Tour de Kilkenny 2011

ashleey

Just to let you know that your hard work was not in vain and the markings are still there. I must have missed the defibrillator signs at Woodstock though

aquanaut

is the rugby club just before Le Harte's if your coming from Waterford?

Toblerone1978

aquanaut wrote: »

is the rugby club just before Le Harte's if your coming from Waterford?

That's the one.

Toblerone1978

Folks

Barretstown are going to have a mobile phone recycling bin on site from Friday evening. If anyone has an old mobile they’re not using, they might consider bringing it with them to donate to this excellent charity. And help the environment too!

Anyone who wish to make additional donation to Barretstown on the day can do so at sign-on

Sr. Assumpta

I hope you are all carbo-loading (yes, beer is a carb; wine, hmmmmmm, yeah, ok, it too)?!

Having spent today shopping for the hoards I hung around to help with the start of "evening-before" sign-on, WOW! More people than I expected, and still an hour to go! We've had nearly twice as many pre-registering online this year..... it's gonna be a biggie...

See you all tomorrow! Come early to be sure of getting a Goodie Bag

Chips Lovell

At least you're not still in work.

dastardly00

Sr. Assumpta wrote: »

I hope you are all carbo-loading

I'm eating the bag of chipsticks and the moro bar from the goody bag at the moment

Captain Havoc

Between online registration and what's signed in this evening, we're up to 350, expecting over 500. If you want you're special souvenir you'll need to sign early as we've only 450 (online are guaranteed).

xz

Bike cleaned, chain replaced, and all set for tomorrow, off to bed in about an hour for a 5am rise, really looking forward to it

unionman

Packed and ready to go. Looking forward to it.

Captain Havoc

unionman wrote: »

Packed and ready to go. Looking forward to it.

Better luck this year.

aquanaut

Gonna be there to sign on at 8 - already eaten my malt loaf though :eek:

The tax man

I'm going to try my best to get down for this one.
Bike washed??...no.
Packed and ready??...no.
Feeling I'll get around in one piece??...no.

Can I sign on and just drive straight to the food stop:D

MichealD

Looking forward to it. Great event. Struggled around last year and have only half the miles done this year so expecting a sufferfest!

What's the souvenir?!!

MichealD

BTW Wexford Wheelers have their Tour of Wexford on Sunday morning if anyone fancies joining me on a recovery ride.

aquanaut

MichealD wrote: »

Looking forward to it. Great event. Struggled around last year and have only half the miles done this year so expecting a sufferfest!

What's the souvenir?!!

It's one of those "5 in a row" t-shirts they cant get rid of

MichealD

aquanaut wrote: »

It's one of those "5 in a row" t-shirts they cant get rid of

As a Wexford man that t shirt would be very popular at home!

Would go well with the official Wexford GAA "we wuz robbed" t shirt range.

Captain Havoc

MichealD wrote: »

What's the souvenir?!!

You'll have to sign in early to find out.

Couple of things to remind people, if you're coming via the motorway, it's junction 9, head towards Kilkenny and it's about 5 minutes on the left hand side (this section of motorway wasn't open last year).

Also for car parking, there's a retail park close to the rugby club (Woodies), I'd recommend parking there as around the rugby club is going to be a mess. There's lots of car parking there. If you're coming from the motorway, turn right at the first roundabout you come to beside the car dealerships and follow that road until you come to the retail park. If you're coming from the city just look for Woodies on the ring road.

unionman

Captain Havoc wrote: »

Better luck this year.

You too!

Captain Havoc

unionman wrote: »

You too!

I'm working :mad::(:mad::(:mad::(:mad::(:mad::(:mad::(:mad:

FrankGrimes

Shouldnt have had them last 2 beers. On the plus side does that at least count as carb loading? Should be a good one this

Captain Havoc

488 left on the 110/160

Daithi BC

I signed up for the 160km, but because the weather was good, decided to do the 110 so I could get home and cut some winter barley. Arrived home, and it started to rain 5 minutes later, so should have stayed on the longer route!

Apart from that, had a great day. Good course, excellent road markings and marshalling and plenty of food at the stops and finish. Well done to everyone involved in organising it - must be a lot of work gone into it.

Good to meet a lot of boardsies en route - and good to see the Go Boardsie at the top of the first hill of the day as well.

MichealD

Home with the legs up and "souvenir" full of steaming coffee!

Well done MCC. Great event. Did 110km and found the section between Graigue and the feedstop as hard as ever! Only used my 27 twice this year - Mount Leinster earlier and over Woodstock and the short little b****x after it today! Cruel but nice feeling overtaking walking cyclists! Going to write to Santa for a compact chain set for next year.

Seweryn

Daithi BC wrote: »

Good to meet a lot of boardsies en route - and good to see the Go Boardsie at the top of the first hill of the day as well.

I am sure there were a lot of Boardsies and if we had a chat, I am the guy that wore a long sleeve yellow jersey.

I just got back home after completing the 110km Route and I am now sitting and relaxing. I am very inexperienced, as I just started cycling this season, so I was quite happy with my total time (excluding stops) of 3:57:00 for the Route. I can only appreciate the proximity of stronger riders around me (thank you Guys!), as I would never be able to do that Route on my own, never mind achieving any average speed. It is the longest distance I ever cycled.
After the Event I decided to cycle home (approx. 18km) rather than being transported and I met some guys at their 160km challenge.

Once again I would like to thank you all. It was the best time I have ever had on my bike!

MichealD

Seweryn wrote: »

......... It was the best time I have ever had on my bike!

Organisers have found the byline for next years poster!

andy69

yeah, great day and what a tough course! savage hills (in a *great* way!).

Well done to MCC - marshaling was excellent and the food stop was brilliant, with loads on offer.

Will deffo be back next year, and prepared for that shock out of Inistioge (note to self....RTFM in future!!). Man, that was STEEP!!
I thought the crowd cheering us on at the right-hand bend were up at the top....was I soooo wrong!

Chips Lovell

Had a great old day belting along with Dirk, MAWS, godihatedehills and the tax man. Bravo to the lovely people at Marvle City for putting on a smashing event.

Jacuzzi time methinks.

ashleey

It was brilliantly run. I did the 110 as I'm now sitting at hurling training for my 6 year old in the rain. After the hills today,the 160 riders are to be respected. Maybe next year. I must also get a boards jersey as I was a bit sponsored by wiggle in all black and white dhb stuff and riding a white focus. Great day and thanks to mcc.

aquanaut

Fantastic day - well done to MCC. Marshalls, food, signage eveything great. Met a few faces imcluding the Captain, good to meet ye all. I thought the worst was coming into Listerlin to see a sign saying Listerlin 4km. Loved the 'come on boardsies' on the Graignamanagh road!

Sr. Assumpta

Thank you all so much for coming to Kilkenny and taking part in our Tour!!! It is such a relief (to me anyhow) that it's done and dusted, and that (other than the cold showers, oops, sorry!) it seems to have gone smoothly. Looks like total turnout was well in excess of 600, the children in Barrettstown will be well impressed!

I'd write more now if I wasn't totally shattered now, having survived the 160km I now need to survive a night's drinking, poor me !!!

Thanks again everyone, and thanks clubmates!!!

daragh_

Had a great day. Did the 110k

Up at 5 to meet Unionman and Gasco.
Met piles of Boardsies, some in the jersey, some in disguise. Also admired the awesomeness of Dirks Armwarmers from a safe distance.

Went around faster than I did last year, was egged on up the first hill by Jawgap. Woodstock wasn't nearly as bad as I remembered it. As I was only doing the 110 I probably could have skipped the foodstop.Â*

Lashed down from there and was happy with how much speed I picked up. Must get one of them computer gizmos!

Showers were freezing! Food was great. Great day out. Cheers MCC for all the hard work (and the go Boardsies sign)

Wish I was in Kilkenny on the beer tonight!

Chips Lovell

daragh_ wrote: »

Wish I was in Kilkenny on the beer tonight!

We're going to tear the arse out of the night.

daragh_

By the way, managed to leave a pair of bib shorts in the changing room. Grey Specialized. If anyone picked them up give me a shout.

Plastik

Plastik wrote: »

Probably going to get down to this. Looks like a fairly flat run if you're to believe the gradient mapping on mapmyride.

Flat my h0le!!

Loads of Boards jerseys out today! I said hello to a gaggle of ye at the start!

Did the 160, 6.15 rolling at 26.5kph. Flew the first 75, waited for my bro there and towed him literally the rest of the way around!

Arthurdaly

Had a great day, the marshalling and road singage was excellent, however I still managed to go wrong and ended up doing 185kms. My legs were not impressed with my stupidity!!!

Weather was nice for the entire trip, foodstop was top notch.
The last hill was an absolute bia**tch, savage route all in all and I almost feel as wrecked as I did after the ww200.

Bravo MCC.

TimmyoTooleI

in total agreement with the praise for mcc. particularly for the foodstops. water melons were a nice touch and buns are always good.

man its a tough route tho. did it last year but forgot how hard it was. u get to the top of woodstock and think the worst of it is over....it aint!

henboy

Had a great day , thanks to everyone involved . This is my third year doing this seems to grow in numbers just goes to show what a great sportive it is . Did the 163km this year nice route and great training for the SK .

Well done to all ...

JOHN_70

Thanks to MCC for a great day, I did the 160km route and it was a pretty tough challenge. The organisation/marshalling/food&water stops were excellent. I will certainly be back again.

xz

Great day out, said hi to Dirk Voodoo at start and foodstop, saw loads of other Boards jerseys, talked to a few, but didn't introduce myself (large guy in Bray Wheelers kit). Found the draggy roads after Woodstock to the foodstop tough this year, otherwise had a good day.......but did every farmer in Kilkenny HAVE to do muckspreading earlier in the week, some hairy patches of dung on the roads, and almost got covered when a tractor came out of a field heading towards us, with dung flying everywhere from the back wheels. The newly chipped surfaces along the route made it tougher this year, roads were quite dead.
As with last year, which was the only other time I have done this, it was very well organised, the water and foodstops were brilliant.
A big THANK YOU to everyone involved in organising the event, we didn't quite get the weather expected, but at least it didn't start raining until on the way home in the car.

murf85

Did 78km of the 160..Right up untill about 3/4's way up the hill after the food stop, and then my chain had enough and went snap!! Was like a dog walking back up to the food stop where I had planned on getting it fixed.. But then I saw one of the organisers were heading back to Kilkenny so i done the wise thing and bailed out!

Even though I suffered big time on what I did do, I really enjoyed it, with some very very nice, steep climbs and good organisation so fair play to them!

Plastik

xz wrote: »

Great day out, said hi to Dirk Voodoo at start and foodstop, saw loads of other Boards jerseys, talked to a few, but didn't introduce myself (large guy in Bray Wheelers kit). Found the draggy roads after Woodstock to the foodstop tough this year, otherwise had a good day.......but did every farmer in Kilkenny HAVE to do muckspreading earlier in the week, some hairy patches of dung on the roads, and almost got covered when a tractor came out of a field heading towards us, with dung flying everywhere from the back wheels. The newly chipped surfaces along the route made it tougher this year, roads were quite dead.
As with last year, which was the only other time I have done this, it was very well organised, the water and foodstops were brilliant.
A big THANK YOU to everyone involved in organising the event, we didn't quite get the weather expected, but at least it didn't start raining until on the way home in the car.

Were you on a black/blue Planet X?? If so 'twas I that was asking you about the Bray Wheelers club spins

xz

Plastik wrote: »

Were you on a black/blue Planet X?? If so 'twas I that was asking you about the Bray Wheelers club spins

Yep, that was me.

xz

murf85 wrote: »

Did 78km of the 160..Right up untill about 3/4's way up the hill after the food stop, and then my chain had enough and went snap!! Was like a dog walking back up to the food stop where I had planned on getting it fixed.. But then I saw one of the organisers were heading back to Kilkenny so i done the wise thing and bailed out!

Even though I suffered big time on what I did do, I really enjoyed it, with some very very nice, steep climbs and good organisation so fair play to them!

Passed you by, on the way up, was wondering why you were standing in the middle of the road, I was the one who shouted "That's why I changed my chain yesterday" (Bray Wheelers kit)

murf85

xz wrote: »

Passed you by, on the way up, was wondering why you were standing in the middle of the road (Bray Wheelers kit)

As good of a place as any to have a bit of a chat i thought

Beasty

el tonto wrote: »

We're going to tear the arse out of the night.

To the people of Kilkenny can I just say how sorry I am for what you must be going through tonight

To Captain Havoc, Toblerone1978, Sr. Assumpta and anyone else involved, unfortunately this is the price that has to be paid for putting on the best sportive in the calendar ....

Jawgap

What a great day - excellent organisation, great food, good company and a class one b1tch of a route!!!

Thanks to MCC for organising this and to the marshalls and volunteers who fed and looked after us on the way around.

I met with a few boards.ie's even though I went incognito because I wanted a jersey with bigger pockets!! Thanks to Gasco, Daragh and Unionman for the company and whoever left the note on my car - Chapeau!!

For the record, I did the 160 in 6:22 - I had hoped to break 6 hrs but the legs went with about 30km to go and that last climb finished them off!!

The only pimple on the day was a puncture with 35km to run.

Definitely one for the diary next year and this time I'll be ready for the climbs.

jimzy

Delighted I managed to climb my way to the end of the 160km route today in 5hrs 50. My most before today was 120km so wasnt sure how it would go, but went great! Saw tons of boards jerseys along the way, spoke to a few, daragh_bc & a few others I didn't get names, nice to meet you all! I was in the red jersey with black long-sleeved base layer.

Woodstock was pretty bad but yeah that final climb up Kilmanagh was a real killer after around 145km! Seemed to be endless climbing, the Garmin says there was just under 2000m of climbing on the route!

Superb event overall, the marshaling, yum foodstops & atmosphere all along the way were all great. Big thanks to the organisers & all involved!

Now enjoying a cool beer in the souvenir!

Chips Lovell

Beasty wrote: »

To the people of Kilkenny can I just say how sorry I am for what you must be going through tonight

To Captain Havoc, Toblerone1978, Sr. Assumpta and anyone else involved, unfortunately this is the price that has to be paid for putting on the best sportive in the calendar ....

Who do you think is organising this knees up?

a/tel

Did the 110k, first time doing TDK, have to say very tough. found it tougher than Sean Kelly Waterford, Tour De Cure & Rebel Tour put together. Brilliantly organised, great food stop etc. Hill out of Inistigue killed me, quads were threatning to give up!!. Thanks to the MCC member for the chat & encouragement along the way. Will be back next year...........:D