Great Dublin bike Ride 2016

retalivity

If worst comes to worst for anyone driving there, there's loads of street parking in and around the old fruit market, and is free on a sunday and is only 5 mins walk to smithfield. There's a few 'undesirable' apartment blocks nearby but I always park there if in town on a sunday and never had any problems, and there should be less issue for those hours of the morning.

Fighting Tao

Just use obvious precautions of leaving nothing on show if parking on the street. Even 2 euro is worth breaking a window for some!

Best of luck everyone. Enjoy the ride!

shamrock2004

Really looking forward to this event tomorrow, but not getting out of bed at 6am Weather looking good albeit a bit windy from the south. Hope everyone heads off to bed early tonight and no boozing!!

Chuchote

If any of the riders are talking to the media, maybe give a mentch to the withdrawal of funding for Dublin cycling infrastructure

http://www.thejournal.ie/cycling-greenways-2964771-Sep2016/

THE NATIONAL TRANSPORT Authority has withdrawn funding for cycling infrastructure across Dublin.
Design work was due to begin this year on cycle lane and greenway projects in the capital, which would see segregated cycleways along the River Dodder, and extensions to the Grand Canal and Royal Canal greenways.
The NTA has told Dublin City Council to stop work on the cycling projects.
They include:

• the Dodder Greenway from Glenasmole Reservoir in the Dublin Mountains to Grand Canal Dock via Clonskeagh and Tallaght;
• Segregated cycling lanes from Adamstown to Inchicore and Portobello along the Grand Canal;
• and Phase 4 of the Royal Canal greenway.

It would be a good time to get this statement in.

The very best of luck to everyone doing the Great Dublin Bike Ride. May the wind be at your back and the rain out on the Irish sea and not near you!

dusty207

Great turnout! Living on the seafront in Clontarf, first riders past at 8.15 and still streaming past. Great banter, great mix of bikes and all ages. Bit windy from the south but sunny. Fair play to all concerned.

Pigeon Reaper

Went down to have a look and it seems to be going well so far. Lovely morning for it so let's hope it stays that way.

Stheno

Flying through swords the last half hour or so, good luck to everyone

retalivity

Food stop in ballyboighal was a joke...half hr wait for food. I kept goin, eati g of my own accord in garristown

oconnpad

i'd say that return trip from ardcath into town today was tough in that headwind.

I was out earlier for spin with about 15km from collon to duleek into that wind and it was tough going.

Chuchote

retalivity wrote: »

Food stop in ballyboighal was a joke...half hr wait for food. I kept goin, eati g of my own accord in garristown

The 'food' looked like sandwiches in press coverage - was there anything decent?

magicbastarder

My mother in law was manning a coffee morning for the ica in garristown. They'd been expecting to make about 50 quid and ended up making nearly a grand and a half. They'd forgotten about the cyclists.

retalivity

Chuchote wrote: »

The 'food' looked like sandwiches in press coverage - was there anything decent?

Looked like sandwiches, granola bars and bananas. Left sharpish when i realised id be 30 mins or more.

Finished and back home now, lovely day for it. Bonked a bit between naul and garristown hence my own stop, hammered it then from there to the nsc. Got in at 12.15, gaving left in wave 2 so 4 hrs with 3 stops. happy enough with that. Nice pasta at the end, some numbers in smithfield.

jaqian

Great ride, really enjoyed it and fairly happy with my 3hr 45min considering the wind etc.

However what was the story with the food stops? The first one was only after a 30/40k when you are only getting into your stride and don't want to stop and the next was in spitting distance of the finish line? Would have been better in Garristown.

Anyone know if those cyclists that had the crash near Blanch roundabout were okay?

Eamonnator

Eamonnator wrote: »

3 hrs 14 mins last year.

3 hrs 11 mins.

I got into the first group from the start, was able to stay with them 'til The Naul.
Motored on by myself until Garristown. A chap caught me and we worked together until Abbotstown, on my own to the finish.
That was a bugger of a headwind on the way home.
I didn't stop at all.
Great day out. Good buzz at the finish.

Fighting Tao

I thought the Ballyboughal food stop was great. No delay when I was there and there was a few hundred people there. No queues for the toilets either. However, once I had finished and was leaving the queues had started to form.

Really enjoyed it apart from that wind. You could see it affecting everyone. 100k in 3 hr 45 min. I was delighted as I had set myself a target of 4 hours.

Met Eponymous at the start and in Ballyboughal. Hello again!

Eamonnator

koutoubia wrote: »

Challenge accepted!

Well?

AndyPandy123

Just back in the front door now. Very enjoyable day out and very well organised at junctions etc with marshals and Garda .
That wind killed me coming from Ratoath into Kilcock.
Finished up in 3.54 which was a disappointment as I had targeted 3.30 but I'll live.
Spotted a few Boards jerseys out as well.

koutoubia

Eamonnator wrote:

Well?

Fail.

Got seriously caught out in the headwind just after Rathoat and myself and another guy blew the lights trying to get back on. Then got caught badly at that foodstop at Blanch.Really didn't need to go in to it but no choice.
Looks like 3.30 but with till Garmin upload.
I drove it on the front coming outta town to set the tempo. We were in the second wave and caught the first wave at Baldoyle.

munsterbear

Beautiful cycle, wind made it mighty tough. But sure can't complain as have done feck all since Galway.

Shame to loose momentum at Blanchardstown food stop. Didn't stop but hard to get through the crowds.

Hope anyone involved in crash before the NAC are ok.

Eamonnator

koutoubia wrote: »

Fail.

Got seriously caught out in the headwind just after Rathoat and myself and another guy blew the lights trying to get back on. Then got caught badly at that foodstop at Blanch.Really didn't need to go in to it but no choice.
Looks like 3.30 but with till Garmin upload.
I drove it on the front coming outta town to set the tempo. We were in the second wave and caught the first wave at Baldoyle.

That was a tough headwind.
I can appreciate why the organisers want to go by Abbotstown Sports facility, but it really adds nothing to the event.

Fighting Tao

Eamonnator wrote: »

That was a tough headwind.
I can appreciate why the organisers want to go by Abbotstown Sports facility, but it really adds nothing to the event.

I wish they would remove some of the ramps in Abbotstown for the event. They are severe.

koutoubia

Yeah can see why but really should have been given a choice.

Well organised event. Almost every junction was manned by Gardai and marshals. Good craic.

Passed a gaurd doing the 100km on his big heavy mountain bike and in full uniform. He seemed to be doing a decent pace.

The first food stop had large queues but we weren't waiting long because people were distributing boxes with sandwiches.

Didn't bother stopping at the second one.

All in all a good day out in the saddle. Kudos to the organisers.

brianomc

The chicken & stuffing sandwiches in Ballyboughal were gorgeous. Loads of filling. I got there are they were carrying boxes of food out so maybe queued for 5 mins tops. They even had people walking around the pitch with more bananas and water so any teething problems look like they were sorted pretty quickly.

My back started killing me near the end and had to stop at Ratoath and again about 7km down the road for a stretch.

I didn't stop for food at the end but there seemed to be a good buzz in the main square.

I saw a few people being treated by medical teams including 2 or 3 only 1500metres from the finish so hopefully everyone is ok.

P_1

Very well organised event I have to say. Didn't have any hassle at the food stops, got in and fed fairly quickly. Brilliant to not have to stop at any junction too and the Coast Road in Clontarf was actually fine to cycle on.

That headwind was a beach coming back though, was wondering how I got through the Naul so quickly :pac:

DominoDub

The run to the first food stop was great my first time cycling in a group , what a difference it makes felt i was being pulled along ....But I had too many of the very nice chicken & stuffing sandwiches before all those climbs ..kept to my own tempo , while all the while aiming for Garristown as the end of climbing only to be hit by that WIND which drained my energy .

Felt bad for those that had tech issues ..watched 4 chains break under load while climbing not nice .one resulted in a human & bike game of twister ..but they looked OK.

In all happy with my 1st 100KM ,,was aiming for a conservative 4hrs Trip landed at finish 4hr 15min , given the wind I was happy.

https://www.strava.com/activities/708378397

Yes the Gardai and event staff made the transition at junctions and roundabouts a pleasure ..well done !

AltAccount

That was my second year doing the 100k and again it was really well organised. I'd second the criticism of the second food stop at 88km or whatever it was - what's the point in queuing for food when you're going to get a bowl of pasta 30 mins later.

The headwind was a pig at times and some of the hills were a bit hard on the heavy bike I was on, but if it's not a challenge, what's the point?

I'll definitely do it next year, but I'll be back on the road bike!

RobFowl

Good spin, well (very well) organised.
Rode with the club #VCBforever which was great, regrouped over the hills and largely stayed together
Windy but thats just pot luck, food and drink stops at funny distances but very good locations...
Personally wouldn't usually stop on 100k spin (except for club coffees ..)
Great to see so many cyclists out and to see the centre of the city hosting a celebration of cycling

DanDublin1982

A great event all round. Managed to get around in roughly 3hrs 40 which im fairly happy with. The last 5k or so was pretty slow too due to the sheer numbers of us out there. It wss also the only place i can say I encountered traffic which is rare enough on a 100k spin so a big kudos to the gards and marshalls for their control there.

I hope this is an event that can run and run for years to come and it will hopefully also get better and better. A definite improvement this year was starting us on the quays. Food stuff I'm personally not that bothered by, I usually just take a couple of bananas but I know its an important aspect to some.

koutoubia

Highlight of the day was the marshal on the Coast Road between Portmarnock and Malahide fast asleep on the grass