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Boards Evil200km - 9th of June
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13 brave souls started it.. and I think only 2 are going to complete it.
On the first 115k or so we had, 3 crashes, 2 near misses, ankle deep water, almost off road sections, brutal climbing, 2 punctures (I am surpised we didn't have more) and a cracked seatpost.
Unfortunately my seatpost cracked on the way down from Shay Elliot, I had to do the whole descend standing (not fun at all) and I had to get a broomwagon home
Well done to everyone who came out, I certainly enjoyed the first bit, too bad (or not...) that I missed the second part.
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@Astra: time to roll back the weight weenieism a bit?
Well done all who attempted it. I wimped out due to being a wimp.0 -
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I was running late this morning (inevitable), nearly had a "bottle of olive oil all over the cat" incident which wouldn't have helped, reckoned that I missed the group at Lamb's Cross (highly likely, given the rubbish nature of the week I've had so far), so decided to ride along the route in the hope of catching them. Wasn't sure of the exact route though, having opted to load it onto my Garmin and rely on that.
Selected the route on my Garmin, Garmin gave me its version of the middle finger. Swore at it, resembling angry deranged man on a bike once again. I wasn't sure which right turn the group would take to Johnny Foxes so I bizarrely decided they'd have taken the furthest away one and rode to the one up from Kilternan. I am my own worst enemy. Got as far as Johnny Foxes but no sign of group, now didn't know whether they were in front of me or behind me or on a different road. *sigh* Rolled on and spotted wet tyre tracks on the road. Yayy! Put my ear to the ground, no sound. Felt the ground, wet and cold. What was going on, in the movies someone would have been able to identify exactly how many cyclists there were, how far ahead they were, etc., by now. Movies lie! Kept going and caught up with the group at the viewing point.
The ride was great fun (crashes in particular aside), thanks Astramonti for a very interesting route. The fact that some roads were more pothole than road just added to the fun. Admittedly some of those "puddles" seemed deeper than I was tall though
I chickened out of the full route and headed straight home from Laragh via Sallygap. Total distance 154km, total climbing 2,958m.
'Twas good to meet people and put faces to names. I didn't get to chat with everyone so wasn't sure of exactly who was there though.
Funny moments:
* Meeting the widest tanker truck in Ireland on the narrowest road in Ireland (fair play to the driver for stopping and making space for us), followed shortly afterwards by being blocked by two people on a horse and cart (who also were very decent by pulling over to let us pass).
* RAAM nearly bagging a pheasant that was hiding at the side of the road on a bend. Would have made a sizable lunch. The pheasant probably went home and told her auld fella that she nearly bagged a cyclist, but Mr Pheasant probably told her that would have been a waste as there is no eating on a cyclist and particularly a climber.
* Water. Everywhere. Waterfalls on road, rivers across roads.
* Irish roads. Would someone please lend Wicklow County Council some tarmac and an instruction manual. Muck is not a road, right, and scattering gravel over it doesn't magically transform it!
* The landrover at Laragh that completely misjudged the position of a large rock, while driving very slowly, and ended up with the rock wedged under the side footrail. He reversed and jammed it even worse, bending the rail in the process. The passenger swung the door open to investigate and whacked the bottom of his door off the rock. Comedy gold.
Crying moments:
* Seeing RAAM and Roger just ride off up the road on the climb before Slieve Mann. I called on my legs to go faster, legs said no.
* Seeing a man whip off his trousers beside his car somewhere around Rathdrum (I think). He seemed to be wearing painted on boxers, off-white colour of course. Pulling pants they were not! Disturbing pants they certainly were! I am deeply traumatised.
* Turning bend after bend to see yet another steeply rising road ahead.
* Going up both Slieve Mann and Shay Elliot with a "song" favoured by my 3yr old daughter looping over and over in my head - "A bottle of rum, to fill my tum, that's the life for me". I sometimes wonder what goes on in that creche of hers!
Fair play to lennymc for sticking with the full route, that takes some balls!0 -
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out of the bath, nicest bath ever!! Followed by the nicest burger evere.
Firstly massive thanks to Inquitus for the company, glad you made the surprise party
That was a tough day. rivers flowing down roads, gravel, dirt, crap, punctures, none of which dampened a truley tough challenge. In the end we didnt do all the climbs,as it was just getting to late, and i was knackered.
Off to get the bike ready for tomorrow. I think i need my head examined.
Couple of personal records, and a 4th place overall on a descent on strava. yay!!
http://app.strava.com/rides/10445724
oh, and astra is evil. I propose he should be added to the list of 'axis of evil' members0 -
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Boards Evil 200
224.1km
4,138m of climbing
http://app.strava.com/activities/10462013
First off, a big thanks to LennyMc for the company on the way round. We kept each other going, and I would probably have taken a shortcut home otherwise.
Thanks to Astramonti for organising it and his evil mind for coming up with the route!
That was one long hard day in the saddle. We set off at 8am and stayed together waiting at the top of the climbs until just past Newtownmountkennedy when Manafana and myself went to get a headstart while the others had a bathroom break, only we went the wrong way and ended up about 10 mins behind, plus got a bonus 100m of climbing. After a bit we caught Lenny, and Manafana decided to head home via a few hills.
Lenny and myself made pretty good time, bar a couple of punctures and rolled into Laragh at the Hippy Cafe to see the rest of the lads preparing to head home. Astramonti had broken his seatpost and his day was done.
We did the only thing we could do and decided to head for the Wicklow gap and a healthy dose of more suffering.
Got up the Wicklow gap easy enough, and descended down the other side, only to have to hook a right up a narrow lane into a cheeky climb that then dropped us out by the lakes.
Usually I like going downhill, but it had long been apparent on this route that the only reason to go down was because that was the only way to go up more!
We stopped for a can of coke at the shop atop a hill and continued round the up and down of the lakeshore drive finally hooking a right to go up Sally Gap. Thankfully we had a roaring tailwind by now and this made relatively light work of what is probably the easiest way up the gap.
Back to Laragh for another coke, and then we set off on the route back to Dundrum. I was running late for a family party so I headed off as fast as I could muster but made a bollox of things at eniskerry and turned right and ended up on the N11 instead of going straight up the hill, this gave me a 10km diversion, and another bonus 100m of climbing!
All in all a great days sufferfest, would recommend.
Given the quality of some of the roads we travelled I'd love to see the state of the ones Astra nixxed.
Oh and best of luck to that crazy bastard Lenny on his WW200 today!0 -
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