NIGHT dress rehearsal : NIGHT OF 14th // MORNING OF 15th

If it's Friday the 14th I should be able to do it.

Sorry for any confusion ... i've fixed the title of the thread.

Idea was to have the dress rehearsal / night time spin to take place the Friday night (14th).

We'd meet up somewhere in late evening - time and venue to be confirmed etc.
And we'd cycle somewhere over night with a view to being back to base on the Saturday morning at a reasonable hour.
We might even have a post cycle debrief breakfast somewhere ...

Grand, depending on whether we want to do a full eight hour shift or a shorter one will dictate the distance.  Based on the start time of 3pm of RAI an eight hour shift puts us at 11pm to 7am.  A full shift is  200km+ so here's a few Audax routes I have that may be suitable:


The Dying Light - We'd have to get through the city for this one but once out to the back of the Airport its fairly rural most of the way with some towns along the way which would have the odd 24hr garage. (www.strava.com/activities/156301039)

Dublin/Meath/Kildare Orwell 200 - Mervyn and I both know this one having suffered through it in March at a much faster pace than we should have! (www.strava.com/activities/264922222)

The Moone and Back - This is the STCC Club Audax we put on in May - a good route too with a bit of hilly stuff at the end - nothing like the Wicklow Gap!  Elapsed time on this was 9hrs but in relay we should do it faster (www.strava.com/activities/305720985)

Sure Mervyn we'd have you back in Dublin in plenty of time for the wedding

Ok, its a pity you can can't make it but hopefully between now and then we don't have too many other folk who can't make it

@ DAVE C : we were talking about this on Wednesday evening , post conference call as we were sitting drinking tea --> it would be great if we could organise ourselves to do one/two of the actual stages for our dress rehearsal.

--> so probably look to drive down (cycle?) to WEXFORD and then do the 134 km back up to Laragh, and then if still going well we could over (IIRC) the final stage out of Laragh, up over Sally Gap and turn off for home/Dublin at some appropriate spot (no need i would think to go all the way to Navan. Laragh to Navan would be 110 km supposedly.

Suitable breakfast spot to be determined too...

Hi folks,

sorry for the late email, but i believe most know the basic details anyway, and we already understand that both Mervyn and Jessica are away/busy/whatever...
Mervyn - i doubt you'll have sourced any lights by now ? If i don't hear from you (be it weddings or otherwise) by lunchtime we'll have to source 6 lights ourselves be it from Dealz or wherever.
-> the intention is to do another night/darkness spin beginning tomorrow Friday evening and continuing into Saturday morning. We could do any route of course, but the consensus was to try our hand at the second last stage out of Wexford to Laragh which is listed as 134 km . Once we get to Lynams Hotel in Laragh we can decide if we want to keep going into the next ( = final) stage which is up Glenmacnass to Sally Gap and down to Manor Kilbride ?

Formal starting point in Wexford is
Time Station 19: Topaz 24hr Service Station, Wexford Town.
GPS: N 52.326388, W 6.450996

It will be a tough one with three good climbs along the way, so hopefully we can get a chance to practice

• general night time riding ... however we won't have the big f-off lights on the follow-car. 
• getting bikes down and ready in the dark ... in time for the rider coming off his shift. We can discuss as to how long each shift should be ?
• Navigating in the middle of the night when tired & all is dark
  
  

And depending on how we go,

• we might even see if we can try out some clever way of "attacking" the bigger hills by throwing all our riders out on the climb ?
  

Expected to attend: Ciaran, Daragh, Damien, David, Rodney & Lawrence. Other welcomed.
Vehicles : Ciaran's as the leap frog car & Damien's as the follow car.
Equipment : each rider to bring his own best night lights. Rodney to collect some radios (i've requested 4 - two for the cars, and two to circulate amongst the riders).
Route Maps : if someone could print two route maps (1 for each car) and the relevant instructions please.
Lawrence + Damien + Rodney (suggested) to be added to Damien's Insurance.
=> Lawrence and Rodney to send photo of driving licence to Damien.

I've got GAA training with my young fellows Friday evening from 7 to some time after 8pm. So maybe we could look to meet up in say the Goat Pub at 9pm (or later?) and we'd go down from there.

Lawrence - maybe its best if one of the cars (probably Damien) picks you up on the N81 somewhere close to your house rather than having you come into south Dublin. And i would assume we would drop you home on the Saturday morning. If you could try to arrange with Damien, then Daragh + David + Ciaran + Rodney would go down in Ciaran's car with 4 bikes.

We'll need to sort out petrol/diesel for the 2 cars travelling as well, so everyone bring some cash !!

Maybe we would eat something light (?) in Wexford town or somewhere along the road south before heading out ? Ideas ?

Any other comments -> throw them into the forum.
And please ring if you can't make the trip.

Cheers
rodney

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From the route book 2014

From TS19 we skirt the south side of Wexford town before heading out on the N25 and R730, both good well surfaced roads. Shortly after Kiltealy at turn No. 2017 we turn off onto a narrow road which leads to the climb of Mount Leinster. The climb is about 5 kms long with some steep sections (see note). The road from Bunclody to Aughrim is quite good.

From here we enter “The Garden of Ireland” with the climbs of Slieve Mann and Drumgoff. There is a memorial at the top of Drumgoff to Shay Elliott who was the 1st Irish wearer of the Yellow Jersey in the Tour de France.

 Campervan Restriction 2017 to 2021 (restriction distance 23.0k / 14.3 miles)
 Campervan Restriction 2026 to 2029 (restriction distance 29.0k / 18.1miles)

NOTE - Mount Leinster: There are 2 cattle grids on the ascent and 1 on the descent of Mt. Leinster. They have bars missing and are very dangerous for cyclists. All racers are advised to dismount when crossing the cattle grids.

Thanks for this Daragh.

Some additive thoughts to yours:

1) Follow Car - agreed there should not be anything in there except the driver/navigator and with the way things are shaping up there will be a four/five seater vehicle available for the follow car so during the day it may be useful to consider one of the riders be in that car to assist as needed to give a break to the crew members. Post 7pm this will not be possible as the FC should remain behind the rider.

2) Headlamp - my Cateye 1200 is better than the Deca Drive!

3) Descending - we should get clarification on any practical exceptions there may be to the rule - I agree we won't make up time but on many descents its a given that bikes are faster than motorbikes and cars and if we don't always have the best climbers doing the climbing then there are useful minutes to be made up wherever we can. Interestingly I felt that the darkness helped me maintain focus on the road ahead and not the peripheral elements which are irrelevant but distracting in the day and I also thought that I would be in a position to see oncoming traffic much earlier given that there would be headlamp light visible from much further than we could see a car during the day. That said, wildlife could cause a problem but no more so than during daylight. Also the radio earpiece came out of my ear on one of the descents so I couldn't hear what was being said.

4) Organising the Car - Rodney had his very nice basket I guess he uses for that other sport which I spoke with Ciaran about. The idea is that each rider has a basket and ALL there necessary riding gear, food, etc. is in there for the shift. When the rider comes off the road then the other riders take helmet, lights, Garmin, etc. and put them in their basket. I was faffing around looking for gloves (and phone!) that had been placed in the boot "somewhere".

5) Rotation of roles for the Leapfrog car - we need to agree this. There necessary roles I see are a) Driving, b) Navigating, c) Eating/Recovering. When a rider finishes their stint then their first role is c) Eating/Recovering (if we do the 20 minute stints then it will be an hour before the rider is on the road again so having fuelled an hour beforehand will be optimal), followed by b) Navigating, and then a) Driving. a) and b) may be interchangeable but we should have a designation so there is no confusion.

6) Given that this will be a rinse and repeat exercise, not to mention longer during the event as we did 5.5 hours the other evening with 6 riders, we will need to be more disciplined about sleeping immediately after shifts.