Skoda Tour De Boyne Valley 2018

Boscoirl

At the Ring of Clare and Tour of Connemara I got XL and they both fit me, so went for XL again here, but I am 100kg, collecting it in the morning, but if it’s snug I can swap with you.

theunforgiven

No prob, I'll try it on and see. If it's hanging off me. I'll message you. ðŸ‘

positron

Lol, I must have been thinking of regular / Underarmour type sizing - I am 5'11 / 88kgs and I got a M - it's so small it might suit a 10 year old. I guess this is the normal cycling jersey sizing - kinda like aliexpress (asian) fit?

Apart from that, looking forward to the spin tomorrow. Looks slightly windy.. should be fun.

Boscoirl

The XL fits me ok. Not loose but fine with a base layer. So will hang onto it.

Damp morning here so far

plodder

Did the 95km just there. It's a fantastic event - incredibly fast and efficient checking in, though I was too late registering to get the top, which looked pretty decent. The route/scenery is lovely and great marshaling on the course. Loads of food at the mid way stop and at the end. Couldn't fault it. The weather stayed fine as well with only one short shower.

positron

Enjoyed that. It was harder than I imagined, not sure why. I have done couple of 200k runs in the past but mostly flat, and the hills on the second half was hard enough. Some rain along there too, got a good soaking. But otherwise weather was good.

Event was extremely well organised. Well signposted and marshaled. Nice food stop, and water stop was just at the right spot as well. The finish area was well setup too - nice chicken curry and rice + more options, cakes etc. Plenty of food.

On the road first 10k was fairly congested and gaps started appearing past Termonfeckin. And once past feed station I was all on my own for good 10k and I started wondering if took a wrong turn somewhere, but I hadn't and all was fine. I did most of the route on my own - I couldn't figure out the technique of staying with any of the groups I saw - most of them were quicker than my uphill but I would end up shooting past them on the downhill (without even trying). Must be the a weight / kinetic energy thing.

Only downsite for me was that the Garmin watch ran out of charge just after the water stop. But great event, will consider it again next year. Couldn't spot Eamonnator among what appeared like a sea of cyclists... a lot of great bikes were on display though!!

Boscoirl

Enjoyed and hated that at the same time

First Spin in 5 weeks and boy did I feel it. Florence for the first 40km. Was averaging 29-30kmph( the tail wind was probably helping for a bit if this) Then blew up. Limped to the food stop hoeing that would give me a boost, but the headwind sapped everything out of me. Then got lost, missed a turn and ended up in Slane(along with about 15other cyclist). Eventually got back on he route, then got stuck in the small ring at the front(which probably didn’t make a huge difference the way I was going. ) then trundled back to the start. Did 92km at an avg of 23.something. My worst in over 3yrs

Overall it’s a good spin, nice route and the food stop was fantastic, very well run and the volunteer/marshals were great. The only thing I didn’t fully like was using the retail park as the start/finish, was a bit ropey coming in at the end. Could have done with a marshal or two there, had a few cars pull out in front of me.

Glad I did it, but it’s a bit of trek for me so probably won’t get up to it again.

mcdonrob

Great sponsor, great Marshall’s, great Club, great route, great weather.

mcdonrob

mcdonrob wrote: »

Great sponsor, great Marshall’s, great Club, great route, great weather.

nice jersey too!

motley

I thought it could do with some more signage. There were no signs for two different distances, just marshals. Could do with distance markers 10km to go etc as the official distance is never the actual distance in these things.

Would agree that the retail park is not the ideal location for start/finish with the amount of traffic.

The sponsor has their place their though so while not ideal for riders maybe it makes sense.

shamrocka330

Did the 145KM today (which turned out to be 153KM so I must have taken a wrong turn somewhere!), it was my first time doing this cycle and overall found it very good. Checking in and the contents of the goodie bag were great and having the car near to the start line was an added bonus! I think more gents toilets are needed next year as the queue was mental!!

I’ve done many long cycles and found this one fairly tough! There was no big hills to contend with but I think the wind and the long, monotonous route was energy sapping. The organisation throughout was very good with marshals (and the guards) doing a good job.

My only gripe was the food, I didn’t think it was great compared to previous events I’ve done. At the first stop (think around 45KM) there was only water which meant the first bit of food available would be 92KM into the cycle at the proper food stop which is fair distance into the cycle. This meant a lot of cyclists stopped off at a shop as they were starving! Maybe next year have the food stop at around the 75KM mark?

Agree with the other posters about the finish area, it was a bit tricky with the traffic but the location, proximity to the motorway and the benefits I mentioned at the beginning outweigh this small negative. Overall a good day out and would definitely consider doing it next year.

Nanoc

Long shot, has anyone who did this already done Ironman Barcelona? I used it as a training day yesterday but if Barcelona is like that I'm goosed. There's not much in the elevation difference but I just found yesterday tough, I was zapped of energy after about 60k.

Did anyone else consider it to be a "tough" cycle?

Eamonnator

I did the "145" yesterday.
I started with the first group, and stayed with them until Collon. I got dropped there and continued on my Todd until the feed station. I got into a lovely group after the feed, and we stayed together until the end.
I averaged 30.6kph. I thought it was a tough spin. The wind was not kind and those drags were energy sapping.
My Garmin gave me a total of 150kms. not the advertised 145kms.

I thought, it was very well organised. Marshals, Lead cars and motos were plentiful and efficient. Gardai were at the places, where they were most needed.
Food was good. Again a special word about the muffins, lovely and I understand they were supplied by McCluskey's Bakery.
In an ideal world, the food stop on the long route would be better, if it were at about 70-75kms, but I'm not sure, if that would be logistically possible.

From Skoda's point of view, I would imagine, that they were delighted to be able to highlight the lovely premises that Western Motors have in Drogheda. I think Drogheda Wheelers did a great job, organising the Start/Finish, all things considered.

All in all, That was one of my favourite sportives of the year.
Well done to Drogheda Wheelers, Skoda, An Garda Siochana, and all involved.

@Nanoc. Yeah, it was tough, but hopefully, I'll be back for more next year.

Kop Idol

Boscoirl wrote: »

Enjoyed and hated that at the same time

First Spin in 5 weeks and boy did I feel it. Florence for the first 40km. Was averaging 29-30kmph( the tail wind was probably helping for a bit if this) Then blew up. Limped to the food stop hoeing that would give me a boost, but the headwind sapped everything out of me. Then got lost, missed a turn and ended up in Slane(along with about 15other cyclist). Eventually got back on he route, then got stuck in the small ring at the front(which probably didn’t make a huge difference the way I was going. ) then trundled back to the start. Did 92km at an avg of 23.something. My worst in over 3yrs

Overall it’s a good spin, nice route and the food stop was fantastic, very well run and the volunteer/marshals were great. The only thing I didn’t fully like was using the retail park as the start/finish, was a bit ropey coming in at the end. Could have done with a marshal or two there, had a few cars pull out in front of me.  

Glad I did it, but it’s a bit of trek for me so probably won’t get up to it again.

Yup...that likely was my group :ermm:. We had our heads down on the N2, doing changeovers into the headwind and obviously completely missed the turn and ended up in Slane. We were told later there was a sign but thought there might've been marshals given it was a right turn across a busy man road. We re-routed and joined the course back up at Gormanlough so our mileage was nearly the same and elevation similar. Great day out otherwise and the pink iced cake at the food stop in Phillipstown is probably what powered me home. Great organization, great event. Will be back next year (if its in the plan).

positron

Kop Idol wrote: »

We were told later there was a sign but thought there might've been marshals given it was a right turn across a busy man road.

When I got there (doing 95k route, 3:24 pm according to Strava), there were two marshals there waving a red flag and getting folks to turn right off N2 and into a gravel road with no sides, nearly went into the ditches couple of times riding too close to the edge and looking back etc.

And further up, after a very long and hard climb there was a huge fast descent - possibly the into the Boyne river valley (wiggers cross?) - where the road surface was absolutely horrondous - genuinely thought my bike is going to fall apart as I clattered thru it, and that's with me riding a CX bike with nice 32 mm marathon tyres. I can't imagine how folks managed that with their proper / expensive road bikes.

To Nanoc, I thought it was pretty hard too. I was pretty wrecked considering I only did 100k, compared to couple of instances where I have done beyond 100k - 200k even. I feel it was because I was going faster than the pace I would have kept if I was riding on my own, and the wind made things a lot worse. Best of luck with the Ironman!

Kop Idol

positron wrote: »

Kop Idol wrote: »

We were told later there was a sign but thought there might've been marshals given it was a right turn across a busy man road.

And further up, after a very long and hard climb there was a huge fast descent - possibly the into the Boyne river valley (wiggers cross?) - where the road surface was absolutely horrondous - genuinely thought my bike is going to fall apart as I clattered thru it, and that's with me riding a CX bike with nice 32 mm marathon tyres. I can't imagine how folks managed that with their proper / expensive road bikes.

Yup, that's known locally as Sharps Hill, personal favorite of mine :)  Trick is to descend to the Boyne as quick as you dare (gravel, surface and narrow bridge at the bottom) and then hit the climb fast and hard so you kinda 'fly' over the bad surface ;)  I managed 2nd fastest up it on Strava yesterday so was well happy given I got my gears wrong about mid way up. Nice tailwind home from there.

plodder

positron wrote: »

When I got there (doing 95k route, 3:24 pm according to Strava), there were two marshals there waving a red flag and getting folks to turn right off N2 and into a gravel road with no sides, nearly went into the ditches couple of times riding too close to the edge and looking back etc.

And further up, after a very long and hard climb there was a huge fast descent - possibly the into the Boyne river valley (wiggers cross?) - where the road surface was absolutely horrondous - genuinely thought my bike is going to fall apart as I clattered thru it, and that's with me riding a CX bike with nice 32 mm marathon tyres. I can't imagine how folks managed that with their proper / expensive road bikes.

To Nanoc, I thought it was pretty hard too. I was pretty wrecked considering I only did 100k, compared to couple of instances where I have done beyond 100k - 200k even. I feel it was because I was going faster than the pace I would have kept if I was riding on my own, and the wind made things a lot worse. Best of luck with the Ironman!

I was a bit surprised by those two spots as well. I would have missed that right turn off the N2, if there weren't people directly ahead of me. It's a tricky spot to marshal obviously as there's no way they can stop the traffic, but I would have put someone a bit back, warning people that the turn is coming and to stop in the hard shoulder before turning. And that downhill stretch you mention was a shocker. I've never got such a shaking as going over that surface at speed. I also nearly lost it near the end at a patch of gravel just before the little underpass of the M1. Not complaining though. I really enjoyed it all. Was talking to a lad who this was his first sportive, but came off right after the start and bust both his knees. He managed to carry on and finish it though.

terrydel

Much climbing in this?

plodder

terrydel wrote: »

Much climbing in this?

A few nice hills, but nothing too crazy in the 95km. Strava is saying 598m of elevation for me.

Eamonnator

terrydel wrote: »

Much climbing in this?

975m on the 150km, according to my Garmin Connect.