Shay Elliott and SHA3 Races 2015

Plastik

Time for one of the biggest races of the year again and I am delighted to announce that Bray Wheelers have secured a title sponsor for the Elliott for the first time in a number of years with Club La Santa and Sports Tours International sponsoring the race.

Sunday May 10th
Sign on is at the Bray Wheelers clubhouse on Schools Road, Bray between 0900 and 1030
Parking will be available at St. Killian's Community School which is adjacent to the clubhouse.
Shower and changing facilities are available.

Racing will commence in the A1/A2 race at 1100
Racing will commence in the A3/Jun race at 1105
Ladies to race in whichever Cat1/2/3 race their licence says
No A4 race

A1/A2 Route 140km: http://ridewithgps.com/routes/3868243
A3/Jun Route 89km: http://ridewithgps.com/routes/3868223

- Both races will start with a 3km neutral roll out from the Bray Wheelers club house until all riders are on the N11.
- There's a sprint prime for both races on the N11 at the top of the Newtownmountkennedy bypass at 13.5km approx (inc roll out)
- There's a KOM prime at the top of the Shay Elliott for both races

Tough route and always a great race, right up there with the best in the country. While the organisation that goes into every race is mammoth and something that you'll never grasp until you're involved with running one, the organisation that goes into a race that covers such an amount of distance and diverse roads is absolutely epic. Over 100 marshals covering a number of different junctions each throughout the day.

Dunbar won't be there to try and go one better than his 2nd place last year, but it'll be interesting to see what, if any, junior riders get dispensation from CI to sign on the main event and whether they can become only the second Junior after Seán Kelly to ever win the race. Being so close to the Rás too there will be a lot of riders with strong form for this.

bazermc

What time will the race be due to go over the Shay Elliot climb at (roughly). I am going to take a spin down as part of my training cycle on Sunday and have a look at the race go over the top.

Plastik

Timings for the KOM are

Shay Elliott
@32kph: 14.18
@40kph: 13.38
@48kph: 13.12

SHA3
@32avg: 12.49
@36avg: 12.38
@39avg: 12.30

harringtonp

Thought these were pre entry but couldn't find anything online so presume they are entry on day ?

Plastik

Yep, no pre entry, just pay on the morning - €15.

Plastik

All set in Bray this evening for one of the biggest races of the year. Weather even looking like it might play ball with a mostly dry day.

Plastik

Podium of the Elliott and full results of both races below.

1st Martyn Irvine
2nd Ali McAuley
3rd Seán McKenna







If anyone had any issues today please feel free to drop me a PM and I'll bring them to the attention of the committee.

Thanks to all the riders that signed on this morning.

manwithaplan

Thanks Bray. Great job as always. Finished in the front group in A3 but not enough for a pot.

Inquitus

manwithaplan wrote: »

Thanks Bray. Great job as always. Finished in the front group in A3 but not enough for a pot.

Fair fecks to you manwithaplan savage result even if it didn't make sticky bottle.

eeeee

Such an impressive performance by Irvine. Out front for a long time. He's an animal!

Inquitus

gadetra wrote: »

Such an impressive performance by Irvine. Out front for a long time. He's an animal!

He's on a different planet to the rest to be fair, and its been plain to see last few weeks.

eeeee

Yup. A whole class apart.

buffalo

Yeah, fantastic day out! It's a hell of an undertaking, that sort of distance with not much in the way of loops. Well-marshalled, well-run!

J Madone

buffalo wrote: »

Yeah, fantastic day out! It's a hell of an undertaking, that sort of distance with not much in the way of loops. Well-marshalled, well-run!

Congrats
Was very impressed watching you go up the road with Sean McKenna.
Tough day for you , savage

doozerie

The SHA3 was a great race, the marshalling in particular was excellent - people at each significant/dodgy junction and plenty of motorbike marshals who did a great job both of herding our group and also of nipping ahead and marking out hazards. They even chucked in some moral support for free too! Thanks a lot to all of them, I was very grateful for their help throughout today and it cropped up in conversations I had with more than one rider later that it was very well organised.

The race itself was hard, as all the best races are. I was a passenger until Shay Elliott, at which point I thought I was going to become a patient as my heart hit 110% of my max and stayed at that for a solid 10 minutes, never was a descent more welcome! I had to really dig in to stay with a group that formed between there and Annamoe, at that stage I had no idea how many were up the road, I gather it may have been about 30. Our group rolled in what looks like 2 or 3 minutes behind the chasing group, though that estimate is based entirely on Strava sleuthing (Flybys, to be precise) so could be well off.

I really enjoyed the day, despite finding myself behind a mucus monster for the first part of the race. When he wasn't spitting he was snotting, I had the misfortune of being right behind him so it was an occasionally slightly showery start to the day. I think he must has misunderstood the common (and bizarre) advice to ingest one litre of fluid per hour, he was well on his way to ejecting that and more. If ever a man needed a handlebar mounted spittoon, this fella did.

Diarmuid

Thanks to Bray Wheelers for putting on a great show. I'm always amazing by the amount of volunteers that turn out to make that event a success. I'd imagine it's one of the hardest races on the calendar to organise.

harringtonp

First time doing the SHA3, excellent organisation. Despite finishing in what was probably one of the later groups, got a great buzz out of it.

Love those big loop races, they feel like the real deal. And reckon they have it right for A3 standard in terms of length and difficulty.

As said above it was a race of 2 halves: fairly easy coasting to the bottom of the Elliot (if that was what you choose) and full gas from there till the end.

bwalsh1983

Hats off to Bray, superb organisation from the clubhouse to the finish line. It is great to not have to worry about junctions and turns with the superb level of marshaling. With such a long course and no loop it really is an undertaking.

Plastik

My own day didn't go so well. Was in the A3 break that rolled away after the prime on the N11. Good number of us there and we were all working well. We had 1m20 at Rathnew. There was a touch of wheels though and that brought down five of us I'd say. It was race over for four and the break lost some of the firepower it needed to try and build something into the wind. Gave the head a good thump, split the helmet in two!

harringtonp

Plastik wrote: »

My own day didn't go so well. Was in the A3 break that rolled away after the prime on the N11. Good number of us there and we were all working well. We had 1m20 at Rathnew. There was a touch of wheels though and that brought down five of us I'd say. It was race over for four and the break lost some of the firepower it needed to try and build something into the wind. Gave the head a good thump, split the helmet in two!

Pity about that hope you are ok, spoke to one of its survivors after and he said that there were 12 before the crash but only 4 after.

Was towards the front just as the break was going and contemplated trying to jump across. Decided not to as I thought it would be quickly pulled back and was then a bit disappointed when I saw it disappear up the road. But was later quite happy I didn't when I heard what happened.

harringtonp

doozerie wrote: »

was a descent more welcome! I had to really dig in to stay with a group that formed between there and Annamoe, at that stage I had no idea how many were up the road, I gather it may have been about 30. Our group rolled in what looks like 2 or 3 minutes behind the chasing group, though that estimate is based entirely on Strava sleuthing (Flybys, to be precise) so could be well off.

Created a SHA3 2015 strava segment which may help:

https://www.strava.com/segments/9459985

manwithaplan

harringtonp wrote: »

Created a SHA3 2015 strava segment which may help:

https://www.strava.com/segments/9459985

Hit stop on my garmin just as I crossed the line - obviously just a little to soon for that segment.

Arthurdaly

Epic A3 race, thanks to all at Bray Wheelers! We are lucky to have races like this.

I know these roads like the back of my hand but it still felt like an epic adventure and was intense stuff from the bottom on Shay Elliott back to the finish line. For anyone who had not ridden the roads before I can only imagine it was an even better experience.

harringtonp

manwithaplan wrote: »

Hit stop on my garmin just as I crossed the line - obviously just a little to soon for that segment.

I deliberately pulled back the finish a couple of 100m to catch these.

Looked at where the segment starts as its more likely that I started it too soon for some (though it was on the N11).

I could look into recreating it with a later start point.

manwithaplan

No problem - I have my own ride anyway. Turns out I finished 11th. Some fast times up the Elliott with the tail wind and some wheels to stick to.

doozerie

harringtonp wrote: »

Created a SHA3 2015 strava segment which may help:

https://www.strava.com/segments/9459985

My ride doesn't match that segment either, despite your start and stop points definitely being within those on my ride. Zooming in on my own ride solves the mystery, it's not quite how I remember it - apparently on the outward leg I went off-road to cut a large bend on the N11 and shortly afterwards I nipped over to the other side of the central reservation to ride on the other side of that busy dual carriageway.

On the return leg I apparently missed the N11 completely, it was fields and trees all the way, I even seem to have cut through a few back gardens - no wonder it felt like I was pedalling through mud in those last few kilometres! My Garmin has a twisted sense of humour.