Slieve Bloom Challenge 07/09/19

dafman

Thinking of doing this on this coming Saturday ,looks like good tough spin and will be on totally new roads to me ,any pointers/ tips from lads that have it done previously ,Thanks

The Nutty M

dafman wrote: »

Thinking of doing this on this coming Saturday ,looks like good tough spin and will be on totally new roads to me ,any pointers/ tips from lads that have it done previously ,Thanks

Go to it on Friday afternoon for a viewing if you can,you'll get a few pointers from 100+ women climbing it. :-)

dafman

Thanks but if I announced I going on Friday as well as going most of Saturday I might as well stay gone ,

patmahe

dafman wrote: »

Thinking of doing this on this coming Saturday ,looks like good tough spin and will be on totally new roads to me ,any pointers/ tips from lads that have it done previously ,Thanks

I haven't done much cycling up there but have done a lot of driving and walking in the area because I grew up nearby.

All the climbs mentioned are tough and long and get very steep in places, roads are narrow and often poorly surfaced, it will be windy at the top. It sounds like one hell of a challenge though and I wish you well.

The views if its clear are fantastic, if they had a shorter route I'd probably go myself but 170k through the mountains is a bit beyond me just at the minute.

at1withmyself

In my opinion the Cut (both sides) is the easiest climb, then the Wolftrap from Kinitty just ranks harder. The other ascents around the Glendine have some steep slopes and change gradient so I find them the hardest. The roads are in good condition and pace yourself as its easy to go fast at the start but keep something in the tank for the final climb and final km's back to Birr.

Shops in Kinitty and Clonaslee but otherwise ensure you have enough water/food with you and fill when at a shop as it could easily be an hour before you see another shop (pending on where organisors are set up).

Enjoy :-)

dafman

Lads thanks for the replies and good info,looking forward to having a go at it and yea the distance is bit long( longest I would have doe this year if I complete it ) , the Ras Na Mban going some of that way good thing too .Cheers

Daroxtar

A proper tough day out. It rained non stop last year adding to the "extreme" aspect of it. Second ascent of Glendine at about 85km, when you hit the 15%+ sections.... Yeah, that's a leg breaker.
Overall though it was a great day (if you're into that kind of thing). We stayed the night in Birr and had a great bbq and few pints with the Wolftrap club. Sound crowd. Definitely recommend that. Pity I won't be around this time but if I was I'd be there.

delynet

This will be my 4th or 5th time doing it. Super tough day. As someone mentioned earlier weather was crap last year.

Watch the first descent, probably damp early in the morning

Watch your food intake. Take any bars/fruit you come across. I have made the mistake in previous years and missed food (sure there is only 50km left) and suffered badly.

Go up into your attic and find the biggest cassette you can.

Very rewarding and a great club that organises it. This is my data from last year to give you an idea of the climbs etc...


https://www.strava.com/activities/1902238025

eeimcaw

Did it last year as well and it was extreme but a great day. Its a well organised event.

Climbs difficulty depends on the wind Direction.

- Glendine is first climb, i'd say about 10/15km done to get to it, long drag of a climb, steepish final 2 k.
- Careful on the decent here as its very steep going down with some big bends.
- 2nd is the cut - again its about 4k of long drag.
- Decent surface is rough and fast.
- 3rd in Lackaroe - Very shart start for about 1.5K(granny gear), then levels out and again final k is sharp but new surface down so not to bad.
- Decent is ok and no real danger, fast tho.
- 4th is Glendine, Very steep climb, granny gear again, small relief in the middle but by far the toughest climb.
- Decent is ok again, couple of sharp turns.
- Food stop last year was great, had some hot soup which went down a treat.
-5th is wolf trap - probably easiest climb of the day but with 4 down is hard!
- Decent down lackaroe so steep at the end.
- 6th Cut - long drag of a climb, tough climb.
- Nice Decent
- 7th Wolfe trap - probably 2nd hardest climb, very sharp in places but some relief also after sharp parts.
- Was water/foodstop at top last year.
- Nice Decent to kinnity and then back to birr.

G1032

at1withmyself wrote: »

In my opinion the Cut (both sides) is the easiest climb, then the Wolftrap from Kinitty just ranks harder. The other ascents around the Glendine have some steep slopes and change gradient so I find them the hardest. The roads are in good condition and pace yourself as its easy to go fast at the start but keep something in the tank for the final climb and final km's back to Birr.

Shops in Kinitty and Clonaslee but otherwise ensure you have enough water/food with you and fill when at a shop as it could easily be an hour before you see another shop (pending on where organisors are set up).

Enjoy :-)

Are there no good stops or what?

at1withmyself

G1032 wrote: »

Are there no good stops or what?

Sorry there is, I didn't mean there was none but if its hot then distance when climbing can be misguiding so take advantage when you can :-)

AxleAddict

Can't add much more than has already been said - I did this in 2017 - from what I recall, the weather wasn't great - but not horrific. You'll definitely need to bring your climbing legs with you as you'll be doing plenty of that. The route looks deceptively small on paper, but remember that you'll be cycling every road in both directions at some part of the day - so when you (hopefully) have a big smile on your face as you hurtle down the descents, just remember, you'll be coming back up again later :P

As others have pointed out, there are a few descents with tight corners/hairpins that you need to be aware of - we where warned about these at the briefing before we set off and the moto marshall on the day was there to forewarn us again as we approached. The only issue I had on the day (which was out of the organisers control) was one part of the route where there was some sort of building work happening in a field next to the road - with all the construction equipment entering and leaving the site, loads of mud (and I do mean loads) had been dragged out onto the road - and with the weather being a bit inclement, the whole road was one big brown sludgy mess for about 100m or so. Oh how I laughed as I could hear all the gunk and grit grinding in my drivetrain - and, as I mentioned earlier, you do each part of the route in both directions, so we had a second helping to look forward to later

Weather looks like it might be okay for Saturday - I'd be sorely tempted to do this again myself, except I have another long hilly sportive on Sunday, so probably save the legs a bit on Saturday and do something a wee bit less taxing closer to home instead. That's my excuse anyway!

Definitely a good event for those who are up for a bit of a challenge - good luck to anyone who is doing it.

andy69

delynet wrote: »

This will be my 4th or 5th time doing it. Super tough day. As someone mentioned earlier weather was crap last year.

Watch the first descent, probably damp early in the morning

Watch your food intake. Take any bars/fruit you come across. I have made the mistake in previous years and missed food (sure there is only 50km left) and suffered badly.

Go up into your attic and find the biggest cassette you can.

Very rewarding and a great club that organises it. This is my data from last year to give you an idea of the climbs etc...


https://www.strava.com/activities/1902238025

Is it a 9am rollout can you recall? Your strava link just gives me the date but no start time.
My 2017 strava file has us rolling out at 8:50, so I'm thinking it wouldn't have left early...so probably it's to be an 8:30 start I'd say.

The eventbrite page and their FB event shows 8:30am to 7pm but sometimes this is just a time put in to book the day, maybe to include sign-on etc.
edit: I'm not on the BookFace machine so I can't get in touch via that and they've no website live

Might need that extra half-hour on Saturday morning if it's 9am, as we've a Team Day Out with work on Friday! :eek:

EAFC_rdfl

Not sure if you are saying you are on facebook and can't find it?
Here's the club's page, and the most recent post shows 8:30 sharp for roll out.
https://www.facebook.com/WolftrapCC/

dafman

Thanks lads for very detailed replies giving me good insight to what to expect on Saturday, yea weather not looking too bad which should help, travelling on my own
from Clare so bit of company would be good as long day goes on, might talk then ,thanks

andy69

EAFC_rdfl wrote: »

Not sure if you are saying you are on facebook and can't find it?
Here's the club's page, and the most recent post shows 8:30 sharp for roll out.
https://www.facebook.com/WolftrapCC/

ah! thanks
yep, just re-read the 'edit' part and I had 'on on' instead of 'not on'
Non FB-user visits to the page don't see that bit about the 8:30 sharp rollout, so that's great then I can plan from that now and curtail the few pints on Friday (famous last words!)

ratracer

I registered for this an hour ago, I have a feeling I'm in for a long day

Weather is looking OK anyway, any idea of where the foodstops are?

~Also, has anyone a GPX file of the course?~ -> Never mind, found it!

andy69

well folks...how'd yee all get on?
It's one super (aka savage) day out isn't it!!!

Well done to Wolftrap Cycling Club - who, as always, put on a great event. Have to say that soup at the foodstop was amazing and just what ye needed on a day like today (which I think wasn't like what the rest of the country had....we'd about 10-degrees and either rain or drizzle or low cloud for nearly the whole day! didn't dampen any spirits though!!!)

I was making my way through a little group on the first descent (Glendine, steep side) and I hit a stone and both tyres blew out immediately - apologies to the guys there in the group...I gave them one hell of a fright I think!

Big shout out to the course mechanic (Gary, from Old Forge Bikes in Birr: legend!) as he arrived just when I saw my back tyre was a write-off after replacing my tube and re-inflating....my tube was coming out through the sidewall!! Bought a new back tyre from him and didn't have to abort the whole day - would have gone mad if I did have to abandon as I'd put in a few hard days to get ready for this!
Spent the rest of the day more-or-less on my own trying to make up ground - flew through the foodstop and then eventually on the last climb partnered up with a few guys so we'd have a little group to power home to the finish, and worked out brilliantly.
just over 7hrs moving time, was chuffed with myself as I wasn't in groups really for most of it.

hashtag legends, everyone!

delynet

Well done to Wolftrap Cycling Club. Another great event.

I am a member of Annagh Wheelers and 5 of us participated. It was my 4th time completing the event. Nice steady pace from the start to the climbs. Legs felt okay climbing the first so knew the day would be okay from here. Usual issues on the first decent. Just behind me 4 participants missed one of the hairpin corners and ended up in the bushes. It is a really tricky decent which was made worse with fog yesterday morning.

A few of our lads had a go at the KOM prize. For the first one put in an effort for the first 5 mins of the climb and then let them off. We would re group later to put a social aspect into the day. In the end Johnny Kelly from the club won the polka dot jersey with Eoin Waldron from the club in a close second.

Lots of marshals in the first half with some motorbike support. As the participants spread out all over the place it became more like an Audax event but you still had marshals at the top of the climbs giving support. Really good food stop after climb 7. The soup was so tasty. There was one junction that was badly marked and a few cyclists missed it and ended up 20km off the course. One to fix for next year.

Overall I was happy with my times. 12 personal records. My moving time is improving over the years so some positives there.

2016 - 7hr 14min
2017 - 6hr 54min
2018 - 6hr 27 min
2019 - 6hr 26min

https://www.strava.com/activities/2687804875#67235872166

andy69

delynet wrote: »

....4 participants missed one of the hairpin corners and ended up in the bushes. It is a really tricky decent which was made worse with fog yesterday morning.

...ye know I think that because hairpin bend road signs are so rare here, that when Offaly/Laois CoCo put them up on the Glendine, they keep getting robbed (notice the empty poles on the way up to that section from the steep side).

Means then in fog like that ye can't get any advance warning of the hairpins and with a 15% drop down to it I'm not surprised someone overshot it. I wasn't too far behind those lads but I know the road very well and was hard on the brakes before I got to it - anyone who didn't know it though.... :eek

dafman

Yea got to Birr on Saturday for great day cycling ,great event and serious kudos to Wolftrap CC for putting great event on .Have lot of sportives done over the years but would put this one down as the hardest one yet , warnings were there before hand of toughness of event and they were all true . Great welcome when arrived at Rugby club for registration and safety briefing etc were short and to the point and we were off . Got talking to few lads on initial flat run to first climb and got few pointers from locals , started going up then and the pain started , fell off first group about 50 mtrs from summit and then like young calf being let out to grass took off downhill like raving lunatics saying " have to catch them,have to catch them " then the first bend on the first descent appeared and muggings here wasnt ready for it and upon breaking too late in effort to get around it ended up in the ditch , luckily enough the thorny bushes broke the fall and was able to get up and asses the damage on bike and myself which thankfully wasnt too bad with few small cuts on legs( nothing major) and graze on rear end and nose and bike wheels were still intact so with only about 26 kms covered after driving roughly 100km to get to event there was no option but to grin and bear and re mount the pony ,would never have lived it down at home when local club members found out my misfortune .Another rider nearly suffered same fate as me just as I was getting up and sorted but he luckily held it and got around but to be honest I got a fright and got away lucky .got the pony going ok then and knee was sore but eased as I went on ,met good group then and we ploughed away together with all doing their bit when needed, got back with the lead group then and then we hit the last climb before the food stop( not sure of name ) and it was the toughest climb of the day with savage gradient towards the top , was so glad to wheel down to food stop for another great welcome and great food etc .Got few little cuts cleaned up there with ambulance lads and thanks to them for that . Off again and next climb straight away which was tough of course and got the taste of soup repeating here when looking for air but like all climbs the drop downs really helped in recovery after climb effort . Was glad to get to final climb which of course was no pimple and the bould lad with the knife was starting at my thighs and the cramps were setting in but thankfully worked through them and it eased , fair relief at top of that and run home was grand and flat on good road .Another great welcome form people helping out at finish and well wanted cup of tea etc here and classy finishing medal , great touch to be able to use showers in nearby health club especially for people that traveled.All in all a great day and was delighted to get through it after initial stupid spill( still pulling few thorns out today ) , thanks to Wolftrap CC and all locals that helped out on the day and to cyclist for bit of company now and again, great photos up on website too and will be back all going well next year.

farmerk

I did this on Saturday, my first time for this particular challenge. Suffered for my own neglect when front brake blocks out of alignment caused overheating and flatness of my front tire at the bottom of Glendine at 20-something k. Got moving again with a bit of giving out to myself and pedalling angrily. Soup and sandwiches at 100k were excellent and very welcome. I treated this like an Audax event so had my own food for the rest of the time, but fair play to Wolftrap CC for having the water stops. I had the pleasure of doing the Wolftrap200 Audax in May and it was just as well organised as this.
I was familiar with all of the climbs except Lackaroe, which should carry a warning, and I got PRs all through the first 100km, but saved myself a lot on the last two climbs which I was too familiar with to push too hard.

Great route, great group of people on the road, well organised.