Wicklow 200 - 13th June 2010

DirkVoodoo · 14-06-2010 02:36PM

skidpatches wrote: »

The other point where I needed a little mental strength was when some dude told me that we were on top of Slieve Mann, when it was actually Aghavannagh. Now I *KNEW* that this couldn't be the case, but somehow on the way up the actual Slieve Maan, I started thinking it was Shay Eliot. So I was a little disappointed to find that there was another big climb to come..

People always seem to say this, when you go back and do it again it will seem quite funny (I hope) as there is no way that bump in the road before SM can be considered a climb.

Well done on doing it though!

unionman · 14-06-2010 02:45PM

Vélo wrote: »

I left about 5 minutes after you and finished about 15 minutes before you. I must have missed you at one of the food stops. It would have been good to go around with someone. I don't recommend doing a cycle that long on your own, even though there still is plenty of other people around. Were you wearing your Boards gear? I only saw one other person wearing the jersey but I didn't get his name, he just shouted over at me "Boardsie".

I wasn't wearing boards gear yesterday. It was too warm for the jacket, and TinyExplosions still has my jersey *cough*.

I wore my fredilicious Kraftwerk TDF jersey, which attracted a few compliments. Though for much of the day it was concealed by high-viz rain jacket.

Company is good alright, makes it easier, and we would have been well matched by the sounds of it. Ah well, next year?

buffalo · 14-06-2010 02:47PM

DirkVoodoo wrote: »

People always seem to say this, when you go back and do it again it will seem quite funny (I hope) as there is no way that bump in the road before SM can be considered a climb.

Well done on doing it though!

Likewise - a lad asked me as we started up SM, "Are we on the SE yet?" He took the news rather well, considering.

paddymacsporran · 14-06-2010 02:51PM

Only did the 100 yesterday, have had a recurring knee problem and the big climbs would have killed me, the 100 was OK though, nothing too severe for a fat old bloke with a dodgy knee there. total time 3:45, 829m of climbing. Most was a solo ride, caught a great group of Triathletes at Ashford and they horsed it back home, fantastic!

Downside is I come on here and there's a piccie of me crossing the line.....!!

Can anyone tell me how much climbing was on the 200? I have heard about 2800m?

AstraMonti · 14-06-2010 02:58PM

My garmin reports 1102m of climbing for the 100km route.

Caroline_ie · 14-06-2010 02:59PM

AstraMonti wrote: »

My garmin reports 1102m of climbing for the 100km route.

yes but you're quite tall, you'll always end up climbing higher than most.

DirkVoodoo · 14-06-2010 03:05PM

AstraMonti wrote: »

My garmin reports 1102m of climbing for the 100km route.

Do you enable elevation correction? It can make quite a big difference. MMR says around 1700m for the Wicklow 200. I would be surprised if it was anywhere near 2800m as the Mick Byrne was just over 3000m.

monkeyslayer · 14-06-2010 03:07PM

skidpatches wrote: »

Any other unusual bikes spotted? Saw a tandem before the start in the car park, and another just after the start. I was on a Moulton.

There was an older couple doing the 100k on an orange tandem, I got chatting to them and incredibly the lady on the back was 90% blind. Lovely jovial couple having fun on the day. Saw them again on the way home from the car driving out the n11 out toward bray, cycling in the torrential rain, LEGENDS as far as I'm concerned. And the old man on the hybrid doing the 100 in shoes and cords with a shirt and jumper on, taking it handy and strolling up the tougher climbs. Whatever about the speed demons on their 2kg carbon bikes finishing in 6 hours, these three were my heroes of the day

mloc123 · 14-06-2010 03:08PM

My Garmin says 2,368m for the 200 with elevation correction on

Blowfish · 14-06-2010 03:09PM

With elevation correction off, my 705 is telling me 2,766 m for the 200.

Nietzschean · 14-06-2010 03:10PM

DirkVoodoo wrote: »

Do you enable elevation correction? It can make quite a big difference. MMR says around 1700m for the Wicklow 200. I would be surprised if it was anywhere near 2800m as the Mick Byrne was just over 3000m.

in general the MB isn't an amazing amount of elevation, its the relentless nature of it that destroyed us...

DirkVoodoo · 14-06-2010 03:18PM

Don't forget though the solar flare activity that is messing up GPS signals at the moment

This is from mapmyride. Might be worth checking BRT and other sites too. I think 2800m is a bit optimistic.

Blowfish · 14-06-2010 03:27PM

DirkVoodoo wrote: »

Don't forget though the solar flare activity that is messing up GPS signals at the moment

This is from mapmyride. Might be worth checking BRT and other sites too. I think 2800m is a bit optimistic.

I would have said it would be the other way around. The route planning sites are fairly innacurate as they rely on GPS elevation, in fact it says it here about OSM:

For the US, there's elevation data available with 30m horizontal accuracy, the rest of the world only gets 90m (or 3 arcseconds).

If it's only measuring elevation data every 90m or so, it'll miss out a lot of the smaller ascents/descents.

The 705 on the other hand relies on Barometric pressure, which is far more accurate.

DirkVoodoo · 14-06-2010 03:31PM

Blowfish wrote: »

about OSM:The 705 on the other hand relies on Barometric pressure, which is far more accurate.

I remember the MB200, there was about 700 metres difference between my elevation (Edge 500) and Nietzschean/Caroline (Edge 705). I went home at Kilternan, so about 6-8km from the end and that doesn't include their route into town. If there was about 700m of climbing there I would be very surprised.

I know that MMR is not the most accurate, they don't record that many elevation points, but BRT always seems pretty close to any of my Garmin readings and it says ~ 2200m for the W200. Which is still a good amount of elevation gain.

paddymacsporran · 14-06-2010 03:52PM

BRT always seems to be close to my 705 too, I've heard before MMR is miles out.

The 100k didn't really have any climbs apart from the Rocky Valley near the start and out of Avoca, the rest was rolling. I was asking because I thought the 200 would be much stiffer in terms of elevation...There was only about 70k on the same roads so I would expect the 200 to be much more of a challenge in comparision?

billaustin · 14-06-2010 03:54PM

monkeyslayer wrote: »

There was an older couple doing the 100k on an orange tandem, I got chatting to them and incredibly the lady on the back was 90% blind. Lovely jovial couple having fun on the day. Saw them again on the way home from the car driving out the n11 out toward bray, cycling in the torrential rain, LEGENDS as far as I'm concerned. And the old man on the hybrid doing the 100 in shoes and cords with a shirt and jumper on, taking it handy and strolling up the tougher climbs. Whatever about the speed demons on their 2kg carbon bikes finishing in 6 hours, these three were my heroes of the day

I passed them at one point and i didn't realise that the lady was vision-impaired! Wow, now they truly are legends, well done to them and it puts all the aches and pains into perspective. That's a brilliant story!

buffalo · 14-06-2010 03:57PM

monkeyslayer wrote: »

And the old man on the hybrid doing the 100 in shoes and cords with a shirt and jumper on, taking it handy and strolling up the tougher climbs. Whatever about the speed demons on their 2kg carbon bikes finishing in 6 hours, these three were my heroes of the day

I believe you mean my boss - I'll pass along the compliment, though perhaps it'd be best if I leave out the "old man" part.

DirkVoodoo · 14-06-2010 03:58PM

We should probably have another thread on GPS and barometric accuracy.

It all depends on sampling and sensitivity. Are the Edge 500/705 that accurate? Reading around it seems that a 30 meter change in elevation produce about a 0.05 PSI change in atmospheric pressure.

No measurement is absolute anyway, I suppose all you can do is measure on relative terms. Is the Wicklow 200 tough, yes, compared to a lot of sportives most definitely. I wouldn't put too much emphasis on the numbers (aside from the times which have been phenomenal!).

shapez · 14-06-2010 04:45PM

Well done & Congulations to everyone who did the 100 or 200. It is a huge sense of achivement once you've completed something like this and it's not for the faint hearted.

Many thanks to all involved in making the possible. Without you it would not have happened.

One thing that bothered me throughout the day the amount of "non-registered" cyclists that joined in or were doing the route. The vast majority of them didn't wear a helmet. Not sure if anyone else noticed this. I mean what does it take for people to start wearing a helmet.

Nietzschean · 14-06-2010 04:52PM

DirkVoodoo wrote: »

I remember the MB200, there was about 700 metres difference between my elevation (Edge 500) and Nietzschean/Caroline (Edge 705). I went home at Kilternan, so about 6-8km from the end and that doesn't include their route into town. If there was about 700m of climbing there I would be very surprised.

I know that MMR is not the most accurate, they don't record that many elevation points, but BRT always seems pretty close to any of my Garmin readings and it says ~ 2200m for the W200. Which is still a good amount of elevation gain.

with elevation correction the MB was 3323 for me , 3490 disabling it..not a whole lot in the difference really

DirkVoodoo · 14-06-2010 04:53PM

shapez wrote: »

One thing that bothered me throughout the day the amount of "non-registered" cyclists that joined in or were doing the route. The vast majority of them didn't wear a helmet. Not sure if anyone else noticed this. I mean what does it take for people to start wearing a helmet.

Well, public roads. A helmet isn't going to make them more likely to crash or cause you to crash, they will just come off worse if they do fall. Which isn't really fair to the organizers, the marshals or the paramedics supporting the event as the negative publicity that would follow would be completely undeserved.

Bluefoam · 14-06-2010 04:56PM

shapez wrote: »

what does it take for people to start wearing a helmet.

Don't know why it bothers you. There are lots of arguments for and against - none of which I want to debate here - but there is no law about wearing a helmet on public roads.

I'd be more concerned about the possible dangers of letting randomers mix it with the race...

DirkVoodoo · 14-06-2010 05:00PM

Nietzschean wrote: »

with elevation correction the MB was 3323 for me , 3490 disabling it..not a whole lot in the difference really

Not sure where the 100-200 metres between Dalkey and town comes from then, I seem to remember you said 3700m in total.

I really think calorie information and elevation data need to be taken with a pinch of salt. They are a good indicator, not an absolute.

fletch · 14-06-2010 05:04PM

shapez wrote: »

One thing that bothered me throughout the day the amount of "non-registered" cyclists that joined in or were doing the route. The vast majority of them didn't wear a helmet. Not sure if anyone else noticed this. I mean what does it take for people to start wearing a helmet.

How were you sure they hadn't registered....I didn't get a chance to pin my number on to me but I did pay the registration fee. (I did wear a helmet though)

gimmeaminute · 14-06-2010 05:12PM

shapez wrote: »

I mean what does it take for people to start wearing a helmet.

There's got to be Godwin's Lawesque title for the moment when the helmet debate enters any discussion even vaguely related to bicycles.

Moojuice · 14-06-2010 05:26PM

I did the 100k yesterday on my Trek town bike. The longest I have ever cycled previously was 20k (with a break in between). I did the 100k in 6hrs 20min. I had hoped to do a few long cycles beforehand but didn't get around to it so I did it with no training at all. It was tough but I really enjoyed it. Next year I am definitely going to train a few months before and do it with a group or partner. I didn't mind doing it on my own though. It was a bit intimidating at first as most people were on pro-bikes and had pro-gear, but I met a lot of nice cyclists and it was a great day out. Legs are in bits now though!

daragh_ · 14-06-2010 05:35PM

Moojuice wrote: »

It was a bit intimidating at first as most people were on pro-bikes and had pro-gear....!

I saw loads of people on hybrids who were lashing along, mostly passing me

-K2- · 14-06-2010 05:36PM

Does anyone have a GPS trace of the 200km route? Mine is reporting that it was 193k long.

Nietzschean · 14-06-2010 05:36PM

DirkVoodoo wrote: »

Not sure where the 100-200 metres between Dalkey and town comes from then, I seem to remember you said 3700m in total.

I really think calorie information and elevation data need to be taken with a pinch of salt. They are a good indicator, not an absolute.

i do remember quoting that at some point... the routes 2/from town appear to total 130m or so

unionman · 14-06-2010 05:38PM

ElectronEng wrote: »

Does anyone have a GPS trace of the 200km route? Mine is reporting that it was 193k long.

My Catseye said 195km.

Wicklow 200 - 13th June 2010

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