The Leinster Loop 2014 with Stephen Roche

ashleey

Lambretta wrote: »

Well done to everyone today, what a brilliant Sportive
and for a great cause too - the National Breast cancer research institute - the volunteers were superb as was Stephen Roche in giving up their/his time in such generous fashion. A great sporting and charitable event in the Irish calendar

Would definitely second that. Everything is really well run and is a testament to the hard work that Brendan must have put into organising this with his team.

Thanks again and also thanks for the special mention for me travelling over from Watford, UK. (I have to own up to living in Kilkenny though even though I commute every other week back to London!)

I have attended this every year and it really is a great event, even though it's absolute torture now and sometimes more like a race!

stecleary

What a brilliantly ran event. prob the best I have seen, road signs to the venue when driving, road markings and signs along the route were very clear, marshals at every junction hold traffic and hot food afterwards went down a treat.
A word of praise to the motorist we cam upon too, very well behaved and cant think of one that took a risk or made cyclist feel uncomfortable.

EAD wrote: »

Suggestion: please consider smaller jersey sizes. As a Small lady (Italian fit) I have yet to get a sportive jersey to fit. There are plenty of people my size and smaller riding these events and we are never catered for (nevermind the loss of profit to organiser due to lower sales.) I can understand the fear of being left with stock but between children, women and smaller men I am convinced S and M would sell, possibly even XS.

they were taking orders for gear today and had a few different sized tops there so you could have tried on one and ordered a size accordingly

DanDublin1982

Great day out. The last 30km were torture. Someone should have told me.

Thanks to all the organisers and marshalls. The man on the mic on the way back in making a big deal of me as I crossed the finish line alone was nice too.

sheepfield

Lambretta wrote: »

Well done to everyone today, what a brilliant Sportive
and for a great cause too - the National Breast cancer research institute - the volunteers were superb as was Stephen Roche in giving up their/his time in such generous fashion. A great sporting and charitable event in the Irish calendar

And Stephen does this for free? Fair play to him.
Well done to all, its a very good sportive.

Unknown Soldier

Great day out. Leggin's were on/off a few times in the morning before the 90km. Saw a few people doing the same. The consensus was off, in general.

My first time every cycling with more than one other and it was a really well organised event.
Special thanks to the marshals who kept me in the right direction. In fairness everyone involved in "making it happen" seemed to be on the top of their game.

This was my first time ever doing anything like this and as much as I was a bag of nerves for the first few km, all the people in the hall, along the way and at the end were great.

Well done.

Is it possible to find out when the first 90km person finished?

Dcully

Superbly run event, well done to all 250 volunteers.

DanDublin1982

By the way kudos on the goodie bag. As I somehow managed to leave my bottle at home it was an absolute godsend!

seany15

DanDublin1982 wrote: »

By the way kudos on the goodie bag. As I somehow managed to leave my bottle at home it was an absolute godsend!

And the measuring tape.....

DanDublin1982

seany15 wrote: »

And the measuring tape.....

You can never have enough of them.

bazermc

DanDublin1982 wrote: »

You can never have enough of them.

+1 Sudocrem as well, always come in handy :P

Great day out yesterday, was a tough cycle especially with that blasted wind and the hail shower.

I was delighted with my time 20 minutes faster than last year even with the wind.

Very well organised as ever, folk deserve a lot of credit

NeedMoreGears

I found yesterday quite pacy - no one was really hanging around and groups seemed to disintegrate quite a lot. Enjoyed it though. The organisation was superb - fair play to the volunteers. I got in ahead of the very heavy rain for a great but painful massage. Met a few pink boardsies (can't remember names) plus one otr two in disguise (bazermc + derealbadger)

bazermc

Unknown Soldier wrote: »

Is it possible to find out when the first 90km person finished?

It is a sportive so no results as such

Some of the fast lads would be sub 3 hours/2.5 hours for the 90 though

velo.2010

A grand day out! Weather again held together, though the wind was a nuisance. Well organised with plenty of food at the start, foodstop and finish. Its always nice to have the option to have something hot to eat at the finish.

The route around the Des Hanlon course is pretty cool with plenty of ups and downs. One of my bottles went for a spin of its own on that dodgy second descent when smacking a pothole. Needs serious attention that road!. Unfortunatley, a guy came off on that superfast descent to Leighlinbridge and snapped his carbon frame in two. I hope he's in better shape. BTW, I don't think there is anything quite like that descent in the country - the climb back up from the bottom must be a killer?

Roche appeared fitter than I've seen him recently and he stuck around with the 130km group a lot longer than when I did this event in 2012. Its an event I'd look to go back to again though the road surface in places reminds of the benefits of having a plush carbon frameset!

Fender76

Did anyone else get super fast speeds on that descent? I just tucked in and went for it, I stopped looking at my Garmin at about 85 kmph cos it was getting a bit shakey but when I got home and checked it said max speed 100.9 kmph... Holy sh*t..!!!!

3102derek

I balled and hit the breaks @ 81kmph when a crosswind send me across the road. Frightened the ****e out of me. Slowed it back down to 60 then.

Great day out all in all.

Hopefully the fallers are all ok. there was a pileup just outside Tullow in our group, three or four hit the deck. got going again and I hung on with three orewll guys for a while, but the legs were shot and I fell off the back. Struggled with the head wind until outside Castledermot, was feeling like ****. Bad stomach craps, ended up stopping and vomiting.
Was grand then after that. Must have been a dodge gel or something.

Rolled in @ 4hr 20mins moving time. Average 30kph , so happy with that. 25 mins quicker than last year.

Any body any idea how quick the front group were?

andy69

Fender76 wrote: »

Did anyone else get super fast speeds on that descent? I just tucked in and went for it, I stopped looking at my Garmin at about 85 kmph cos it was getting a bit shakey but when I got home and checked it said max speed 100.9 kmph... Holy sh*t..!!!!

yeah - it's all a bit confusing to be honest! felt like about 80kmh or so, from the middle of the group we were in, but my Garmin clocked 93kmh.
Uploaded later to Strava and it says 79km/h.
Odd thing is that another guy in the group said his (non-Garmin) computer clocked over 90km/h as well, so I don't know what to make of it!

GARMIN...
Avg Moving Speed: 33.4 km/h
Max Speed: 93.0 km/h

STRAVA (from my Garmin device)...
Avg Max
Speed 33.3km/h 79.9km/h

The Noble Nudge

andy69 wrote: »

yeah - it's all a bit confusing to be honest! felt like about 80kmh or so, from the middle of the group we were in, but my Garmin clocked 93kmh.
Uploaded later to Strava and it says 79km/h.
Odd thing is that another guy in the group said his (non-Garmin) computer clocked over 90km/h as well, so I don't know what to make of it!

GARMIN...
Avg Moving Speed: 33.4 km/h
Max Speed: 93.0 km/h

STRAVA (from my Garmin device)...
Avg Max
Speed 33.3km/h 79.9km/h

Ive been getting dodgy max speed readings a lot recently on my Garmin....

velo.2010

Fender76 wrote: »

Did anyone else get super fast speeds on that descent? I just tucked in and went for it, I stopped looking at my Garmin at about 85 kmph cos it was getting a bit shakey but when I got home and checked it said max speed 100.9 kmph... Holy sh*t..!!!!

Jaysus, that's fast! We had a couple of oncoming cars plus the lead car that wasn't too intent on breaking the speed limit on that stretch of road. One or two guys getting back back on might have hit 90kph or so but generally we were limited to about 80kph.

3102derek wrote: »

Rolled in @ 4hr 20mins moving time. Average 30kph , so happy with that. 25 mins quicker than last year.

Any body any idea how quick the front group were?

Slightly different readings at the end but around 34kph plus for the quite large front group. Headwind/crosswind in every direction bar the climbs.

andy69

3102derek wrote: »

...Any body any idea how quick the front group were?

'Time: 3:46:57'

but....I hasten to add....that's not in any way thanks to my being there (I was swinging out of them for the whole day as I hammered it the day before on the Nico Roche spin, so the legs were in a heap. GCN guy, Usher TT guy, the lad from Dubai and a few others were doing a lot the hard work (from the few times I was able to look up at the front! ). Felt awful guilty not being able to help out but was literally hanging on to them)

Well done to the organisers - really was another great success. Great work by all the volunteers, very much appreciated!

andy69

photos available....

http://markphelanphotography.shootproof.com/

(passwords required for each set. they're on the FB page)....

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Leinster-Loop/214351458585077

kildarecommuter

First time taking part did the 90km really enjoyed it
One of the best sportives I've done

derealbadger

Think it is bad form for the event organisers to be involved in charging for pics from the day when they have already got €30 from all the participants

Koobcam

derealbadger wrote: »

Think it is bad form for the event organisers to be involved in charging for pics from the day when they have already got €30 from all the participants

Yeah, I was a bit surprised by this also. There are plenty of other pics on Facebook though.

3102derek

All proceeds from the purchase of the photos go to The National Breast Cancer Research Institute (NBCRI) and St. Laurence's Community Complex, which is better than the photographer making a profit from it imho.

Rua_ri

Was there any mechanical support at this cycle?
A friend needed his rear derailleur adjusted but couldn't find anyone. He had to wait till the food stop at 80km before he got mechanical assistance from the bike shop employee.

derealbadger

Rua_ri wrote: »

Was there any mechanical support at this cycle?
A friend needed his rear derailleur adjusted but couldn't find anyone. He had to wait till the food stop at 80km before he got mechanical assistance from the bike shop employee.

Ye there didn't seem to be any mechanical support from what could see last year Nigel from Bikeolegy in Naas was there but nobody this year. As regards Dereks point about it being for charity the €60 I paid for me and my girlfriend was for charity and €3.50 is the straw that broke the camel back as far as I am concerned and I think I will go elsewhere next year

Rua_ri

I was told there was 1540 cyclists at the event and there seems to have been no mechanical support.
I saw one guy at the start whose brake cable had just snapped, and nowhere to get it replaced.
I truly hope that he did not attempt the 130km route with only one brake.

BGT

Rua_ri wrote: »

Was there any mechanical support at this cycle?
A friend needed his rear derailleur adjusted but couldn't find anyone. He had to wait till the food stop at 80km before he got mechanical assistance from the bike shop employee.

There was a qualified mechanic at Old Grange and one at the foodstop too. Further, each broom wagon had basic supplies, pumps, tubes etc.

BGT

derealbadger wrote: »

Ye there didn't seem to be any mechanical support from what could see last year Nigel from Bikeolegy in Naas was there but nobody this year. As regards Dereks point about it being for charity the €60 I paid for me and my girlfriend was for charity and €3.50 is the straw that broke the camel back as far as I am concerned and I think I will go elsewhere next year

Photos were taken on a voluntary basis by an internationally renowned professional photographer. They are available for purchase at an exceptionally low price. The Leinster Loop is an entirely charitable undertaking, we are all volunteers and make no apologies for maximising the return to our charities. The photos are of the highest quality, and the Leinster Loop is Ireland's premier charity cycle sportive. The vast, vast majority of feedback is gratitude on the part of cyclists who are delighted to purchase a quality photo at an unbelievably low price. But of course derealbadger you have a choice, you can either purchase a photo or decide not to, your call.

Rua_ri

BGT wrote: »

There was a qualified mechanic at Old Grange and one at the foodstop too. Further, each broom wagon had basic supplies, pumps, tubes etc.

Where is old grange and how was this advertised?
The one at the foodstop was at 80km.
Was there any assistance at the start?

Do you think that with 1540 cyclists at this event one mechanic and a broom wagon with basic supplies was adequate?

None of the officials, or marshalls I asked at the start had any idea if mechanical assistance was available.

derealbadger

Always good to see constructive criticism handled so well as a member of the largest group of riders from one single club my opinion still stands that it is a bit to greedy I do 15 or 20 charity events each year I more than pay my way.But due to your reaction to my comments I wont be doing the Leinsterloop again

BGT

Rua_ri wrote: »

Where is old grange and how was this advertised?
The one at the foodstop was at 80km.
Was there any assistance at the start?

Do you think that with 1540 cyclists at this event one mechanic and a broom wagon with basic supplies was adequate?

None of the officials, or marshalls I asked at the start had any idea if mechanical assistance was available.

Rua-ri

Old Grange is the start/finish area.

Rua_ri

BGT wrote: »

Rua-ri

Old Grange is the start/finish area.

Where was this mechanic located?
Noboby seemed yo know?

I would like an answer to my other questions.

BGT

Thanks to everyone who supported the 2014 event, either as riders, volunteers, sponsors or suppliers. The 2014 event raised €41,288 for the two charities, St Laurence's Community Complex and the National Breast Cancer Research Institute. It was a huge success, with 1,557 riders taking part, a wonderful atmosphere and the event was again nominated for Cycling Ireland's best leisure event.

We hope to see you all again on 16th August 2015 (and the family cycle on the evening before). Thanks!

Dcully

Last year was my first Leinster Loop,had a blast apart from that hellish wind on the way back from tullow.
Great event in every way only pipped by Wesportif as my favourite sportive of 2014,will definitely be doing the LL again this year.