Saturday 21st October
Hello,
This Saturday we've got a duo of fantastic options for everybody..........
Fergal and Steve will be heading on a spin over 3rock and Prince Willies (the first 2 mountains on the way to Wicklow)
This will likely be kept at a reasonable pace for experienced riders.
Yellow House at 10am.
For a more relaxed ride, head to the Hellfire Carpark for 10.00 for a tour du Hellfire et Masseys. I shall be in attendance, but I'm very glad to see the initiative taken by a few newer folk this week in organising this. Top job.
Hellfire was the location of the first of our introductory spins, hopefully the weather'll be somewhat better this time 'round.
Hellfire Club Directions
From the Yellow House in Rathfarnham take Willbrook Road south
Continue along Ballyboden road until you reach the Ballyboden Roundabout
(you can also get to the roundabout from Grange Road to the east, or the Ballycullen exit of the M50)
Go straight through the roundabout and take the first right
Take the first left, up Stocking Lane
The Hellfire Car park is 2km along, on the right.
Details of Sunday have yet to be announced, but for anybody who's interested, there's the Corcagh Cross race.
Happy biking.
Sean
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This Saturday we've got a duo of fantastic options for everybody..........
Fergal and Steve will be heading on a spin over 3rock and Prince Willies (the first 2 mountains on the way to Wicklow)
This will likely be kept at a reasonable pace for experienced riders.
Yellow House at 10am.
For a more relaxed ride, head to the Hellfire Carpark for 10.00 for a tour du Hellfire et Masseys. I shall be in attendance, but I'm very glad to see the initiative taken by a few newer folk this week in organising this. Top job.
Hellfire was the location of the first of our introductory spins, hopefully the weather'll be somewhat better this time 'round.
Hellfire Club Directions
From the Yellow House in Rathfarnham take Willbrook Road south
Continue along Ballyboden road until you reach the Ballyboden Roundabout
(you can also get to the roundabout from Grange Road to the east, or the Ballycullen exit of the M50)
Go straight through the roundabout and take the first right
Take the first left, up Stocking Lane
The Hellfire Car park is 2km along, on the right.
Details of Sunday have yet to be announced, but for anybody who's interested, there's the Corcagh Cross race.
Happy biking.
Sean
Labels: spins
posted by Sean @ 8:50 p.m.
20 Comments:
At 3:36 p.m.,
Fergal said…
hey Dr Jones - thought you were coming on the decent spin with myself and Stevie lad etc...?
At 3:17 p.m.,
Anonymous said…
There are rumours of an easy spin on Sunday 22nd... if anyone knows of this can you left me know who is going! Also a lift again would be fantastic (yes, yes, I'll only get fit (or die) if I cycle more...)
Thanks,
Rach 086 891 5880
At 3:22 p.m.,
Anonymous said…
as rachel say is anyone up for an easy spin of 3 rock on sunday and can anyone give rachel a lift if so she lives over the north side
At 3:23 p.m.,
Anonymous said…
sorry my number is 0862110505
At 1:49 p.m.,
Stephen said…
Fairly good spin yesterday. 11 of us at the YH set off up 3 rock. We went over the back side of Fairy, and then flew down the Wocca Woccas. Then without much delay, up Prince Willies and down the other side. GREAT descent. One of the most challenging on that mountain I reckon!
Then Kait lead our expedition throught lots of gorse and ferns to the EPIC DH course in Cloon. Did a run of their course and then sessioned some jumps on the other course that is out there. We started the super fast road descent into Eniskerry as it was getting late. Everybody was all too glad to get a huge roll or two into them before hammering back to the YH. Back at 4.30 I think and over 45Ks done.
Good mix of people out and great to see people improving so much. Rider of the week would have to be Graham. He has to be doing some secret training so watch out for him!
At 6:44 p.m.,
Sean said…
Holy cow batman, 6.5 hours and only 45k? Thought it was going to be a fast spin for experienced riders?
;-)
The easy spin was great, loads out and I added a new dimension to mountainbiking by doing it on the CX bike....great craic.
Slade for the easy spin next Saturday.
That CX today rocked, shame on Fergal and Steve, for all their talk about giving CX a go, neither one of them turned up!
Sean
At 9:01 a.m.,
Fergal said…
cheeky fecker, we spent much of that time riding the DH course in Cloon and doing the jumps - you know Sean, DH, where it's steep and scary and bermy and fun, and jumps -surely you remember jumps, where you go ride-off big ramps in true mountainbike style and get a great buzz from landing them in one piece, the rest of the time was spent deliberating as to whether we should give the CX a go...then I recalled the video that you posted and we yawned and decided against it .. :-) hee hee
Slagging aside (for now) how did u get on in the race?, any other MAD heads enter?
At 4:37 p.m.,
Sean said…
To your collective eternal shame, nobody else from MAD entered, but I flew the flag proudly in 19th place, and more importantly beat Luke by passing him on the final lap.
Can't wait for the next one in 2 weeks time.
Fergal you're beginning to sound a lot like Richie Byrne with the jumping and the crashing and the like. Its all about the physical exertion, man!
Sean
At 4:37 p.m.,
Sean said…
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
At 5:24 p.m.,
Paddy said…
its not all about physical exertion .. its about having fun and hopefully not injuring yourself (like many things in life!!)
And its definitely not 10 times better than mountain biking, i can assure you of that.
At 6:01 p.m.,
Fergal said…
ahem!! I said nothing of crashing, we nailed those jumps/dops quite well actually...Nigel's going to join in the fun the next time- AREN'T YOU Nigel?
PS: Good job on beating Luke by the way
At 6:59 p.m.,
Anonymous said…
oh jumps are 10 times better if all goes well of course (i am one to talk) but jumps rule
At 8:56 p.m.,
Sean said…
Jumps are for people who can't go uphill.
CX is definitely better than mountainbiking.
Picture the scene:
You're 20 mins into the race and riding in a pack of 5, wheel to wheel at your absolute limit. Around a greasy corner and feel the back wheel slide a little but don't dare ease off or you might lose the group. Around to the boards and see Joe McCall standing there and taking pictures while commenting on everyone's technique.....better nail this one so.....stay in the pedals for a fraction longer than before, then unclip and swing the leg around, pick up the bike, step, jump, step, squeeze by the guy on your left as you jump a second time, ground the bike and back in the saddle, Joe shouts "VERY SLICK" and you know you've got it right.
Back on the gas and around to the start/finish complex, some woman shouts encouragement at the guy in front of you so its time to make a show of him, "clink clink" up through the gears and around his outside into the corner. Another place up. Into the singletrack and off the brakes the whole way through, turn so tight you're grazing your hips off the trees as you go. Break out into daylight again and see the spectators atop the grassy knoll. Along the bottom of the hill and eye up the dismount point. Off the bike, around the corner and up the hill. Pass the guy who tried to cycle it and is now sliding backwards down it. Around the hairpin and back on the bike for the first of the muddy corners, 5 quick pedal strokes and the bike's on your shoulder again. Up the hill, around the corner and across the sludgey bit. Back on the bike for the second muddy corner and accelerate a fraction before you're off the bike again and up the steepest, slippiest run. Pass the guy who's backside you've been looking at for the last 2 races, nail the remount then down onto the drops and through the gears to open a gap. Your heart is pounding, your lungs are screaming, your legs and pumping and you've only 35mins more to go.
Not even a single jump in sight and only 20m in elevation change in the whole course.
Sean
At 9:16 p.m.,
Anonymous said…
nah i always did and always will like jumps
At 9:56 p.m.,
Ryan Sherlock said…
Sean, you should put your description to lullaby music and you'll have a number one hit with "Stories That Make People Fall Asleep". You'll be rich I tell you!
Only joking - I'll give the CX a go at some stage. Me, I was up to even more dreary riding than Sean. I took part in a road hill climb (on a road bike! - a bit like a cross bike but skinnier). There was about 55 people at the start (and one unicycle!). We went off in groups of 10 and when they asked for the faster people for the first group I stepped foward. The skinny roadies looked around, almost in disgust as they saw a 'fat', hairy legged, MTB jersey wearing buck come forward.
The race was cool. The group started fast so I hung in the back for the first 4-5 minutes (there was actually a bit of a draft, and this was going up a 7% hill). Then I decided that it was a bit too easy on my legs so I went to the front and started to mildly attack. Basically I strung out the group. After about 9 minutes the overall winner attacked. I decided to let him go... I had a couple more tussels with a guy who ride XC for the Santa Cruz Syndicate and another guy but dropped them with with about 1.5km to go. A new PB up the climb and my first hard effort since the Marathon Champs. Hill climbs are fun :)
At 11:13 p.m.,
Sean said…
Drafting up a 7% climb? That's almost mad.....I agree though, hillclimbs are fun.
Well done on your result, another fine finish for you.
Sorry about putting you to sleep.....creative writing never was my strong point ;-)
At 11:16 p.m.,
Sean said…
File 1
File2
CX pictures, from Dave Barry's support crew.
At 11:57 p.m.,
Nigel said…
I seem to have lost my jumping balls alright...ugh. i gotta go do some! somebody force me to do it
At 1:01 a.m.,
Ryan Sherlock said…
I'm going to go up to Slade Valley some day soon with my big bike and pads if you want to join me :) I have not done all the jumps up there yet...
The day will have to be pretty dry though...
At 9:40 a.m.,
Fergal said…
I'll join you Ryan, yep it needs to be reasonably dry for the landings, there's a hole/gap type jump that I'd love to do, the 6ft drop type one looks like a bit of a bike breaker (though the Enduro would simply laugh at it!!) my newly repaired shock may not like it too much, we might wait 'til Steve gets his new bouncy bike and head-up there for an airborne assault.
Great result on your hill climb, I particularly liked the description of the roadies' reaction to the hairy-legged MTB'er, would love to have seen the look on their skinny strained faces when you dropped 'em!!!!
Now you understand that if there's a hill climb category in this years Club Champs, you're gonna have to ride the Enduro to give the rest of us a chance....oh, and the road bike for the XC section.....
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