Great Dublin Bike Ride 2018 - 23rd Sept

Hurrache

magicbastarder wrote: »

Chap I know who's a garda (and did the GDBR) said the guys in blanchardstown told him there were lots of offs around junctions with the volume of cars mixed with cyclists, especially getting near the blanchardstown centre at lunchtime. Said they predicted it won't be allowed on that route again.

When I went through, fair enough the masses may have past by then, but the stewards from Hollystown roundabout into Ballycoolin were not doing a whole lot. A couple of cyclists went ahead of me at one the roundabouts on the N2/N3 link road and the steward was leaning against a fence well away from the roundabout and gave no advice or direction to either the cyclists or traffic.


Later on that afternoon I was joining the M50 southbound at Ballymount and there was some motorcyle ride thing, a **** load of bikers, and I was stopped coming off the road by 2 motorcycle marshals, no gardai. They pulled over onto the slip and stopped traffic joining the M50. Now I didn't mind it but it shows the differences in how marshalling at different events are approached and accepted by other road users.

AmberGold

All round a good event, the Smithfield start/finish is better with the run down the length of the Quays.

The foodstop @ Naul needs more thought and couldn't cope with the numbers. The sandwiches were top class and those manning the stop were clearly doing their best. As others have stated bringing the route through Clonsilla was a bad move, tagging on another 30k round the lanes of NCD would have been a better option and easily done. Having cones on the descent into the Strawberry beds was crazy.

Andy Magic

merc230ce wrote: »

I thought the marshalling was bizarre in general and downright dangerous at times. The Guards were obviously under instruction to stand back and not direct traffic, but the fact that they were there at all just caused confusion. Most people assumed 'Well if the Guard is there looking at me and not telling me to stop, it must be ok for me to go', which is perfectly logical in my mind. Only I spoke to one of them and in their heads it was 'If you are not getting a hand signal from me you must obey the rules of the road.' So there were cyclists flying out onto roundabouts in front of cars which had right of way, or crashing into the back of other cyclists who had stopped to give way. I thought it was chaotic. If the Guards hadn't been there it would have been safer because everyone would have just cycled normally instead of assuming they had the right of way.

I also think that a field of 7000 requires closed roads. The worst section was just after the 65 and the 105 routes merged and the traffic was quite heavy too (was that around Clonsilla somewhere?) There were some poor motorists stranded in a river of cyclists, completely surrounded, and the thought that kept occurring to me was 'Is that driver going to be more considerate or less considerate of cyclists in the future?' I know what my guess is!

Your post is spot on, I found it the exact same. We were approaching a red light with a guard and we assumed we could keep going but as we got closer we could see he was waving the cars to go through in front of us so we stopped and a guy who was sitting on the back of our group went into the back of us.

Last year the guards were stopping cars at lights to let the bikes through but this year was the opposite so it was very confusing.

Overall it was a good spin but I didn't feel satisfied after it, there was nowhere towards the end to have a good dig, each time we approached a roundabout we would be wondering where to go or looking for those small signs. Also the ramps in the strawberry beds are ****, such a shame because it's a nice road otherwise with a climb at the end.

DJ WIPEOUT

Hi everyone,
I turned my 22km round trip work daily cycle into a 105k sportive for the first time with this event and thoroughly enjoyed it! I used my 'Cube - The Editor' commuter bike which is belt driven and comes with 11 gears. Got punished on the ascents (as the cycle went on) with this bike and thoroughly enjoyed opening it up on the descents! In total for the cycle, I clocked 28km/h avg & 63.2km/h max speed in a time of 3:46. 
Weather forecasters were thankfully way off the mark! I went with GDBR's weather update of cool and breezy with a chance of showers when deciding on the right clothing to wear! Overwhelmingly, it seems most people found the merging of 105 & 65 routes & car traffic was a disaster and I'd agree.
Can anyone help me out with the following: (i) is it possible to know the time of the fastest 105k cyclist to benchmark against? and (ii) did anyone else pay for the 'FinisherPix' photos (€15) - how, when and where are these to be obtained? 
Thanks and well done to all! Viva the Irish cycling revolution!!!

Andy Magic

DJ WIPEOUT wrote: »

Can anyone help me out with the following: (i) is it possible to know the time of the fastest 105k cyclist to benchmark against? and (ii) did anyone else pay for the 'FinisherPix' photos (€15) - how, when and where are these to be obtained? 
Thanks and well done to all! Viva the Irish cycling revolution!!!

We were the first back, not sure if we were the fastest of the day though, attached is my ride data.

Not sure about finisher pix, i wouldn't mind looking at them myself. I know last year they sent a mail when they were all ready to view.

Lewotsil

veetwin wrote: »

I would agree with py above.  Thoroughly enjoyed the  105k cycle with about a dozen mates.

We all agreed that it was bad value for money.  Over €50 for a sandwich and a banana that we queued for 20 mins for.  No other options.  The ROK is much maligned on this forum but their food stops are far superior offering a much broader range of food with less queuing.

Marshalling and Gardaí were excellent.

Phoenix park should have been closed to traffic for the couple of hours.

Don't think I'd do it again but enjoyed none the less - weather was great considering what was forecast a few days ago.

What was the point of the traffic cones on the descent after Fort Lucan?  Downright dangerous IMHO.

Where do the profits of this event go?  7K participants at c€50 pp is €350,000

I raised this point a few weeks back when my OH signed up .........this parish is full of ROK knockers and the money goes to charity and you get so well looked after.  Where does the money go on this ?

DJ WIPEOUT

Andy Magic wrote: »

DJ WIPEOUT wrote: »

Can anyone help me out with the following: (i) is it possible to know the time of the fastest 105k cyclist to benchmark against? and (ii) did anyone else pay for the 'FinisherPix' photos (€15) - how, when and where are these to be obtained? 
Thanks and well done to all! Viva the Irish cycling revolution!!!

We were the first back, not sure if we were the fastest of the day though, attached is my ride data.

Not sure about finisher pix, i wouldn't mind looking at them myself. I know last year they sent a mail when they were all ready to view.

Thanks so much for sharing your stats (impressive and well done) - just to have some idea of how I did ;-) Out of curiosity, did you start from the front of the pen?

Borderfox

I presume it goes to Titan (who run it) and then after the Gardaí and Marshalls are paid whatever is left goes to Sport Ireland to promote sport?

Andy Magic

DJ WIPEOUT wrote: »

Thanks so much for sharing your stats (impressive and well done) - just to have some idea of how I did ;-) Out of curiosity, did you start from the front of the pen?

Yeah I started in the front, I joined as the first bikes were leaving ðŸ‘

Wishbone Ash

Lewotsil wrote: »

.........this parish is full of ROK knockers and the money goes to charity.....

I take your point but I suppose the vast majority of those doing the ROK are not 'local' and it works out as a very expensive trip when you factor in overpriced accommodation for perhaps 2 nights and expensive restaurants.

I say most of those doing the GDBR did not require accommodation etc.

Kamu

merc230ce wrote: »

I thought the marshalling was bizarre in general and downright dangerous at times. The Guards were obviously under instruction to stand back and not direct traffic, but the fact that they were there at all just caused confusion. Most people assumed 'Well if the Guard is there looking at me and not telling me to stop, it must be ok for me to go', which is perfectly logical in my mind. Only I spoke to one of them and in their heads it was 'If you are not getting a hand signal from me you must obey the rules of the road.' So there were cyclists flying out onto roundabouts in front of cars which had right of way, or crashing into the back of other cyclists who had stopped to give way. I thought it was chaotic. If the Guards hadn't been there it would have been safer because everyone would have just cycled normally instead of assuming they had the right of way.

I also think that a field of 7000 requires closed roads. The worst section was just after the 65 and the 105 routes merged and the traffic was quite heavy too (was that around Clonsilla somewhere?) There were some poor motorists stranded in a river of cyclists, completely surrounded, and the thought that kept occurring to me was 'Is that driver going to be more considerate or less considerate of cyclists in the future?' I know what my guess is!

I'm pretty sure I was just behind you at that red light as you were talking to the guard.

There were times I knew that I didn't have right of way and was going to let the traffic pass, just to look behind me and see a crowd of cyclists; no hope that they were going to stop to give right of way, so i kept on going.
That didn't matter too much as, mostly, cars were letting us go. There were times, specically some roundabouts, that was hairy and I wasn't sure was it safer to let a car go and get stampeded by the oncoming group, or keep going and possibly go bumper to bumper with a car.

Alkers

I did the 65k yesterday and have to disagree with some of the sentiments offered thus far.

We thought the food stop was excellently run, much less queuing than last year and the food was pretty decent.

I really liked both the start and end of the route but felt the middle section around Ballycoolin was really boring to cycle through industrial estates on big wide roads with nothing to look at. There is a novelty to riding through built up areas with traffic restrictions and the rural areas work well too but these areas feel like they are only included to make up the miles. I'd rather have done a few laps of the Phoenix Park than a few of these sections!

I also picked up on the poor interaction with traffic, particularly when we were turning right at a few roundabouts - on two occasions cars on the roundabout yielded to the bikes while on the roundabout and the garda didn't manage the situation very well at all. Other junctions were marshalled faultlessly.

Did witness a few dangerous overtakes, particularly when the faster group merged in with us but I can understand the frustration as I found a lot of people to be very poor at keeping to the left hand side and riding with multiple riders side by side leaving very little room for faster people to pass.

My main complaint was with closing (did they actually) the start pens so early - I was absolutely freezing by the time we started moving and it took me a good few km to warm up properly.

Wishbone Ash

Simona1986 wrote: »

I did the 65k yesterday and have to disagree with some of the sentiments offered thus far.

We thought the food stop was excellently run....

The previous food stop comments referred to the one on the 105k route not the 65k route.

(There was no queues when I reached the Naul - in and out and back on the bike in 5 mins).

54and56

Wishbone Ash wrote: »

(There was no queues when I reached the Naul - in and out and back on the bike in 5 mins).

Likewise, myself and the chap I ended up doing the whole spin with got there and it looked busy but we were able to walk straight in, grab a sandwich, a banana and queue for no more than 30 seconds for a coffee then outside to eat on the grass for 10 minutes. As we were leaving a queue had formed outside and was already back past the portaloo's. It looked like a queue you'd be in for at least 30 minutes.

We were lucky to have gotten there just before it got really busy.

Chinasea

Je_suis_Jean wrote: »

When you combine 7,000 participants with Dublin City you get the highest cost base in the country

Facilitating 7,000 cyclists on two different routes over 105km with a capital city start and finish can't be compared to hosting a few hundred on a sleepy Sunday in XXX (insert your preferred rural town)!!

Agreed. Whats more, should the event have to be postponed due to weather etc, all the planning, marschalling, catering has to be paid for x 2 (ish).

Andy Magic

I see they are putting photo's up now on their FB.

https://www.facebook.com/greatdublinbikeride/

Chips Lovell

Andy Magic wrote: »

I see they are putting photo's up now on their FB.

https://www.facebook.com/greatdublinbikeride/

Rather bizarrely, one of the pics they posted was a fairly NSFW one of two lads taking a slash. They seem to have taken it down now.

Weepsie

Think there's a Pink Boards Jersey lurking in the back of this one

https://www.facebook.com/greatdublinbikeride/photos/a.1415302828604905/1415307355271119/

Borderfox

I gave two shoutouts to a pink boards.ie jersey on the route

schemingbohemia

I did the 65km for the second year in a row. Didn't enjoy it as much as last year, was just too bunched all the way out the coast road.

Felt the same as others that the Garda presence was confusing at a number of roundabouts, particular shout out to the Garda at the back of the airport who insisted on us stopping at the red light when there was no sign of any traffic at all coming from the other side, she was a real charmer! In fairness virtually all the other Garda were sound and tried to get us through junctions in a sensible way.

I got a bit annoyed with some cyclists who cycled quite wide apart at a slow pace forcing those wishing to overtake onto the wrong side of the road, often at bends, a bit more consideration for those travelling a bit quicker would have been good.

I'll definitely consider doing it again and it's given me the taste for other sportives which I suppose is the point.

Rogue-Trooper

Weepsie wrote: »

Think there's a Pink Boards Jersey lurking in the back of this one

https://www.facebook.com/greatdublinbikeride/photos/a.1415302828604905/1415307355271119/

That's me - well spotted!

Borderfox wrote: »

I gave two shoutouts to a pink boards.ie jersey on the route

I got a shout out from someone having a pint at the Angler's Rest, was that you?!

sparrowcar

3rd year doing it and by far my worst experience.
Organisation after Clonee back was terrible.

Sharing small roads with clearly irate drivers.

"Some" Gardai shouting at cyclist from the bollards at the edge of roundabouts rather than actually standing on the roundabout and controlling the flow.

At 2 junctions cars were given endless priority over cyclists.

The Phoenix park was a joke with traffic.

Last year's route and closures were 10 times safer. Hope the GDBR team listen to the feedback.

Muppet Man

From a drivers perspective in the Clonee / blanch area, I can say that roundabout and junction management was very poor in relation to directing drivers. There was loads of guards visible, but were literally doing nothing except talking to each other. They seemed to be leaving the work to the marshals. The marshals seemed to think the guards should be doing more and weren’t clear on directing cyclists or cars. As a result, at roundabouts and and traffic lights drivers weren’t clear if the marshals were going to give instruction, and / or were the guards supposed to be directing traffic. Just seems that the scope of responsibility wasn’t clear and whoever was actually responsible at each junction didn’t assert themselves properly with drivers or cyclists. I have no problem giving preferential right of way to cyclists at events like this, but jaysis it was confusing.

I don’t want to bash the guards, but I think it would have been much less confusing if they weren’t there at all.

54and56

Muppet Man wrote: »

I don’t want to bash the guards, but I think it would have been much less confusing if they weren’t there at all.

I don't disagree ref the lack of clarity/assertion by the marshals/Gardai on the roundabouts but if only one group had to be retained shouldn't it be the Gardai? They after all have statutory power to stop/direct traffic as they see fit. What authority if any would a volunteer with a high viz and a flag have to stop traffic? What would happen if drivers didn't voluntarily obey a marshal?

Wishbone Ash

Je_suis_Jean wrote: »

I don't disagree ref the lack of clarity/assertion by the marshals/Gardai on the roundabouts but if only one group had to be retained shouldn't it be the Gardai? They after all have statutory power to stop/direct traffic as they see fit. What authority if any would a volunteer with a high viz and a flag have to stop traffic? What would happen if drivers didn't voluntarily obey a marshal?

I think he means that, as in most sportives, if there are marshals present, they merely indicate to cyclists if it is clear to proceed - they don't stop traffic. That is, normal ROTR apply.

tonytiger81

no that was us at anglers

Rogue-Trooper

Borderfox wrote: »

I gave two shoutouts to a pink boards.ie jersey on the route

Rogue-Trooper wrote: »

I got a shout out from someone having a pint at the Angler's Rest, was that you?!

tonytiger81 wrote: »

no that was us at anglers

Y'all looked very comfy at that table with yer pints!:p


@Borderfox - apologies if I was the pink jersey you gave a shout-out to cos I didn't hear you!:o


Didn't see anyone else rocking Boards attire on the ride actually.

tonytiger81

Must say the Strawberry Hall do excellent Guinness - and sure what was the rush!!!! It gave me a chance to see some very nice machines passing by, especially a colnago Mapei

Lewotsil

Wishbone Ash wrote: »

Lewotsil wrote: »

.........this parish is full of ROK knockers and the money goes to charity.....

I take your point but I suppose the vast majority of those doing the ROK are not 'local' and it works out as a very expensive trip when you factor in overpriced accommodation for perhaps 2 nights and expensive restaurants.

I say most of those doing the GDBR did not require accommodation etc.

Sweeping generalisations that tarnish a good event imo. 
Overpriced Accomodation and expensive restaurants :) ..... never knew such value was to be had in Dublin!!  Killarney/Kerry has plenty cheap accommodation.......think you have Dublin centric blinkers on
PS -  thousands of ROK cyclists are from West Munster (count the cars in the many car parks on the day and most have racks for multiple bikes) ....... 
I am not against GDBR - I am pro anything that is cycling related which is why I get annoyed when the ROK knockers in this parish start banging their drums.

Doop

On a lighter note.. the photos are up... :pac:

Only a few of my good self in Phoenix park.. they're pricey tho...