Sportives 2022

are there rules, or even good manners on the type of bike you can ride in the sportives? im wondering if i can get away with wide handlebars and lack of mudguards. i recall antedotally that some of the sportives are ridden so tight that a wide handlebars and no mud guards is heavily frowned upon.

finally, what would the average speed be. if i ride at 15km/h over 100km would i be so far behind the group that i might as well go cycling on my own.

any views appreciated.

I'm booked to do the 80km route for conamara on saturday, just wondering if I'd be allowed switch to the 140km. Has anybody ever done this and were there any issues. Can't find anything about it on the website.

I did this when I took part for the first time in 2016 - I signed up for the event before I'd really started cycling regularly and opted for the smaller route, but by the time the big day came around, I was fit enough to do the longer route (and I was so glad I did!). I just let them know when I called in to sign on at registration and it wasn't an issue. I've done it a few times since then and I can't recall anyone ever checking at foodstops whether you're on the 'right' route or not. From what I recall there was no difference in the price of the ticket regardless of what route you were doing so its not like they're losing out financially - I guess they only need reasonably accurate numbers to ensure they have allocated enough food to each of the routes. The only time I found that wristbands were checked were when getting a burger at the end - they didn't care which band you were wearing, as long as you had one.

I have two tickets for the 80K Tour de Connemara still available if anyone wants. It's a glorious cycle in good weather which is forecast for this weekend. To my mind it's the more scenic of the two routes.

If interested you can message me by going to https://www.boards.ie/messages/add and type in DeepBlue in the grey Recipients box

I second this, do the 140km route anyway and say ye got mixed up along the way😅

They definitely checked at a pinch point somewhere early enough on the last time I did Beara.

ROK is a bit a special case there cos they close the road for the final Molls gap section which I guess allows them to restrict access to paid up participants. Though again, I've done it myself a number of times and the yella jackets' attitudes at the road barrier could best be described as... casual.

Anyway, it doesn't apply to the Beara sportive referred to above.

Registered for tomorrows spin in Monaghans garage earlier today. I asked about changing routes and changing from 80 to 140 would be no problem. I got the impression from the way they said "changing from 80 to 140 would be no problem" that changing the other way mightn't be so straight forward

So doing 140km tomorrow and have the right 140km wristband for the foodstops and right event id.

Really looking forward to it.

Cracking day yesterday out around Connemara. Well organised food stops, though the first was very busy. Wanted to buy some Skoda cycling gear after the event but they must have been tight for staff to man it

Bit of a headwind for the first 80km or so along the coast and the open countryside towards Maam cross. then once heading for Maam it was lovely. Long drag at the end but we got there.

31kph average with 1000m climbing

Surprisingly felt good today.

Good to see CI showing some interest in sportives. I've been on to them a few times about all their Facebook posts featuring the road series, paracycling, BMX, track and CX with nothing on the super sportives that have been run already this year. I even sent them a link to the excellent video of the Ride Dingle event and suggested it deserved further distribution but no joy. Do they not realise that the majority of their members are involved in non-competitive cycling and that most of the major sportives attract far greated numbers than any of the races?

Maybe the new board with its more diverse membership will change the focus a bit?

Do you have far to cycle to the start? I've no transport to the event start either and last time the event ran cycled from Rush, done the 100km and cycled home after. Will do likewise this year

I'm down for the WW200 but if it's anyways wet or miserable I'll be bailing out. I did the Sleive Bloom extreme in the rain all day in 2018 and it was the worst spin on the bike I've ever done. I don't think I was right for about a month after it.