Race Around Ireland2016

wanderer 22

Vizzy wrote: »

If a Team goes off route ( i.e. takes a wrong road for a few km) are they allowed to put the bike in the van and get driven back to the point where they went wrong ?

From bitter personal experience...yes :pac:

Raam

Lumen wrote: »

I dunno about the 8 man teams, but with the 4 man teams (2x2 doing four hour shifts) there really isn't any rest because the roads are so slow that you risk not being able to catch up before the end of the shift if you hang around.

So basically the 2 "resting" riders are getting bounced around in the back of a camper for four hours then chucked out to hurt themselves again.

That's EXACTLY how I remember it.

Vizzy

One of the teams is putting in a late burst - between 70 and 90 kph over the last 3 kilometres !!

CramCycle

Looks like agood few people are in and over the line.

Odd Ball Joes are on the final stretch for the two man team and look to have an insurmoutable lead in the final few kms.

Anyone know what is happening with teamspy (tandem team), they seem to have stalled. is it just their tracker?

Raymzor

CramCycle wrote: »

Looks like agood few people are in and over the line.

Odd Ball Joes are on the final stretch for the two man team and look to have an insurmoutable lead in the final few kms.

Anyone know what is happening with teamspy (tandem team), they seem to have stalled. is it just their tracker?

Did they stop for some sleep

sullivlo

colm18 wrote: »

Team Grin-It-Out (8 man) finished with an average speed of over 31 km/h...amazing stuff.

I was crewing for them. I just woke up after a mammoth sleep

We were 0.04 km/hr off the overall record. 0.04!!! So close. Makes you think back to every little thing that went wrong.

Anyway. The Irish record now belongs to TGIO. One of the members was an Average Joe the last two years so he broke his own record. He's hanging up his bike now. Apparently.

Incredible few days. Amazing experience. I crewed last year for the Average Josies too. It's exhausting, but incredibly rewarding.

Minds go to crazy places though. Somewhere around Clonmel we started planning to make a team to enter next year. Hopefully it was just tiredness and delirious times

zindicato

just woke up , chief crewed for the 2nd placer in the ultra challenge, sleep deprived and knackered is the way to sum it but totally worth it. will be fielding a 4 man team or a solo for the full one next year as we know now what to expect and what we need.

CramCycle

Raymzor wrote: »

Did they stop for some sleep

I wasn't sure, they are far back so it wasn't clear.

Orion

colm18 wrote: »

Team Grin-It-Out (8 man) finished with an average speed of over 31 km/h...amazing stuff.

31.92 km/h to be precise. Just behind the record of 31.96 :eek:

Orion

CramCycle wrote: »

Odd Ball Joes are on the final stretch for the two man team and look to have an insurmoutable lead in the final few kms.

4th fastest 2-man time. And only one rider since Slieve Maan. The other couldn't continue.

Wanderer78

Was talking to a crew member near molls gap yesterday. Gruelling race. Best of luck to them all

check_six

What's the difference between the Solo version and the Ultra Solo Challenge? I presume both have some kind of backup van?

Wobs

Irishman Ciaran O'Reilly is currently 5th in the solo but making ground on 4th and 3rd who are less than 20k ahead at the moment.

Orion

check_six wrote: »

What's the difference between the Solo version and the Ultra Solo Challenge? I presume both have some kind of backup van?

The Solo is the full race - 2150km. The Ultra challenge is a mere 1100km.

thesimpsons

just posted on their facebook page that Team Spy on the tandem have had to surrender after 1225km, just over the half way point on 7 hrs sleep, a new record for a tandem in the race's 8 year history. This new benchmark has been laid down and both riders are physically broken. The race is called the toughest bike race in Europe, the course is extremely hilly and unrelenting . One of the climbs yesterday alone was 4.5k at 26%, an incredible feat on a tandem. Gary and Rob have left everything on the road.

met their crew in Limerick yesterday - full of laughs and cheer. Both have climbed the highest of the alps individually but found on a tandem its such a different story. Winds along the coast yesterday were hard work too.

I've had a great week tracking dots and meeting as many of the teams as I could. Amazing achievements to get even half way round, not to mind finishing it all and then in race conditions as well.

check_six

Orion wrote: »

The Solo is the full race - 2150km. The Ultra challenge is a mere 1100km.

1100km? Sure you'd have that half done by lunchtime. Back in my day people were a lot tougher. None of this wishy-washy 1100km stuff they're being mollycoddled with. They probably didn't even have to wrestle a wolf, or bash a bear with their bare hands along the way! :rolleyes:

check_six

thesimpsons wrote: »

One of the climbs yesterday alone was 4.5k at 26%, an incredible feat on a tandem. Gary and Rob have left everything on the road.

Holy sneck! No mollycoddling there! Where is that climb? Great effort.

sullivlo

thesimpsons wrote: »

just posted on their facebook page that Team Spy on the tandem have had to surrender after 1225km, just over the half way point on 7 hrs sleep, a new record for a tandem in the race's 8 year history. This new benchmark has been laid down and both riders are physically broken. The race is called the toughest bike race in Europe, the course is extremely hilly and unrelenting . One of the climbs yesterday alone was 4.5k at 26%, an incredible feat on a tandem. Gary and Rob have left everything on the road.

met their crew in Limerick yesterday - full of laughs and cheer. Both have climbed the highest of the alps individually but found on a tandem its such a different story. Winds along the coast yesterday were hard work too.

I've had a great week tracking dots and meeting as many of the teams as I could. Amazing achievements to get even half way round, not to mind finishing it all and then in race conditions as well.

Ah no! They were great craic and doing so well! We passed them on Sunday night and they gave thumbs up and all!

The hills are fierce. I struggled to drive up some of them (record breaking three stalls on Patrick's Hill), never mind cycle! And the wind... One of our lads is a waif of a man & I genuinely feared he would get blown off a mountain! It was described as "the fear of stopping pedalling because the wind would blow you backwards"!! I'll never forget the wind on the road out to Clifden. Ever ever.

Crocked

thesimpsons wrote: »

One of the climbs yesterday alone was 4.5k at 26%, an incredible feat on a tandem. Gary and Rob have left everything on the road.

There has to be a decimal point error in one of those figures surely :eek:

Vizzy

Team Spy seem to be moving again.
They have 1370km done and are outside Kenmare ( only 782k to go:eek:)

Fair play to everyone who took part.

thesimpsons

Crocked wrote: »

There has to be a decimal point error in one of those figures surely :eek:

ya not sure about that either but I cut and pasted directly from their fb page. Sullivlo - is that accurate 4.5k @ 26%. maybe its just a small segment was 26%.

Orion

sullivlo wrote: »

Ah no! They were great craic and doing so well! We passed them on Sunday night and they gave thumbs up and all! .

I was chatting to them at the start on Sunday - nice lads. Pity they couldn't finish.

sullivlo

thesimpsons wrote: »

ya not sure about that either but I cut and pasted directly from their fb page. Sullivlo - is that accurate 4.5k @ 26%. maybe its just a small segment was 26%.

Not accurate at all. The climbs are reported as "climb name, max gradient, average gradient" with the start and end of the climb noted so you can figure out the distance. Just looking at the route book I reckon they were talking about Ballaghbeama/Glencar.

check_six

Vizzy wrote: »

Team Spy seem to be moving again.
They have 1370km done and are outside Kenmare ( only 782k to go:eek:)

Fair play to everyone who took part.

I did spot a couple of racers who were listed as DNF being located in Lubljana in Slovenia. Possibly the gps box is still switched on?

sullivlo

check_six wrote: »

I did spot a couple of racers who were listed as DNF being located in Lubljana in Slovenia. Possibly the gps box is still switched on?

Nah. The tracker website (particularly on the mobile site) defaults to Slovenia as its location rather than Ireland.

sullivlo

daragh_ wrote: »

For some strange reason I seem to have signed up for this again.

St Tiernan's CC 4 Man Team. See you on the start line.

I was sick of the sight of ye on Sunday night the two cyclists on the road were very evenly matched and all that overtaking was mental. I was delighted when ye went a bit off track so that we could get a bit ahead, but then we went off track ourselves and ye caught up again. Great racing.

daragh_

That was really really hard.

Tough slog for us (STCC) to try and get a third in the 4 man category. Massive Kudos to Thinkbike who rode an excellent race - in the end we got it by just a few minutes. Nail biting stuff and I'll be in shock for weeks.

I'll post a report when I can. Can barely speak at the moment

zindicato

Orion wrote: »

The Solo is the full race - 2150km. The Ultra challenge is a mere 1100km.

mere 1100 in 68 hrs with 8375 meters of climbing involved , lots of rain and headwind ? try cycling that distance within 68 hrs...... from morning and throughout the night with maximum 2 hrs rest each day spaced through out 24 hrs and doing that again for the next day and the next day and come back here and tell me its just a mere 1100.:rolleyes:

Orion

zindicato wrote: »

mere 1100 in 68 hrs with 8375 meters of climbing involved , lots of rain and headwind ? try cycling that distance within 68 hrs...... from morning and throughout the night with maximum 2 hrs rest each day spaced through out 24 hrs and doing that again for the next day and the next day and come back here and tell me its just a mere 1100.:rolleyes:

I was joking chief. How you could possibly think that I meant 1100km is nothing is beyond me. Respect to anyone who did either the RAI or the Ultra Challenge.

zindicato

sullivlo wrote: »

I'll never forget the wind on the road out to Clifden. Ever ever.

Clifden was savage alright, we lost hours between castlebar and oranmore, starting in letterfrack bike and riders were going sideways with the wind and the rain never stopped until we were halfway down to ballinasloe .