Race Around Ireland2016

zindicato

Orion wrote: »

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.

sorry for the cranky reply still tired and sleepy and already chatting with the guys in our club, evaluating stuff that happened and planning for next years 4 mangroup and the solo ultra again to try for the finishing time record.

CramCycle

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.

Fair play to them, I seen the tandem entry and thought to myself, that will be so much tougher than anything else. No two are exactly the same and there are so many variances that you could never really predict what will throw a person off. Ranging from tiring at different speeds, pacing, even their personalities after half the distance could be enough to finish the race for them.

Orion

zindicato wrote: »

sorry for the cranky reply still tired and sleepy and already chatting with the guys in our club, evaluating stuff that happened and planning for next years 4 mangroup and the solo ultra again to try for the finishing time record.

No problem mate - and well done.

thesimpsons

CramCycle wrote: »

Fair play to them, I seen the tandem entry and thought to myself, that will be so much tougher than anything else. No two are exactly the same and there are so many variances that you could never really predict what will throw a person off. Ranging from tiring at different speeds, pacing, even their personalities after half the distance could be enough to finish the race for them.

in 2014 the tandem entry got as far as Limerick and had to stop. one of those guys, Norman Beech is back again this year as a solo entrant. easier as a soloist than on the tandem he said. His crew are great craic - you'd want to be 100% sure of your team considering the close living for the few days of the race not to mind the prep work.

CramCycle

thesimpsons wrote: »

in 2014 the tandem entry got as far as Limerick and had to stop. one of those guys, Norman Beech is back again this year as a solo entrant. easier as a soloist than on the tandem he said. His crew are great craic - you'd want to be 100% sure of your team considering the close living for the few days of the race not to mind the prep work.

That's what I thought, it just seems insane (as if somehow the solo option is sane).

Stonehall9

I met one poor lad this mornin in west Limerick , he was barely pedalling looked in real trouble, had two ladies in a Toyota supporting him, looked a solo effort. Fair play

ht9zni1gs28crp

zindicato wrote: »

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.

Hey, I was CC for the Ultra Winner Pat D......great race, your man was quick in the hills. Crew Chief isn't easy sometimes. I had an easy guy to manage though.

Interesting to see the two different tactics unfold as the nights wore on....

cython

So in the end, crewing for the 2 man is quite a change from the 8 person, though the switch from leapfrog last year to navigation this year may have been responsible for a lot of that too. The Odd Ball Joes (Martin Rocks and Sean Kelleher) won the 2 man category, but it was a close thing, and literally never assumed until we saw the gates of HQ.

One of the lads managed to go through 2 bikes on his way through Mayo and Galway (broke the mech off one - though I think the bike took a knock earlier to cause this and he just finished it off - and the rear mech cable failed on the other - shoddy spare provided), so things were looking ropy there. I had to jump from navigation to our camper for a while to bodge the limit screw on the rear mech on the second bike so he at least had something to get up any climb he had to do. Meanwhile our other cyclist wasn't in his best form down most of the west coast, though he was coming right around this time, so we could at least ask him to do the climb from Doolin (el Destructo's broken bike wouldn't have had adequate gearing). Luckily we were able to get both bikes fixed up by the guys in iBike in Killarney, so we eventually got him back on his own steed, which thankfully lasted him the rest of his race.

Unfortunately even with his repaired bike, Sean would not make it to the finish line, having to be brought to hospital from the top of Slieve Maan only to receive an eventual diagnosis of pneumonia :eek::eek: Not too many people can say they did that climb in that condition, I would imagine, and in fact our camper crew tried to take him off before the top, but he blasted through, determined to at least finish that one! This left Roxy with 140km or so to complete solo, and this he did, stopping only twice on the run in for refuelling.

Fortunately for us, the lads hit their peaks and troughs at different times throughout the race, and by virtue of this Sean was strong (albeit breaking bikes!) when Martin was at a bit of an ebb, but then when Sean had no more left to give, Roxy was able to bring it home. I took a video following him into Moynalty, and I think it summed the finish up pretty well, between the elation of reaching HQ, and the near collapse when he stopped. Inspiring stuff to see the lads support each other like that, and indeed to see the level of support they got from inside and outside the crew on the run in, and I feel privileged to have been a part of it.

DaithiMC

cython wrote: »

So in the end, crewing for the 2 man is quite a change from the 8 person, though the switch from leapfrog last year to navigation this year may have been responsible for a lot of that too. The Odd Ball Joes (Martin Rocks and Sean Kelleher) won the 2 man category, but it was a close thing, and literally never assumed until we saw the gates of HQ.

One of the lads managed to go through 2 bikes on his way through Mayo and Galway (broke the mech off one - though I think the bike took a knock earlier to cause this and he just finished it off - and the rear mech cable failed on the other - shoddy spare provided), so things were looking ropy there. I had to jump from navigation to our camper for a while to bodge the limit screw on the rear mech on the second bike so he at least had something to get up any climb he had to do. Meanwhile our other cyclist wasn't in his best form down most of the west coast, though he was coming right around this time, so we could at least ask him to do the climb from Doolin (el Destructo's broken bike wouldn't have had adequate gearing). Luckily we were able to get both bikes fixed up by the guys in iBike in Killarney, so we eventually got him back on his own steed, which thankfully lasted him the rest of his race.

Unfortunately even with his repaired bike, Sean would not make it to the finish line, having to be brought to hospital from the top of Slieve Maan only to receive an eventual diagnosis of pneumonia :eek::eek: Not too many people can say they did that climb in that condition, I would imagine, and in fact our camper crew tried to take him off before the top, but he blasted through, determined to at least finish that one! This left Roxy with 140km or so to complete solo, and this he did, stopping only twice on the run in for refuelling.

Fortunately for us, the lads hit their peaks and troughs at different times throughout the race, and by virtue of this Sean was strong (albeit breaking bikes!) when Martin was at a bit of an ebb, but then when Sean had no more left to give, Roxy was able to bring it home. I took a video following him into Moynalty, and I think it summed the finish up pretty well, between the elation of reaching HQ, and the near collapse when he stopped. Inspiring stuff to see the lads support each other like that, and indeed to see the level of support they got from inside and outside the crew on the run in, and I feel privileged to have been a part of it.

Fantastic, epic story - hope Sean recovers quickly. This year's race had quite a few close run races in the 8's, 4's, and 2's which made it all the more exciting, I almost cried with the fatigue and exhaustion when I saw our last man come in and nick the 3rd place by four minutes in the fours, hard to explain the feeling really - ten minutes later we were sorting out our washing and uneaten food and taking care of the chaos in the vehicles from living in them for three days straight!

cython

DaithiMC wrote: »

Fantastic, epic story - hope Sean recovers quickly. This year's race had quite a few close run races in the 8's, 4's, and 2's which made it all the more exciting, I almost cried with the fatigue and exhaustion when I saw our last man come in and nick the 3rd place by four minutes in the fours, hard to explain the feeling really - ten minutes later we were sorting out our washing and uneaten food and taking care of the chaos in the vehicles from living in them for three days straight!

He's in the process of being discharged from hospital this evening, so seems to be well on his way to recovery again!

And yeah, there were a number of close races alright. For example, I saw 204 and 205 were within 1km of each other for a long time around Wexford/Waterford, over 1500km from the start line. Absolute madness to think of it that way.

zindicato

Elsie Victorious Coffee wrote: »

Hey, I was CC for the Ultra Winner Pat D......great race, your man was quick in the hills. Crew Chief isn't easy sometimes. I had an easy guy to manage though.

Interesting to see the two different tactics unfold as the nights wore on....

Hi your man was flying amazing time he did, give our regards to him from all of us , you guys have been our inspiration now, we didnt have any notion about racing really when we regd as it was our first time, we just wanted to finish , but we had fun against the german team who we were really up against with.

, we just wanted to get the feel for it as our main goal is the full one next year but weve learned a lot about strategy and we are going to take a page from your strategy for next year weve got a guy recording the proceedings on blackblox so that we can analyze everything

, so thats what im gonna go through now in the next few days with the club president. CC is hard alright but as ive said its a learning experience next year i have to be strict and make sure we get the right people for the crew and make sure the rider listens most of the time and have the proper supplies , we only had less than 4 months to prepare for everything ,

btw the next day after we arrived our rider was back delivering food for deliveroo here in dublin hard headed git told him to get a rest and he just ignored me and said its his recovery spin:D

congratulations again and see yas in the starting line next year

thesimpsons

question - if after many many miles if a cyclist just can't manage a hill. is it ok to walk? any time penalties for this?

cython

thesimpsons wrote: »

question - if after many many miles if a cyclist just can't manage a hill. is it ok to walk? any time penalties for this?

No penalties for walking, other than walking generally being slower than cycling, as long as they walk with the bike i.e. they can not walk, while support wheel the bike, or similar. In fact it's not uncommon to see soloists walking some of the worst hills like Mamore Gap to conserve energy for the later parts. Especially since any attempt to conserve energy on the bike might be even slower than walking it!

lorimc

Did support for the Odd ball Joes with the Cython (OH). Must say that having been a cyclist with the Average Josies last year, OMG 2-man is soooo much harder!!!!!! I think it may be harder than the solo TBH. Our lads were unreal and inspirational, how they kept going through all that pain and lack of oxygen I don't know. I had the pleasure of navigating the final part from Bunclody all the way to Moynalty with Cython driving and even with a cyclist nearly collapsing on us :eek: seeing it out to the finish was pretty special. If you want to get an idea from world of a follow car check out some of the videos on our FB page - warning some of those videos may be explicit in nature
https://www.facebook.com/oddballjoes/?fref=ts

Inquitus

godtabh wrote: »

Test

Test passed!

godtabh

Inquitus wrote: »

Test passed!

That was quick