurants and those that do have a pretty wide selection to choose from due to the volume of rooms and restaurants in the greater Dublin area. Weekend rates in late Sept are not peak season so with AirBnB etc there is plenty of choice at all price points.

ROK on the other hand will have a much higher % of participants who require accommodation and food and due to the lower volume of available rooms and restaurants (relative to Dublin) plus the fact it's bang in the middle of high season July the cost can be quite high.

It's all a down to simple geography, population density, volume of availabile of rooms and restaurants and seasonal timing rather than some sort of parochial attack or downer on the ROK!!

Andy Magic wrote: »

Jesus that's just pointless, 16 photos per page and thousands of pages.. Good luck with that

Exactly, I flicked through the first 20 pages (found one of myself which is better than the single other one they had sent me despite having my race number clearly visible on the front of the bike) and quickly gave up.

They need a slicker wolling carousel type solution than having to load 16 images page by page over 1,600 times!!!

Why not break it into folders of 65km and 105km starts as well as separate sections which were unique for the 65km and 105km routes so we don't end up spending time looking at images of the "other" route which won't be relevant to us?

They are in the business of selling images and should be making it easy not hard!!

Wishbone Ash wrote: »

Did you enter your number?

Mine came up instantly after entering the number.

I did and got 3 pictures of someone completely different

Tore them a new one

Borderfox wrote: »

Tore them a new one

Have done the same. First time in a sportive where I've genuinely felt it was an unsafe event, even if it was just towards the end.