Sunny weekends biking
There was a fair bit of it, especially Saturday with the spin across to Ballinastoe,
then there was the Awesome Club Chairman racing over in the west….
Drop a line in the blog and let us know how you got on…
16 Responses to “Sunny weekends biking”
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January 27th, 2008 at 6:24 pm
feck but Saturday was one of the toughest spins in a while - started off in the main group from Taylors at around 9:30, as we prgressed through the day, various riders took advantage of the opt-out points, leaving the hardy few to fight on across the hills.
Met the worcies and Ryan at the bottom of the newly drainage-gulley-ified section from Prince Willies - a nice bit of technical entertainment along this section where bunnyhopping skills are the essential trick of the day.
Spun along with the lads for a while until Crone.
We split-up at Crone with Oisin, Dr. Rob, Mel and myself opting for the multi-switchback climb - wooh, what a tough one - the top section has drainage channels every 4 or 5 metres which really take max concentration and timing to get across.
Made it to the top eventually and hammered on down the singletrack. Met up with Richie and Conor down the bottom of the valley and then headed on up the far side, from here, Mel headed off toward Djouce while myself and Oisin headed over the style and caught up with Ollie and the lads.
When we got to the sleepers it was ridiculous - wind was just blasting us sideways off the boards every few metres - Ryan had warned us about the gales but we couldn’t let Ollie and the lads get one-up one us, we were off the boards nearly as much as we were on them, finally got to the end then down into Ballinastoe and headed home via the road as we were just too wrecked for Djouce/Powerscourt.
60 tough km altogther, I was weak with hunger by Enniskerry, thankfully Oisin had some surplus nosh in the form of a Tracker bar and ham sambo - chomped them down and that gave me enough energy for the rest of the trip home - thanks Oisin!
The stream water running off B’stoe is very nice by the way - I’d definitely recommend it when you’re looking at empty water bottles!
Thanks also to Richie for the lumps of syrupy flapjack which tasted really really good, must shop at Tesco in Naas from now on…
January 27th, 2008 at 6:34 pm
That was a long one alright. A little over 6 hours and 2000m climbing. The wind made it really tough around Djouce, but it was worth pushing on for the acheivement of finishing the full route.
January 27th, 2008 at 8:56 pm
due to work committments saturdays are out for me, but this weekend i was glad! the gales were unreal around my locality so being in work wasn’t too bad! but sunday was awesome, i had originally planned to head to djouce with my mate, leaving taylors at around 10.15, but once 10.45 rolled by and there was still no sign of him i decided to head on anyway. i met a few chaps on the climb up and we had a good laugh, one of them (Dave i think) actually remembered the early days of mad and he was full of stories from the good old days. at the aerials we went our seperate ways, the lads headed towards the mad club course and i started the fairy castle climb, the weather was perfect and the climb wasn’t too bad, even on my beast!! the woccas were awesome as per usual, not a bit of wind. i decided not to go to djouce because i was my own, so i cycled back to masseys via the road and had a blast down the singletrack. it was such a nice day for a spin, and there were hundreds out on bikes enjoying the weather.
January 27th, 2008 at 10:28 pm
Yeah, Sat was quite a spin all right. Meself, Conor, Mel, John and Rob ducked out at the stile and down Ack, and after a quick discussion on energy levels, ruled out hiking up to XTC and just lashed down GC instead. Then fire roads to the bottom car park and tarmac all the way back to Taylors. Was disappointed not to do the whole route, but I wasn’t feelin it on the day - probably down to lack on electrolytes or too many flapjacks
Need to figure out the best brekkie to have the day of a savage spin. When I did the race in Ballyhoura I had a monster fry up a few hours beforehand and was flying around all day…
January 28th, 2008 at 8:45 am
well, I had a big bowl of porridge, with raisins, nuts and sugar, then 2 nutri-grain type bars during the spin, but really messed-up not taking energy gels or money - what was I thinking?…anyway, the flapjacks certainly helped, definitely need more food/bars etc.. for the next one, next time we have to get Djouce and Powerscourt in, though I doubt somehow whether we’d entertain this type of a spin on a Saturday before a K-Capital race!
January 28th, 2008 at 10:40 am
Great spins this weekend, loved the Saturday group ride (even though I turned back early, couldn’t face being blown off the boardwalks - well done to those who finished it!) Great weather on Sunday made for another fine day on the bike. Yeah, it’s important to have enough food with you (or money) to avoid bonking on the way home, my rule of thumb is about 1bar per hour of cycling and take 1 extra, just in case
January 28th, 2008 at 6:33 pm
Just to echo everybody, Saturday was great! Fair play to all who made it over the boardwalks to Ballinastoe in that wind, if it was calmer I would have joined yiz. Got a great boost to my morale when riding with Ryan and co. For a while there I was keeping up with them, then realised I was pedaling, but they were’nt! Still, whats seldom is wonderfull.
By the time we got back to Taylors, I was wrecked but feeling kinda good. I think we managed 50+ kms, 5 1/2 hrs. Roll on the weekend!
January 28th, 2008 at 10:00 pm
The Connacht race was good fun. Really short course - 14 laps for seniors! Not very technical but there was a short climb, a short descent and a jump. Big ring for the entire race. Came 4th in the end, although I did an extra lap and thought I’d worked my way up to third. Alas.
Thinking of heading to one of the Munster races now. We’ll have to get some kind of club league going before the K-Capitals too.
January 28th, 2008 at 10:03 pm
Devestated (that a bit much? Nah….) not to get out. Weather on Sunday was incredible. Will be back for savageness gone deadly this week!!!!
January 28th, 2008 at 10:40 pm
the nomads met in laragh and after a chat about the route and plan did scar and glendalough on Sunday and had a blast! set out form Laragh, up the side of Scarr (6km climb) to the top and pertched high for a few snaps, a epic blast style decent towards Glendalough, over by the lakes and down to the visitors centre, the nomads are pushing the distances lately and a few tired faces landed in laragh for a post spin grub! have to say it was great to see so many out on a sunday think it was 13!
plenty of thrills spills and belly aches! but all and all the nomads had a blast!
take the advice of the lads, eating is so important before a spin! fatigue kiks in fast!!
Held and Ollie for leading the way and next week is Glendo and ewoks I think! if not somehthing a bit closer to home!
January 29th, 2008 at 11:16 am
Just myself and Belgian Nigel out last night, nice easy pace on the uphills since we’re both savage(ly unfit) followed by some great descents on nice mostly dry tracks, though they’ll be nice and muddy again now i’d imagine.
That new track near the end of the boneshaker is mental .. thankfully am far too chicken to attempt anything without taking a good look first, otherwise i’d have ended up in a heap at the bottom of that gap jump!
Timed it all well too .. the lights died about 5 minutes into the road spin home
January 29th, 2008 at 8:21 pm
God what a busy little club we are, it’s great to see the reports flooding in…Good to hear your back out on the bike Paddy…
January 29th, 2008 at 10:20 pm
yeaaaaaaa monday night was great craic
felt great to get some descending in this time after I bailed from Ollie’s Saturday Spin after the carpark!
January 29th, 2008 at 10:34 pm
cheers tom .. good to be back out on it .. though i suspect this weekend might be a total loss again (in biking terms) due to boozing and women!
not that i’m complaining mind you!
January 30th, 2008 at 4:02 am
Some piccies if you follow the link from sunday.
http://ianheald2500.fotopic.net/c1449910.html
Great spin - martin if the weather stays fine Brockagh/Turloch/Camaderry is on, otherwise it would probably be best to save for another day where we can hang around regrouping.
January 31st, 2008 at 4:45 pm
nice one Ian! sse you sun! if its too windy we might just hit Djouce or somewhere sheltered!
great snaps from SCarr!