Martin Earley Tour of Kildare - August 8

niceonetom

skittles_10 wrote: »

how long did it take you?

Don't know. I'll check my garmin later.

lizanne83

Hi all, great meeting some of you today & other boardsies!
Nice meeting you too Caroline!

It was my first group cycle too, what a fab day for it, could not have been better. The food stops were perfect and nicely spaced out (although the first was a little too soon). Typically couldn't resist & ate too much cake & choc!

Finished the 100k in exactly 3hr, 40min...Garmin tells me that averages around 27km/hr....
I will most certainly be joining up with a proper club, probably the Orwell Dundrum girls that so kindly adopted me today for the full 100k :-)
Alas with my fulltime job +masters ongoing for another year, the fitness & sports will need to take a back seat for a bit more.

Well done on coming 3rd niceonetom, what time you finish in? What a fab day :-) !!

Bequick

Just back from the ME TOK. Myself and Mrs.Bequick completed the 100k in 3.25 hours so we are chuffed as it was her first 100k. It was a great day out with perfect weather conditions. I finally got a chance to say hello to Caroline.ie and niceone tom. Were you part of the lead group that was led the wrong way at the roundabout just after Clane by the Garda jeep :eek: .

daragh_

niceonetom wrote: »

For those of you desperate for the results: I came third.

Where are the Podium pics?

levitronix

niceonetom wrote: »

For those of you desperate for the results: I came third.

there must of been a sprint for cake ?

Caroline_ie

levitronix wrote: »

there must of been a sprint for cake ?

Burgers actually ...

niceonetom

The burger was very welcome.

2:53:36 on the garmin, though I think that might include a little bit extra at the end before I knocked it off.

tawfeeredux

niceonetom wrote: »

For those of you desperate for the results: I came third.

That must have been you Tom I was talking to afterwards for a bit, I finished just behind you. Should have introduced myself, but was too shattered to do anything other than consume calories.

Other than feeling shattered at the end, I really enjoyed this one. Perfect weather, good roads for the most part & not much in the way of climbing (though i generally like climbing, I needed a break after the last few weeks).

I'd heard this was a hammerfest & wanted to test myself by trying to stay with the lead group. It was tough, especially in the last 10kms or so when niceonetom decided to throw in some savage turns at the front, then a couple of Naas guys took it up & from there to the finish I was barely hanging on. Found a second wind coming back into Naas though & managed to hold on til the end.

Burger at the end was delicious, just what I needed. Organisation was excellent throughout & i can forgive the Garda who led us up the wrong road at one stage! All in all, a good day out.

vektarman

Managed to complete the 20k in 1hour 15 mins on the Raleigh chopper, only incident of note was one of the cyclists ended up in the grand canal after veering from the canal bank, thankfully he was okay, bumped into Niceonetom, Daragh and Bequick at the burgerfest.

Caroline_ie

vektarman wrote: »

Managed to complete the 20k in 1hour 15 mins on the Raleigh chopper

Photos???

Beasty

vektarman wrote: »

one of the cyclists ended up in the grand canal

Photos???

redmenace1

[QUOTE=Caroline) Met a few other undercover boardsies......
I had a good pace going but got slowed down by the couple of hills, a puncture

I shouted at you ("Ok?") as I went by when you had your puncture........you had it sorted by the look of it.:)

vektarman

As requested! I'm the hippy...

Caroline_ie

vektarman wrote: »

As requested!

Excellent!!! Are they fixed?

vektarman

Caroline_ie wrote: »

Excellent!!! Are they fixed?

3 speed, but only 1 gear working so I guess they're fixed

velo.2010

Of all the sportives I miss the one thats closest to me!:(

Completely forgot about it. 70km spin on my own instead, shada.

vektarman

Beasty wrote: »

Photos???

Didn't capture photos of the cyclist in the canal, he was in the lead group, I was in the peloton, he was back on terra firma by the time I reached him...

daragh_

Random thoughts on my 3rd Sportive.

Naas is much closer than it appears on the map.
I never thought I would go that fast on a bike.
All the cycling up the Sally Gap this year hasn't made me any use on a hill when it counts.
Finding myself on my own after getting dropped makes me sad.
There are different interpretations of 'it's not a race'.
People have strong opinions on the new Boards Kit.
I can recover from nearly coming off the bike after touching someone's wheel.
The cyclist who's wheel I ran into deserves a medal for being so nice when I met him afterwards.
The free suncream was very handy. Shame I didn't put it on.
I want a Chopper.

Thanks everyone in Naas and all the Boardsies I met.

tawfeeredux

daragh_ wrote: »

I want a Chopper.

Me too!

Haldir

Some more pics from Naas CC website...
http://www.naascyclingclub.com/site/index.php?option=com_phocagallery&view=category&id=7:martin-earley-tour-of-kildare-2010&Itemid=60

niceonetom

tawfeeredux wrote: »

That must have been you Tom I was talking to afterwards for a bit, I finished just behind you. Should have introduced myself...

I was talking to a few people, which one were you? CSC kit? The guy in the red jersey with the liquigas hat?

Fredo

Great day for it. good organisation, nice burgers at the end.... Will do it next year. Thanks to all the volunteers, marchalls and the Naas Cycling Club.

cython

Did the 100km in just over 3:30, was disappointed in that, as I know I could have done better before, but then I hadn't been on the bike in about a month (not gonna make that mistake again!), so that caught up with me!

Had a moment on the wall where I thought I was gonna fall over and throw up on myself in one humiliating motion after perhaps pushing a bit too hard too early, but got past it. The time is something to aim to improve on next year though, seeing as this was my first year doing it, so no previous time to beat.

@Vektarman: I thought I might know you IRL, having seen you talking about choppers before, and seeing similar on a facebook page, and the photobucket page that photo is on seems to confirm it

FrankGrimes

Great day to be out on the bike yesterday and it was a very enjoyable event. Good to meet a few boardsies and was pleasantly surprised to see the new boards.ie kit looks very well in person (just couldn't picture it working from the graphics, but it does).

Being late didn't help matters and they told me I had missed the bunch by just over 10 minutes or so, so I had to do more work in that first 30km than I would've otherwise had to, but was glad to make the foodstop in time to grab a quick bit of tucker and then get out with the main group.

I learned a lot yesterday - first time I've been involved in the front group of an event for any length of time and I enjoyed it a lot but will be the wiser for it next time. I wasn't aware when the first hill was coming (hadn't plotted the course on my garmin) so found myself in a poor position boxed in on the left-hand side. Once I fought my way out of the box I went up it faster than those around me, but it was too late - once the slightest gap had formed, it was very difficult to catch the lead group. That made me understand why everyone seemed focused on defending space closer to the middle of the road than the left = Learning #1.

I settled in with the second group and put in a few turns to try get us back onto the front group, but there weren't many interested in getting it organised. On a long, straight stretch of road I could see the lead group about 200m up ahead and then had massive rush of blood to the head and made a sprint to try to catch them. I absolutely buried myself and was within about 20yards of them when I blew up and all it achieved was to literally slingshot the line that had jumped in behind me back up the front group while I went out the back. Foolish, but feck it, twas enjoyable. I think my logic was that while I was with them I had been comfortable staying with them before missing a beat on the hill, so all would be well if I could just reach them. Learning #2 = don't do that again.

Learning #3 was how fast the guys at the front accelerate out of corners, gaps could easily open if you don't get right back on it at the apex.

Getting dropped is always horrible so I had about 5 bad kms but managed to convince myself that it was down to bad tactics rather than being knackered so I resolved to not go any further backwards and over the final 40km I didn't have anyone catch me from behind and caught many up ahead coming back off the front group, so was happy with that.

I was delighted to make it to the finish in 2:53 for the 98kms (rolling time, prob 10mins stopped at foodstop too) with 250w avg power (will be interesting to see that normalized later). My target for this event was to do my first ever sub-3hours 100km so I cycled by the finish and went 2km out the Sallins road to hit 2:57 for 100km, which I was feckin chuffed with.

Burger at the end hit the spot and it was intriguing to hear niceonetom's recounting of events at the front - would've loved to have witnessed the attempted reeling in of the sole breakaway rider (from 600yds to only 15ft by the end apparently!) and the sprint to the line sounded class. Tom - your 2:53 must've included stopped time cos I heard a rider say he came in 2:42 and he was likely behind your pretty damn impressive 3rd place.

tawfeeredux

niceonetom wrote: »

I was talking to a few people, which one were you? CSC kit? The guy in the red jersey with the liquigas hat?

In the CSC kit.

FrankGrimes wrote: »

... it was intriguing to hear niceonetom's recounting of events at the front - would've loved to have witnessed the attempted reeling in of the sole breakaway rider (from 600yds to only 15ft by the end apparently!) and the sprint to the line sounded class.

Was that Joe Barr that was out in front all that time? I remember seeing a guy out on his own at one stage & just assuming that he was doing the 50km & that the routes crossed over at some stage. But then we weren't really pulling him in even though we were fairly hammering along & started thinkin what sort of animal is he? Passed him after the sprint & he didn't look excessively tired either.

FrankGrimes

tawfeeredux wrote: »

In the CSC kit.




Was that Joe Barr that was out in front all that time? I remember seeing a guy out on his own at one stage & just assuming that he was doing the 50km & that the routes crossed over at some stage. But then we weren't really pulling him in even though we were fairly hammering along & started thinkin what sort of animal is he? Passed him after the sprint & he didn't look excessively tired either.

Afraid I'll have to defer to niceonetom on that I'm afraid as I wasn't around at the business end to witness it - that's just how Tom described it to me. Tom did say he was pretty strong to stay out on his own for so long.

lizanne83

FrankGrimes wrote: »

I was delighted to make it to the finish in 2:53 for the 98kms (rolling time, prob 10mins stopped at foodstop too) with 250w avg power (will be interesting to see that normalized later). My target for this event was to do my first ever sub-3hours 100km so I cycled by the finish and went 2km out the Sallins road to hit 2:57 for 100km, which I was feckin chuffed with.

Well done FrankGrimes on what sounds like a compelling yet stressful rush to catch-up.... and nicely done too to achieve your sub-3hr PB. I'm glad to hear that you're finish was at 98km.... because that is exactly what Garmin told me too. So I wasn't happy with this when off bike and wanted to hit 100. I hate my burger then when got to Sallins (in car) got back on the bike and finished the final 2km (hard) just to finish it 'properly' to satisfy Garmin stats :-) I thought garmin must have been inaccurate but the course wasn't the full 100 it seems...

FrankGrimes

lizanne83 wrote: »

Well done FrankGrimes on what sounds like a compelling yet stressful rush to catch-up.... and nicely done too to achieve your sub-3hr PB. I'm glad to hear that you're finish was at 98km.... because that is exactly what Garmin told me too. So I wasn't happy with this when off bike and wanted to hit 100. I hate my burger then when got to Sallins (in car) got back on the bike and finished the final 2km (hard) just to finish it 'properly' to satisfy Garmin stats :-) I thought garmin must have been inaccurate but the course wasn't the full 100 it seems...

Thanks. Yeh, events like this are rarely are the exact distance advertised (depends on where there's a handy junction to turn back from etc.)....and we're definitely not alone in having done the extra few KMs to make up the full distance - I think I remember a guy posting on here last year that he did 10 laps of his estate or something like that to make up the distance...ya gotta love that determination!