Connemara Adventure Challenge 7/5/2011

Fi H

Race website
Last years thread

Anyone heading to this? Just booked my gang into the adventure centre for the weekend. 2 nights b&b and dinner for €64 - happy days!

thehamo

Hey Fi H

Yeh im deffo heading down to this. Despite my disasterous turn of events last year it was by far my favourite race I took part in.

Im still trying to recruit a few people to do it with me, I'l probably stay in the sleepzone again, depending on how many (if any) I can get to come down with me!

Fi H

3 stars (average)

Excellent Its my aim to cut a minimum of 1.5 hours if not 2 hours off my disasterous finish last year

It was really good fun last year so fingers crossed we get the good weather (but not the windy kayak ) again

thehamo

absolutely! That was my first time ever in a Kayak too! It was a night mare!

The pedal fell off my bike last year so had to run the last 8 km of the cycle before thte kayak too. Defeinitely going to knock minimum 1.5 hours off my time

spurscormac

4 stars (good)

I'm in. Reminds me I must book my room in the sleep zone for the night.

woody1

im considering it as its in the west which means no accomodation costs.. seeing as some of ye have done it before what bike would you recomend advice on website seems to be leaning towards mountain bike which i dont have and i dont want to ruin my racer

spurscormac

4 stars (good)

woody1 wrote: »

im considering it as its in the west which means no accomodation costs.. seeing as some of ye have done it before what bike would you recomend advice on website seems to be leaning towards mountain bike which i dont have and i dont want to ruin my racer

I did it on a MTB last year and would definitely recommend it. Flew through the off-road section ahead of my brother-in-law (on a hybrid), but he overtoook me on the road section.
Some of that may have been due to the lighter hybrid being faster, but probably down to his better cycling ability if I'm honest.

You are taking a serious chance with a road bike, the off road section is very rough and there were a number of buckled wheels last year.

Fi H

3 stars (average)

Its roughly half road half forest trails. I used a mountain bike last year with MTB tyres which was tough for the road bit. Am aiming to use MTB with slick tyres this year
Definitely a lot of buckled tyres last year so definitely wouldnt recommend a road bike at all unless you fancy carrying it for 7km!

woody1

thats what i thought will have to find a mountain bike somewhere so someones bound to have one... annoying part is i sold one 6 months ago just cos i wasnt using it and it was getting in my way...

Wonkagirl

A hybrid is the way forward, that's what i used last yr and i flew through the offroad section. I wouldnt fancy a MTB on the onroad section, although it would be better than a road bike for sure!

Was a fantastic race last yr and like the rest of you, looking fwd to taking a good chunk off my time.

I havent registered yet tho, as apparently GF events are doing a special price later in the month for people who enter multiple events.

John Mac Snax

3 stars (average)

Quick Q, A big group of mates are doing the Connemara Challenge on a variety of bikes. Obviously the people on hybrid, Cyclocross and MTB will be fine. Are there any first hand accounts of people who did it on Racers? One or two of us are fairly used to off-road cycling and were wondering if its even do-able on a racer?

We did Gaelforce last year and it was perfect for a racer. Is it alot worse?

ronanmac

John Mac Snax wrote: »

Quick Q, A big group of mates are doing the Connemara Challenge on a variety of bikes. Obviously the people on hybrid, Cyclocross and MTB will be fine. Are there any first hand accounts of people who did it on Racers? One or two of us are fairly used to off-road cycling and were wondering if its even do-able on a racer?

We did Gaelforce last year and it was perfect for a racer. Is it alot worse?

A mate of mine did it on a racer last year and found it slippy but fine. I was there at a spectator and all of the guys who came into transition first were using racers.

John Mac Snax

3 stars (average)

Thanks Ronan, I will only risk it if I can't get a a lend of a cyclo-cross or a hybrid.

ThisRegard

John Mac Snax wrote: »

We did Gaelforce last year and it was perfect for a racer.

Even the rocky road to DublinCroagh Patrick ? I saw a lot of people on road bikes walking for good stretches of that and have heard of numerous complaints since from people that damaged their bikes.

Fi H

3 stars (average)

There were a lot of people walking the stretch into Croke Patrick with racers last year, I reckon with the right tyres it would be fine. The Connemara Adventure Challenge is definitely not for racers. I'm unclear if Ronanmac was talking about gaelforce west when he was saying his friend found it fine!

spurscormac

4 stars (good)

John Mac Snax wrote: »

Quick Q, A big group of mates are doing the Connemara Challenge on a variety of bikes. Obviously the people on hybrid, Cyclocross and MTB will be fine. Are there any first hand accounts of people who did it on Racers? One or two of us are fairly used to off-road cycling and were wondering if its even do-able on a racer?

We did Gaelforce last year and it was perfect for a racer. Is it alot worse?

Connemara Adv Challenge bike section is a lot different to Gael Force. Its 50/50 off-road/road, and the off-road section is very rough.
Yes some people did it on a road bike last year, some got on fine, but there were a number of people with buckled wheels along the off-road route.

It all depends how seriously you're taking the race, to get a good time, or to just finish it in one piece.
IMO, unless you're attempting to get a placing in one of the categories, you're taking a serious risk with a road bike, and could end up giving yourself an extra 8k or more by foot if you get into problems.

When I did a reccie of the route last year on the bike, I had to stop at one point cos the front wheel on my MTB had rattled loose.

Personally, I have a new road bike I bought last year, but there's no way I'll be taking it near this event.
I'll leave it up to you to decide whether or not you want to take the chance.

thehamo

i did it on a hybrid last year and it was perfect. I got talking to one lad last year who had a mtb with slicks and he said it was lethal on the off road section. He slipped and went flying off his bike. said he'd only do it on a nobbly tire.

I recently purchased a new cyclocross bike so I have the best of both worlds

Wonkagirl

Here's how i see it.. 50% of the terrain for Connemara is off-road, whereas in GFW, the percentage is much MUCH lower.. so it makes sense to do GFW on a racer, considering 90% of the KMs are onroad. Connemara is a shorter, faster race and while the offroad bit is only marginally worse than GF, it makes no sense to me to use a racer giving the high percentage of it that is offroad.

I saw a LOT of buckled wheels on racers last yr- although having said that, the girl i did it with did it on a racer and was fine. Personally, i woudlnt do it to my bike- regardless of the fact that you'd have a good chance of getting a puncture. One lad i was chatting to after got 3 punctures in total, and had to walk about 8km with the bike as he didnt have a 3rd tube.

A MTB with slicks doesnt make any sense to me either, as youd still have the weight of the frame to contend with, but you'd be losing the grip of the nobbly tyres.

Hybrid all the way for me anyway, wouldnt consider any other bike.. will get more spinning classes in this yr tho, to get more power in the legs for the road climb!

Enduro

Wonkagirl wrote: »

A MTB with slicks doesnt make any sense to me either, as youd still have the weight of the frame to contend with, but you'd be losing the grip of the nobbly tyres.

Spot on there. It would have all the advantages of neither bike

In the end it all comes down to the rider, not the bike. I haven't seen the CAC route, so I don't know what the optimal bike would be for it, but I do know that the GF route can be 100% ridden on a road bike, once you have the bike skills to do so. From what I've heard, I'd turn up to the CAC on a XC-race setup MTB. The percentage time difference you can loose on a technical section is far far higher than the percentage time difference you can gain on a road section (if you compare a road bike off-road to a MTB on road).

John Mac Snax

3 stars (average)

Cheers for all the info. I just wanted to make sure as would be a pity if the roads were the same as GaelForce.

Will get a lend of a hybrid or decent MTB on slicks.

spurscormac

4 stars (good)

John Mac Snax wrote: »

Cheers for all the info. I just wanted to make sure as would be a pity if the roads were the same as GaelForce.

Will get a lend of a hybrid or decent MTB on slicks.

As mentioned by a few people, pure slicks aren't much use.
This is what I had on my MTB last year...
http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Models.aspx?ModelID=18826

They are semi-slicks, pumped hard so they can handle the roads well, but with grip on the outer edge of the tyre for the off-road section.

You could use something similar on a hybrid - just make sure the size fits the hybrid wheel you have, they are more likely to be road wheel size (700) than mtb size (26) I believe.

elchupanebrey

I'm not sure if i'm signing up yet or not, one thing for certain though, there's bound to be someone giving out about having to clamber up a bank seconds into the race. "an absolute disgrace" i heard someone moan last year.:D

thehamo

I thought that was gas. My first time doing such a race and first thing ya had to jump up the bank. Really set the tone for what was to come

Fi H

3 stars (average)

Tie your shoelaces tight though Saw a good few people loosing shoes at that bank!

Mr Freeze

spurscormac wrote: »

As mentioned by a few people, pure slicks aren't much use.
This is what I had on my MTB last year...
http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Models.aspx?ModelID=18826

They are semi-slicks, pumped hard so they can handle the roads well, but with grip on the outer edge of the tyre for the off-road section.

You could use something similar on a hybrid - just make sure the size fits the hybrid wheel you have, they are more likely to be road wheel size (700) than mtb size (26) I believe.

I had slicks on my MTB last year, and was very happy with it. The offroad section wasn't too bad, and I didn't hold back on it, and I made a lot of time up on the road then passing the lads with the knobbly tires.

Sure there were people doing that event on racers last year!!! I thought it would be all MTBs or Hybrids.

As said though, its up to the individual at the end of the day, some people think GF isn't doable on a racer only a hybrid and vice versa.

If I do CAC again, I will chance the MTB again with slicks, I might chat to some of the lads that did it on a racer and maybe chance that depending on what they say, doubtful I'd risk that though.

John Mac Snax

3 stars (average)

Doesn't seem to be many doing the Connemara Challenge this year. Any idea what kind of numbers they are expecting?

Fi H

3 stars (average)

they seemed to have space for 1500 in their entry list - seems a tad on the optimistic side to me but then the bootcampers are really loving the gaelforce events these days!

I have signed up again as it was my first race last year and i would love to cut about 2 hours off my time

earsandasmile

I know people are probably sick to death of discussing which bike to use on the course, but.............deep breath!!

I was one of the unfortunate ones last year that had to run the cycle after destroying the wheel of my road bike. This year I have access to a cyclocross and a MTB. I've never rode a cyclocross bike, and have no idea if it would be really suitable for this course.
What do the boardies think? Cyclocross vs MRB?

John Mac Snax

3 stars (average)

Has anyone run the Mountain section of this years race?

Website says its about 400m, it is like doing 1/2 or 2/3 of Croagh Patrick?

Any or 2 or 3 times Howth head?

Just wondering as figured it would be grand but say that time wise it take a good while.

yop

John Mac Snax wrote: »

Has anyone run the Mountain section of this years race?

Website says its about 400m, it is like doing 1/2 or 2/3 of Croagh Patrick?

Any or 2 or 3 times Howth head?

Just wondering as figured it would be grand but say that time wise it take a good while.

Found it hard enough to run last year, due to the people around and also its a slippy boggy surface, oh ya and it was steep :P

Wonkagirl

elchupanebrey wrote: »

I'm not sure if i'm signing up yet or not, one thing for certain though, there's bound to be someone giving out about having to clamber up a bank seconds into the race. "an absolute disgrace" i heard someone moan last year.:D

Oh god, i heard the same at the after party- how i didnt punch the person is beyond me.. eh, you signed up for an adventure race, not a triathlon!

I'm not taking part this yr as doing the bayrun in westcork the week before- kinda gutted.. also kinda half thinking i might just do both, as this was a superb event last yr!

JohnMcSnax- i think from memory the little 'climb' took me 26 mins or something like that- about half the time it took me to climb croagh patrick so it's not insignificant, it definitely took me by surprise on the day right enough. actually, i think the 26 mins was from the start of the mountain to the bike dib- so the ascent was probably 20 mins or so.

thehamo

man that mountain surprised the hell outta me last year!!!!!!!! Foothills my ass! lol I was definitely not preparred for it last year. and more than likely not this year either due to a slipped disc. But still gonna do it! Best part was belting down the mountain after and onto the bike.

Regrading the post about mountain v cyclocross I think cyclocross would be the way forward. I did it hybrid with semi slics last year and had no problems, but would be about same size tyre on a cyclocross bike and would also have added bonus with slightly nobbly tyres. Ive been doing road cycling on the cross bike and ive been clocking up exactly the same times as I have on my road bike.

Timmaay

Hmm I was considering doing the CAC, as there are very few mountain bike duathlons, however by the sound of it it cannot be technical at all if you can get away with a cyclocross? Also there is a mtb biking blitz on that same day in 3rocks in Dublin, don't think I can justify going all the way down to Connemara when 3rocks is only up the road!

Enduro

In MTB terms, the Blitz is bound to be way way better. The new 3 rock trails are pretty good.

John Mac Snax

3 stars (average)

Thanks Wonkagirl and Thehamo.

Good to hear its about half the size of Croagh Patrick.

Adi CkonSh

4 stars (good)

It's definitly not mountain biking, it's just forest fire roads, quite a lot of gravel, but not technical at all.

The foothill isn't very high, but its really steep and grassy, loads of people were slipping and sliding on the way down.

Hardest part of the course mentally has to be that last run, you're running away from the finish line on the road waiting for the turn back for the off road section for what seems like an age.

Wonkagirl

John Mac Snax wrote: »

Thanks Wonkagirl and Thehamo.

Good to hear its about half the size of Croagh Patrick.

i'd say it's less than half- maybe about 1/3. I just remember loads of false summits! but it did only take about 20mins or so..

Fi H

3 stars (average)

Adi CkonSh wrote: »

It's definitly not mountain biking, it's just forest fire roads, quite a lot of gravel, but not technical at all.

The foothill isn't very high, but its really steep and grassy, loads of people were slipping and sliding on the way down.

Hardest part of the course mentally has to be that last run, you're running away from the finish line on the road waiting for the turn back for the off road section for what seems like an age.

Agreed. I reckon the hill really isnt that bad at all. I remember it being very steep but really short.

Biking is definitely not MTB. I remember last year there being a big deal about an off road bit that people might want to walk around and there would be a marshal there. Ended up flying through that bit which was really only a small pot hole and spent most of the cycle waiting for something scary only to realise i had already done it

Think the last bit was only tough last year as they added a sneaky extra 6km to the end of the race without telling anyone and everyone spent the last 6 km thinking the race should have been over by now. I reckon this year it will be a lot easier! (famous last words )

John Mac Snax

3 stars (average)

Yeah, its gonna be a tough choice as I have the use of a Specialised Rockhopper with Semi-slicks, hybrid (not mine so a buckled wheel will probably annoy the owner), or road bike .

Will probably play it safe and go for Rockhopper with semi slick and setup for cross country. From the sounds of it, its much of a muchness as its only 17k bike, which is pretty short.

famoussheamus

4 stars (good)

Best advice is if your worried and want to definately finish the race just wait on MTB or hybrid with int tyres, the track of 8k is not hard bar one small section. The road section is relatively flat for the area. I have had the beauty of timing the course on both road and mountain bike. For usual trail or mountain runners the course is not high but for people only used to running on the road it can seem tough.

yop

Did many do it on roadbikes last year? Its all I have and its a carbon bike so fraid of my life of ruining it!!!

John Mac Snax

3 stars (average)

Just wondering what was the time diff between your Road and MTB times? Cheers

Mr Freeze

yop wrote: »

Did many do it on roadbikes last year? Its all I have and its a carbon bike so fraid of my life of ruining it!!!

There were a lot of racer racked in the bike transition area. I didn't witness anyone doing the course on the racers though, but they got through it fine, I was in the 1st wave off and finished in the middle of it somewhere, and I only saw one break down on the offroad section and that was a mountain bike with knobbly tyres.

So its safe to assume any elites doing that on racers, got over it sound.

That said, I wouldn't chance it on a racer. Looking like I wont even go to the race now this year.

Fi H

3 stars (average)

As the slowest person in the race I saw quite a few buckled wheels and people either having tochange tyres or being shipped back to the start as their bikes had let them down. Could happen with any bike but I think a racer is a bad option for this race

famoussheamus

4 stars (good)

The trial showed the road bike quicker but very little difference, the only thing is that you will have to work harder on the road with the MTB and that can leave you fairly tired when it comes to the last run whereas you just have to mind your tyres on the track with the road bike. Still think if first timers want to complete the race it is better done with MTB with adapted tyres. My opinion!

John Mac Snax

3 stars (average)

Cheers famoussheamus for the details, Yeah will go MTB with semi-slicks as for a few minutes its not worth chance of walking or buying a new rim on road bike.

Keedowah

3 stars (average)

Does anyone have a garmin profile (or any other one) for this race?

kensey

Does anyone know if Killary provide shower facilities or the likes prior to the afterparty or is it a case of a few pints and banter after the event? Just curious to know. Hope everyone is looking forward to this!

yop

I THINK CKWsport has a garmin from last year.

I didn't see any facilities there last year at all. There was a bathroom that was blocked busy!

famoussheamus

4 stars (good)

Lookin forward... you betcha!!!

kensey

famoussheamus wrote: »

Lookin forward... you betcha!!!

Ya, it's going to be class! Was at one of the killary training weekends and luckily got to experience most of the course. Here's hoping for some decent weather!