Mick Lally Memorial/Dublin Wheelers GP 06/03/10

Planet X

Chicken Italienne from yesterday even though I mentioned to The Boss that Dirk was having an ommlette.
And that we were discussing it all the way home!
Damn The Torpedos.

ROK ON

Well done to Dirk, Lumen, Neitchean, NOT, Planet X, RAAM and Tonto and any others from here for hanging in there and finishing an open race. Well done lads. Full of admiration.
Big congrats to Blorg on the placing. Well done sir. More to come hopefully.

Chips Lovell

DirkVoodoo wrote: »

I would have sat higher up if it weren't for this mental block I have about taking a bunch down.

I think today should provide proof enough that you're group riding skills are just fine. Especially when you consider some of the cowboys out racing today. So next time out, get up in the front third of the bunch and make the odd push back up if you find yourself slipping down.

The other thing to bear in mind is to be assertive. Don't leave half gaps because sure enough someone will ride up and squeeze in, pushing you off the wheel you were following.

I think the thing you should take away from today is that you're more than able to ride at this level and if you work a little bit more on your technique, you'll be sitting pretty.

The other thing to remember is that races like today will really count for you and everyone else once the club league gets going.

Lumen

Motto for next race: What Would Blorg Do?

Better to get out front and risk blowing up than hang back and wait for something (bad) to happen.

Planet X

Some results,

http://www.irishcycling.com/publish/news/art_4618.shtml

Planet X

Blarney CC., not good!!!

Planet X

Planet X wrote: »

Well done Blorg. Good result.
I found it tough enough on the second lap as did others, for obvious reasons, A3=speed goes up.

As Tom said, it was mentally draining with all the braking and physically demanding with all the consequent accelerations.
Ah, C'est La Vie.
Some crowd, 150-200?
You don't want to be doing that every weekend! Not Opens anyway.

197 riders.
Felt more than 46k ffs!

Caroline_ie

Planet X wrote: »

197 riders.
Felt more than 46k ffs!

It was 15km, then 2 x 20km loops and 15km to the finish afaik.

Nietzschean

Planet X wrote: »

197 riders.
Felt more than 46k ffs!

my gps put the race at 55km(not including the neutralised roll out to start line which would add 5k each way)

Planet X

Sounds right. Lumens' "data stuff" (:)) records 56k.

Zipp101

Went off in the A3 group myself.
Fast enough pace,but still comfortable.Mayhem started when we were just about to catch A4 bunch.The whole group moved to the right hand side of the road dodging oncoming traffic.I was sure someone was going to be killed.Some very close calls. Motorbikes didn't seem to be stopping cars at all.

From here on in was just.....bizarre! Guys slamming on the brakes every 5min,
Riders effing and blinding at newcomers as a right of passage (more than usual -bullsh!t IMO) and more roundabouts than stewards.
I'd say there was 150 in that bunch at least....madness.
Cramped up bad with about 3 miles to go so had no hesitation in sitting up.

Should have been two seperate races IMO. It was VERY dangerous.

But it will get better

Esroh

Well done to all of you, the different point of view have made interesting reading.
It seems to me that although you will ride the legs off each other in the Club league there are enough of you to fomulate a plan to ride like a team for the first while to make it hard for the A3s and to burn off all the Breakey Breakey fellas:D in any future Open Race

niceonetom

I'm quite relieved to hear that the more experienced racers thought that was hairy too - if the seasoned guys were on here saying that today's proceedings were how it normally is, I'd be questioning if racing is really for me. It's fun, but I'm not sure how many times I could do that before the odds caught up and I ended up mangled. If the general impression is that it was unusually twitchy today I'm happy to keep at it in the hope that most of the races will be a bit less nerve shredding.

RobFowl

Well done all, but especially Blorg.

It is always more impressive to get placed by going for it in a break rather than waiting for a sprint lottery at the end.

Will he be the first Boardsie to be upgraded this year???

And those who got shelled out keep at it , once you get used to the accellerations/decellerations you'll be fine.

blorg

Some pictures up here

Martin and The Crunch (so that's who The Crunch is )


Diarmuid and Lumen (behind)


Finish of the A3/A4 race, myself and Martin in the Orwell jerseys beside each other

Nietzschean

does that page credit you as being in Blarney CC?

blorg

Nietzschean wrote: »

does that page credit you as being in Blarney CC?

Yes, they must have got the jerseys confused, they are similar:



You can see the Blarney guy at the right of the finish photo, on the hoods.

Chips Lovell

Planet X wrote: »

Blarney CC., not good!!!

Maybe blorg's thick Cork accent confused them?

The Crunch

niceonetom wrote: »

I'm quite relieved to hear that the more experienced racers thought that was hairy too - if the seasoned guys were on here saying that today's proceedings were how it normally is, I'd be questioning if racing is really for me. It's fun, but I'm not sure how many times I could do that before the odds caught up and I ended up mangled. If the general impression is that it was unusually twitchy today I'm happy to keep at it in the hope that most of the races will be a bit less nerve shredding.

It's always a bit twitchy at the start of the year, in fairness. Everyone's a bit hyped up after the winter break and there are always loads of eejits shouting at new guys. Plus it was a fairly big bunch. It was a bit hairy but it'll settle down.
Someone said earlier in the thread that they thought the route was dangerous and not well marshalled and I have to disagree with that. From my perspective it was a very well run race with loads of cars and every junction covered. Thanks to all in Dublin Wheelers for a great morning's sport.
I felt sorry for John (Lumen?). He looked really comfortable with the pace and looked at ease in the group. I hope his baptism hasn't turned him off! As for Blorg, I heard he was ripping the legs off everyone in the break and there was lots of 'coaching' on how fast to ride through. Great ride.

Diarmuid

Well that was fun. Mostly. It started out nice and easy with a slowish pace. After a few k of getting used to the bunch I took the opportunity on the nice big open road to jump up to the front. Once there I made a few half hearted attempts to push the pace and get a bit of a rotation going but apart from blorg and some auld fellow no one was biting.

So I sat up and fell back with the plan of doing that again in the next lap. Bad move. Somewhere later in the lap the A3's caught us and things started to get a bit dodgy. It wasn't the pace but the bunch was just too big for the carry on that was happening. The big problem from my vantage point (close to the back of the bunch) was that the whole bunch took up the road, when an oncoming car showed up the guys on the right had to squeeze in resulting braking all the way back in the bunch. At that back this was having a pretty big impact in terms of slowing down and speeding up.

The bigger problem for me was there was no chance of moving back up the pack. So I resigned myself to staying out of trouble and finishing in the pack. I did get a birds eye view of Lumens head over heels and Raams van avoidance techniques but that was about the height of things. Had to put in a big effort to hang onto the bunch about 15mins from the end (when a few moments lack of concentration left me exposed at the back) but just about managed it.

For the power guys, my stats were pretty unremarkable but the intensity factor was the highest since a race in September

My lessons learned, stick to the front, make a plan with team mates to push the pace if things are quiet.

I thought the race was very well marshalled. Pity about the oncoming traffic but not much to be done about that, maybe the smaller roads could have been closed for a few minutes but that was probably not a runner.

Good to put names with faces and (boards.ie) names with names. Looking forward to the next outing

shaungil

Diarmuid wrote: »

Well that was fun. Mostly. It started out nice and easy with a slowish pace. After a few k of getting used to the bunch I took the opportunity on the nice big open road to jump up to the front. Once there I made a few half hearted attempts to push the pace and get a bit of a rotation going but apart from blorg and some auld fellow no one was biting.

Coming out of Batterstown I spoke to Raam and we agreed pace was riduculously slow so not conciously I decided to put in a few goes, just was getting bored and went a few times. After doing this I had been warned that there was a hill after a couple of turns so was very concious not to go too hard so that's why I (Swords gear red specialised but same as Raam but as Blorg kindly put it more a srinters build) didn't really work with you guys so sorry. Coming back on to Batters town road I went off with Blorg and 2 others did too much workand blew up for a minute then myself and 3 others worked to catch the 3 lads and were veeerrrry slowly gaining on them.

So I sat up and fell back with the plan of doing that again in the next lap. Bad move. Somewhere later in the lap the A3's caught us and things started to get a bit dodgy. +1 It wasn't the pace but the bunch was just too big for the carry on that was happening. The big problem from my vantage point (close to the back of the bunch) was that the whole bunch took up the road, when an oncoming car showed up the guys on the right had to squeeze in resulting braking all the way back in the bunch. At that back this was having a pretty big impact in terms of slowing down and speeding up.

Just after roundabout going onto second lap A3's came through was happy with my work for the day and concentrated on seeing how well my brakes and acceleration worked. Ridiculously messy.

The bigger problem for me was there was no chance of moving back up the pack. So I resigned myself to staying out of trouble and finishing in the pack. I did get a birds eye view of Lumens head over heels and Raams van avoidance techniques but that was about the hight of things. Had to put in a big effort to hang onto the bunch about 15mins from the end (when a few moments lack of concentration left me exposed at the back) but just about managed it.

For the power guys, my stats were pretty unremarkable but the intensity factor was the highest since a race in September.

I've dispensed with the computer for the time being. Personal thing can get dist speed and averges from some one else.

My lessons learned, stick to the front, make a plan with team mates to push the pace if things are quiet. Myself Raam and two other had plans but the A3's catching us made them redundant and I was happy with my shift today. Hopefully some smaller groups cos it's hard to race in a group of 150 I find


Good to put names with faces and (boards.ie) names with names. Looking forward to the next outing

+1 and will do work if I know I'm going to get abuse now you know me.;)

Zipp101

Taken from the clubs website:

There was an excellent turnout of both riders and officials at these events today. The good weather seems to have a positive effect on most people but unfortunately not on all people.

The A+/A1/A2 race was extremely competitive with both groups riding very well. The scratch contained many of the big guns and it was not too long before they closed the three minute gap.
This race then fragmented into various small groups with a leading break of 4 making it to the finish with about 40 seconds to spare over the pursuing group of 5.

Martyn Irvine led it out with about 400metres remaining but Philip Lavery was glued to him and came round with 150m to go. He took the win by about 6 bike lengths from Seán Lacey. Irvine claimed third with Timmy Barry, a team mate of Lacey, finishing in fourth place.

This race was run over a distance of 92 kilometres.

The A3/A4 race was run as a handicap with a headstart of 3 minutes being given to the A4 group. Unfortunately the ability or willingness of the A4 bunch to make a race of it was overestimated by the organisers. Some of the group worked hard but the collective effort was not enough to hold off the A3 peloton. The 2 groups came together after one lap and then the fun started. Total race distance was 58 kilometres.
The group of approximately 100 riders (half the Gorey bunch) showed a nervousness that has not been seen for years. 130 A3/A4 riders signed on and at least 30 had lost contact by the time they merged.
If logistically possible, a separate A4 race should be held as some of these riders need to become used to small bunch racing before progressing to larger groups.
There were no incidents during either race except for a bit of wheel rubbing in the A3/A4's.
With 25 marshals and 6 Lead Cars being used during the events the club could have done no more to ensure the safety of all involved.
Riders must act responsibly as the actions that they decide to take cannot be controlled by promoting clubs or race organisers. While it is not always possible to keep to the left of the white line (due to various obstacles or maybe even no white line) riders must exercise caution at all times. This is for the safety of the riders, other road users, officials and for the general reputation of our sport.

A break got away from the combined efforts of the A3/A4's. This was a mixture of both categories and some excellent riding brought them safely to the line. The win was contested between the riders in the break with Brian Cunningham taking the victory in a close sprint.
Alan Maye took second with John Wall in third and Martin Ridge fourth.

Thank you to the riders and marshals/officials who turned up today. The large numbers of both made the event possible.

To the club members who gave their time to safely run this event and who made it possible to cover all roundabouts and corners, thank you.

For the use of their premises and facilities, thank you to the management and staff of the Dunboyne Community Centre.

Thankfully your expertise was not necessary but without your presence and input this event would not have been possible. To the Meath Civil Defence ambulance crew, thank you.

They must have had quite a few complaints.

Diarmuid

Zipp101 wrote: »

They must have had quite a few complaints.

We could make Joe Duffy yet!!

I think this quote was a bit unfair: "Unfortunately the ability or willingness of the A4 bunch to make a race of it was overestimated by the organisers". I think they are covering their own asses. When 130 signed on for the A3/A4 they should have split it into two races. It's hardly surprising that the newbies (ie the A4s) didn't work together in the first race of the season to keep off the A3s. I thought it was a given at that level!

shaungil

especially when they only gave the A4's 3 mins!

While it is not always possible to keep to the left of the white line (due to various obstacles or maybe even no white line) riders must exercise caution at all times A bit harsh the way they picked on Raam though:eek:

blorg

I'd have to say from my point of view the marshalling was top-notch, among the best I have seen, every junction was COMPLETELY closed to oncoming traffic and I was able to take a wide turn on all of them. Congrats to the organisers, it was a great race.

There was no working in the A4s but given the massive turnout I do wonder whether separate A3/A4 races would have made more sense. I get the impression the club was a bit overcome by the enthusiasm of newbie racers!

LastGasp

Well done all for surviving a fairly tricky outing ! I have to say I don't think I'm too sorry I missed it !

zzzzzzzz

blorg wrote: »

I'd have to say from my point of view the marshalling was top-notch

+1

shaungil

This race started nearly an hour late. Sign on was over half an hour late to start. No excuses there.

Last week there was three races round the country they could have got an indication of the popularity. It was a cracking day and they can ask Cycling Ireland how many licences have been issued.

A4's are typically new to cycling they only gave a 3 min start and then got a bunch of 130 together of many totally inexperienced cyclists on a route that went from nice wide roads with hard shoulders to very narrow windy roads in a huge group.

Pure luck today there weren't more crashes or an incident with traffic. Also racers have to take some responsibility for their actions. Races up north now only have 60 per race. For me it was a good race but not a great race but then maybe I'm hard to please.

Billy Whizz

The marshalling today was absolutely excellent lads.

A large bunch of novice riders is always going to be sketchy. You can't blame the organisers though.

blorg

I do agree with that, I think there has to be more consideration given to emphasising seperate A4 races.

I started last year in the Orwell club league as did others (and in other leagues) and I think that is the ideal sort of environment to start in. In a club league race it is still very tough physically but with smaller bunches, so you can learn the bike handling. I did two open races at the start of last year but frankly found them terrifying- this was my third.

Chips Lovell

While encounters with cars coming up the right hand side did contribute to some of the crazy braking, I think a lot of the problems today were caused by the fact that so few people seemed interested in chasing the breaks. As Tom mentioned, you had people riding up the outside to the front only to then sit in and do nothing. If you had more people up there driving the pace, the bunch would have gotten lined out a bit more and you'd have less of this crack of people riding on both sides of the road and the constant slowdowns when they had to merge back to the left.

Sarunas

Interesting read about everyones experience. Just wondering, what sort of bikes everyone was using, i.e mostly full carbon, with dura ace, ultegra, 105, tiagra, etc.

bcmf

Sarunas wrote: »

Interesting read about everyones experience. Just wondering, what sort of bikes everyone was using, i.e mostly full carbon, with dura ace, ultegra, 105, tiagra, etc.

Blorg was on a fixie

RobFowl

Phew ! thats a clost sprint for 3rd,
even 7th is only a couple of lenghts behind the winner

Chips Lovell

Sarunas wrote: »

Interesting read about everyones experience. Just wondering, what sort of bikes everyone was using, i.e mostly full carbon, with dura ace, ultegra, 105, tiagra, etc.

It's mostly a mix of carbon and aluminium frames with a few steel and titanium thrown in. Component wise, you'll see people riding everything from Dura Ace and carbon rims, right down to the entry level stuff.

niceonetom

Sarunas wrote: »

Interesting read about everyones experience. Just wondering, what sort of bikes everyone was using, i.e mostly full carbon, with dura ace, ultegra, 105, tiagra, etc.

Yeah, a real mix of stuff on show. There is some weak correlation between the blingingness of the gear and the speed on the rider but, and this is crucial to remember, correlation does not equal causation. There were slow people on carbon and fast guys with 64 spokes too.

The condition and degree to which the equipment is dialled in is much more important than its original RRP. I'd much rather have well looked after tiagra than dura ace that is poorly looked after.

Training > Spending.

I still have serious wheel envy though.

Raam

FWIW, I was on an alu bike with Fulcrum Racing 7 wheels. Groupset is a mix of 105 (shifters, brakes, cassette) and Ultegra (front and rear mech, crankset)

Nietzschean

Raam wrote: »

FWIW, I was on an alu bike with Fulcrum Racing 7 wheels. Groupset is a mix of 105 (shifters, brakes, cassette) and Ultegra (front and rear mech, crankset)

trying to look like an innocent noob to bike equip snobs ? or is there something else wrong with your cervelo?

niceonetom

Raam wrote: »

FWIW, I was on an alu bike with Fulcrum Racing 7 wheels. Groupset is a mix of 105 (shifters, brakes, cassette) and Ultegra (front and rear mech, crankset)

Yeah, why was that?

Raam

I like my Cervelo the way it is: in one piece. The other bike, I'm not so worried about.

Nietzschean

Raam wrote: »

I like my Cervelo the way it is: in one piece. The other bike, I'm not so worried about.

so your solution to avoid future damage/frame issues is to just leave it at home? going to mount it in the living room?

Raam

These days I'm riding it to work.

Diarmuid

Seems the inlaws got a few pics from the race as it passed on Saturday morning. Some decent shots of some of the guys here. pm me if you want the high res version and I'll see what I can do

Blorg during his 3 mins NOT at the front



Lumen still ON his bike



Bloody wheel sucker



Billy No Mates

Raam

Shaungil is dying in that pic

Diarmuid wrote: »

DirkVoodoo

Diarmuid wrote: »

Billy No Mates

Wow, REALLY hanging out the back there, nice one Dirk!

Prize for sexiest rider goes to....

Lumen

DirkVoodoo wrote: »

Prize for sexiest rider goes to....

You need to join Swords or Wicklow Tri, for the blueness.

DirkVoodoo

Lumen wrote: »

You need to join Swords or Wicklow Tri, for the blueness.

They are surprisingly comfy shorts, cost 30 euro I think so I bought 2 pairs. Comfort over euroness for racing, but hey, I make it work!

shaungil

Raam wrote: »

Shaungil is dying in that pic

Dying for the speed to pick up. looks early enough. They obviously got your side view hence we can't see you.

Raam

shaungil wrote: »

Dying for the speed to pick up. looks early enough. They obviously got your side view hence we can't see you.

My helmet is in one of them. Behind Diarmuid.

Diarmuid

umm I've a feeling I will get a few pm, so to pre-empt that I'll get my hands on the originals this week and post them to picasa. I'll update the thread then