The 2010 Sean Kelly Tour of Waterford, Sunday August 29th

Great day out, weather good aside from around Rathgormack feed stop.
Don't think I ate enough there as I found Mahon Falls an absolute killer. 4 bananas in Kilrossanty fueled me up for Mama though and I got a tow back to Dungarvan from the tour of Munster gang.
6:30 rolling - absolutely chuffed with that as it took myself and mate 7:15 to do the 160 from Dublin to Waterford without any climbing.
Met the Cork boardsie gang at the start and ran into 2 more in Clonmel. Was probably a bit behind the rest of yis though...

Great day out bar the descents - Powers the Pot was too wet, Mahon too dangerous and Mama had a nasty headwind all the way down.

Having only taking up cycling 6 weeks ago, I went into today's 90k quite nervous, ie. would I be able to finish it ! So I'm pleased to say, yay ! I did it, and ahead of my forecast time of 4 hours, my computer is showing 90km (might include a little rolling afterwards) in 3hr 32mins, average 25.47km/h. The first 45km to Tramore was quick, despite the slow rolling start, alot of braking/shouting etc, and the average at the interval was a healthy 27.5km/h. We skipped the Tramore break (despite unecessarily going up that hill!) and headed for Annestown. But...........I didn't expect ALL those small/sharp/steeeeep climbs on the way home, the last few nearly killed me, calf muscles bursting at the seams !! Kudos to the support (specators & other riders) & marshalling, it was great.
Kudos also to Dennis who I met after 20km, as he dragged me home (or rather who I held up).........and of course to Sean Kelly himself for being involved in such a great event

Did the 90km today as my first sportive and had a great time. A huge thanks to all the marshalls and other volunteers - everyone smiling and encouraging us along the way.

Finished in 3:16 rolling, so delighted with that. I wasn't expecting all those short sharp digs on the way back, and went into the lowest gear in my triple for the first time ever, but survived without walking up anything. Does anyone know what the steepest gradient we hit today was?

Great to meet a few boardsies today, AJK24, Niceonetom, Captain Havoc and some others I think. Pretty sure I saw Raam at one point, assuming he is still 7ft tall, 9 stone in weight and riding a white R3. Passed blowfish at one point (new jerseys with Names are cool), Spotted a couple of Boardsies in retro boards jersies too but didn't know who they were. Didn't spot Cunavalos so you have me at a disadvantage there ! The Cervelo S1 is probably quite recognisable though, only saw one other there and that was under a teammate (another boardsie, shapez). Better to have an aluminium frame on a ride like that I reckon where the chances of a crash are a bit higher. I see that Planet X is still the machine of choice for boardsies though !

Mahon Falls tougher than usual today with that head wind, one of my teammates went off on the descent too but luckily they had a hay bale up that saved him and he was up running again in no time (Non-locals, next time you are around try go up the opposite way, hit's 20% or more in one part, thats why your brakes didn't work so well going down there today in the rain and thats why they have the hay bales out.

Even with waiting around though for riders to get back on, we still managed to get around with a rolling time of about 4:58 without killing ourselves which was just as well because I didn't eat nearly enough after being ill yesterday (2x500ml water, 1 bowl rice krispies, 1 digestive biscuit, 1 nutrigrain bar, 1 half sandwich and 1 bun). Pretty hairy in the bunch as far as Carrick though and especially up Seskin. I felt a lot better when the bunch had thinned out a bit.

Didn't know someone was airlifted off Mahon Falls... hate that descent. When we do it on our club rides, we usually go up and down the same side, avoiding that dangerous descent.

Daithi BC wrote: »

Does anyone know what the steepest gradient we hit today was?

Can't be certain about that, my RideWithGPS track suggest 15% at one point in Kilmurrin Cove (62km mark in the above), but thats BS. I say Kilmurrin and the climb westward out of Bonmahon are both in the 6-8% region (they both hurt the same amount ), but maybe someone else knows more accurately? Coming as late as it did, the long hill out of Stradbally was pretty tough too....

TheBlaaMan wrote: »

Can't be certain about that, my RideWithGPS track suggest 15% at one point in Kilmurrin Cove (62km mark in the above), but thats BS. I say Kilmurrin and the climb westward out of Bonmahon are both in the 6-8% region (they both hurt the same amount ), but maybe someone else knows more accurately? Coming as late as it did, the long hill out of Stradbally was pretty tough too....

15 is about right. Going the opposite way around Kilmurrin hits around 14%, so 15 for a very short piece of it is plausible.

6 45 rolling time for me. Found Powers the Pot very hard for some reason and it really sapped a lot of energy that I didn't feel I had back until nearly the bottom of Mahon Falls. I had a serious battle with myself for about the 15k approaching the turn off for M. Falls to get myself to HTFU and get up over it. Glad I did in the end.

Organisation was top notch, very impressive.

90km much tougher than last years 100km even with the lovely weather! Was wishing I was cycling my hybrid going up those evil climbs, found there wasn't enough gears on my road bike...nothing to do with my pathetic leg muscles....:D

Great day out, and good organisation - much better splitting the 160 & 90 groups - it felt much more controlled and safer.

Have to say, the locals made it for me...the numerous 'Fair play to ye' kept me going even when the going got very tough!

Great day out, thanks to all involved

Great spin today, I had planned on the 90k but while having drinks of all things last night I was convinced to tackle the 160k. Really glad I did, the spin was faultless, excellent and challenging route, great food, an absolute credit to the organisers. Finished in a time of just over 6 hours rolling. I was really happy with this as I had done 4 hrs on a turbo trainer yesterday as part of a charity cycle.

I think pints in Dungarvan tonight are a must! I didn't see many boardsies today though...love the new jersey!

nutzzz123 wrote: »

any news on this dude, i heard it was quiet bad. hope he ok

He's being kept in overnight for observation nothing broken just bruising