Sky Ride Etape Hibernia 2011

kinaldo

That was brilliant, fantastic event really well organised. Finished in 5 hours 57 mins in my first race and on a 20 year old second hand bike, stopped once for food and absolutely wrecked by the end.

So relieved not to get a puncture even though I had the tools, one woman had 3 punctures without her own pump and none of her friends came to her aid once, fair play to her for finishing!

Heard one woman had a serious looking accident, hope she's ok, some guy also fell over a small pot hole moments after I myself went over it at around 30kph.

Registered a top speed of 65.5kph which was fun!

Anyone know when the pictures will be available? Went to sportcam.net but mine aren't available yet, and they seem ridiculously expensive - 46 euro for a dozen or so photos! :eek:

Also anyone know why the results of selected racers like Sean Kelly are withheld?

raindodger

was a newbie never ever doing an event like this
got through just under 6 hours and was glad to see the finish line
want to thank all the people on the website who encouraged me that it was possible to do it (earlier post)
on the section where the road was divided by bollards two of them were right out in the middle of the path nearly ran over one as only saw it at the last second
very weary today so not sure if i will have another go
but must say i got a great kick out of being able to finish

johnam

kinaldo wrote: »

Anyone know when the pictures will be available? Went to sportcam.net but mine aren't available yet, and they seem ridiculously expensive - 46 euro for a dozen or so photos! :eek:

Also anyone know why the results of selected racers like Sean Kelly are withheld?

sportcam pics available tuesday. price sounds crazy...
I was wondering about sean kellys time myself....

Jawgap

Crazy prices indeed.

Some of the so-called "amateur" shots last year were brilliant and the ones taken be some of the local professional photographers better again - plus they weren't charging crazy money.

Esroh

raindodger wrote: »

was a newbie never ever doing an event like this
got through just under 6 hours and was glad to see the finish line
want to thank all the people on the website who encouraged me that it was possible to do it (earlier post)
on the section where the road was divided by bollards two of them were right out in the middle of the path nearly ran over one as only saw it at the last second
very weary today so not sure if i will have another go***
but must say i got a great kick out of being able to finish

Fair play on your 1st big spin.
***Thats only natural. Give it a day or 2 and go for a light spin you will be grand. Before long you will be posting asking which event to do next.

garminguy

i did this again this year in 5;15, slightly faster than last year even though i died a death on the last climb!
i only signed up for it on saturday evening and therefore was in the last wave off, i think i was about 10th last off cos i could hear the guy on the microphone asking for a big cheer for the last person off.
it took me till ballyvaughan to get in a decent speed group which helped cos from what i could remember , the part from ballyvaughan to doolin was the hardest because of the wind.
goody bags were crap again, most of it went to mrs garminguy!
great atmosphere all around again apart from the sign with tree huggers near the end.
one little girl had a table outside her gate with bottles of lidl water on it for anyone which was cute.
still romm for improvement in the organisation but they seemed to have listened to any complaints from last year.
that was me you met towards the end signal rabbit.
looking forward to next year but heading for dungarvan this weekend for the king of all sportives.

Signal_ rabbit

Have you ever seen so many traffic cones?! There were cones at every junction and on every driveway!

michael196

garminguy wrote: »

i did this again this year in 5;15, slightly faster than last year even though i died a death on the last climb!
i only signed up for it on saturday evening and therefore was in the last wave off, i think i was about 10th last off cos i could hear the guy on the microphone asking for a big cheer for the last person off.
it took me till ballyvaughan to get in a decent speed group which helped cos from what i could remember , the part from ballyvaughan to doolin was the hardest because of the wind.
goody bags were crap again, most of it went to mrs garminguy!
great atmosphere all around again apart from the sign with tree huggers near the end.
one little girl had a table outside her gate with bottles of lidl water on it for anyone which was cute.
still romm for improvement in the organisation but they seemed to have listened to any complaints from last year.
that was me you met towards the end signal rabbit.
looking forward to next year but heading for dungarvan this weekend for the king of all sportives.

its a tough circuit, exposed to wind and rain on every inch of it....relativly flat but tough due to exposed road conditions.

last year the same house on the same hill also provided water for the hill.

the only thing i took at a stop was water a top up and 2 bananas.


what was extraordinary was the amount of bottles ( bidons) on the road, discarded or lost gel packets, pumps etc.... why would u not stop and pick them up if u lost one ? especially a pump .......

dario28

johnam wrote: »

sportcam pics available tuesday. price sounds crazy...
I was wondering about sean kellys time myself....

Sean beat me by about 6 or so people and I was 32nd

multifunction

Yeah never saw so many lost bottles and was dismayed to see so many discarded gel wrappers.My brand new ZIPVIT bottle I got on Saturday kept hopping out of the bottle holder.The road surface was crap as it is all over the country.My front tyre exploded with a loud band and i thought that was the end of my spin.One of the motor bike guys pulled up after 25 mins and had a spare tyre in his ruck sack .Wouldnt take a penny for it !!
Very enjoyable overall and looking forward to the Sean Kelly on Sunday:)

michael196

multifunction wrote: »

Yeah never saw so many lost bottles and was dismayed to see so many discarded gel wrappers.My brand new ZIPVIT bottle I got on Saturday kept hopping out of the bottle holder.The road surface was crap as it is all over the country.My front tyre exploded with a loud band and i thought that was the end of my spin.One of the motor bike guys pulled up after 25 mins and had a spare tyre in his ruck sack .Wouldnt take a penny for it !!
Very enjoyable overall and looking forward to the Sean Kelly on Sunday:)[/QUOTe


quite dismaying to see cyclists 1-2-5 km in and they were punctured.

can we try putting ur discarded gels into ur back pocket, dont matter about making the jersey sticky as it will be getting washed ... right ?

see u at the sean kelly... different species of animal altogether .........

raindodger

multifunction wrote: »

Yeah never saw so many lost bottles and was dismayed to see so many discarded gel wrappers.My brand new ZIPVIT bottle I got on Saturday kept hopping out of the bottle holder.The road surface was crap as it is all over the country.My front tyre exploded with a loud band and i thought that was the end of my spin.One of the motor bike guys pulled up after 25 mins and had a spare tyre in his ruck sack .Wouldnt take a penny for it !!
Very enjoyable overall and looking forward to the Sean Kelly on Sunday:)

thought the same about the gear on the road thought it was like a retreating army dropping its kit saw gloves arm warmers rain jackets bottles and worst of all rubbish on the road

harringtonp

Great event, very enjoyable and even though the weather wasn't quite as good as 2010, it has been the best Sunday this way for a long time (Dolmen CC have been cycling the route or most of it for the last few weeks).

Word of note to the organisers if they're reading, the traffic cones in the middle of the road at the food stops were lethal for the main group up front. People were shouting, cyclists expecting obstacles on the sides of the road and the next thing you see is the guy in front of you swerving hard and a cone right in front of your eyes causing you to swerve hard too. Luckily it didn't bring down the group... this time anyway.

VanhireBoys

Really Really enjoyed it... Hurt so good...!

I only stopped in Spanish Point as I had a load of stuff with me.. I fed a load of boys with fig rolls...

I seen a nasty spill on a decent into Lahinch .. Poor critter hit a wall .. Nasty spill outside Ballyvaughan where 3 fellas got took out.. I senn it in the distance so I stopped and put my bike diagonally across the road so that others would not hit them while they were getting gathered.

I gave a fella in a green jersey some Zeros as he was cramped at Spanish point .. Just bout 7 mile from Ennis I saw a fella on the deck being treated ! I think he collapsed... I just got a glimpse of the jersey ... I felt a bad sensation ... I thought it was him but wasnt sure.. Hope whoever it was came out ok...

There was a fella with an absolutely mint 753 Peugeot with the proper Shimano 600 group .. Cinelli Criterium bars ... It just brought me back to my racing days 23 years ago... There wasnt a mark on it... Superb !

Loads of punctures .. Must have seen at least 30 people sidelined ! I had 700x25 Bontragers on my old steel framed Moser... (Feckin hated the carbon fibre F5...) No worrys with that !

I had a bad day.. I was totally gone by Lahinch... The Hand was the final straw.... I wanted to do it in 6 hrs .. I made it in 6:04:27.... !

I wanted to come over the line with my arms up but was too shot to even consider it...

I'll say it now _ it was the best days cycling Ive had in 23 years ...! The atmosphere was electric and we had a right skip of Vodka afterwards !

Cycling takin the 2 sides of the road and no irate motorists .. Well worth €54 in fairness !

skerry

Pics are up on Sportcam website. Fierce expensive though, €48 or something like that, and then you've got to go print them yourself. Anyone know if they were the only ones covering the event?

Jawgap

I'm not buying any because (a) I look fat in all of them, (b) I look fat in all of them and (c) they're too expensive.

www.irishcyclingphotos.com also covered the event.

bazzer30

Loved the event, my longest cycle 6Hr 6min.

As a local really annoyed by the litter, not so much the bottles/gear as any enterprising person might come along and collect them, but the energy gel wrappers, Its not the olympics! they could hold onto them till the end.

Thanks to all who while locked into their houses, still cheered, even at 7 am.

Passed the person on the road in Connoly about 20km from Ennis being tended to, the road was wide and straight so unless he hit a dog I can't see what could have happened!!! If anyone knows would like to know how he is.

Will have to do more of these events.

Signal_ rabbit

skerry wrote: »

Pics are up on Sportcam website. Fierce expensive though, €48 or something like that, and then you've got to go print them yourself. Anyone know if they were the only ones covering the event?

I agree fecking rip off! Leaves a sour taste in the mouth after a good event.

skerry

Signal_ rabbit wrote: »

I agree fecking rip off! Leaves a sour taste in the mouth after a good event.

They must be making some obscene profit off the pics, not sure how they can justify that price. If they were printed and mailed to you I might be tempted (although probably not), but they just send you the files. They done the Tour de Burren too, crazy money.

Must say the whole event Sunday was very good, gotta applaud the effort that must have went into closing down half of Clare for a cycle. A great day all round

devotional1993

I thought the ring of kerry was FAR FAR better and much better craic around the town but still enjoyed it to be fair.Place cleared out that night leaving a ghost town.

skerry

devotional1993 wrote: »

I thought the ring of kerry was FAR FAR better and much better craic around the town but still enjoyed it to be fair.Place cleared out that night leaving a ghost town.

Was out in Ennis myself Sunday night and it was far busier than a regular Sunday night. Mate of mine who manages a bar said it was the busiest Sunday he's seen in ages bar bank holidays. Must try the Ring of Kerry next year though I've heard good things!

peppa 1986

The guy that went down in Connolly has a shattered elbow. He hit a small pothole and went flying off the bike. 4hour operation to reconstruct the elbow, will be out of action for 6 weeks but making a steady recovery.

bazzer30

Ow!!!