The Latest News from the Sportive Team
Press Release from the Phoenix Sportive 9th April 08 2008-04-10 19:01:12
We've recc'ed the route!
First Experience of the Route in Winter Gales!
(ORG: Chris Meenan who is a fit tri-athlete come cyclist invited a couple of his friends to do a reconnaissance of the long route for the Phoenix Sportive in May unfortunately the weather Gods were against him but you'll get a feel for the level of challenge that this route will present, I hope you are all on page 2 of your training plan :-), please get your entries in for this event in it's first year depending on entries only those who pre-enter will be guaranteed a ride)
Sorry for the delay, I've been away and ridiculously busy at work too boot. Anyway, bad news first, I've no elevation stats. I sent my Polar off to have the battery replace and the nice men sent it back with it switched off. (ORGANISER: I took the stats at 2100m climbing, 102 miles)
Ok, onto the ride itself.
Well the story begins the night before. A decent nights kip was called for, but it was not to be had as I was lying in bed worrying if the roof was going to stay on the house! In the morning the wind had died from Gale force down to mildly hurricane like. Wind was from the North, so I knew that the first half of the ride was going to be hard work and that the first bit of IslandMagee was not going to be much fun either.
So we set out about 8:15 and made our way over to the Glen Road and up Hannastown hill. Looking back this was daft. Much as I love training on Hannastown town hill doing it at the start of a 100mile ride with two other fiercely competitive blokes meant that the only zone we would be in going up it would be the testostizone. And sure enough by the time we had got to the top HR was 90%+ and I was dripping in sweat. Still at least I got KOH.
At this point we really noticed the wind. It was fierce. We battled up to the top and headed down into Glenavy. I was expecting the run into Glenavy to be quick, but we where were having to pedal (quite hard) down hill just to maintain 16mph FFS ! At this point I was not relishing the thought of the climb to Parkgate and Kells. After what seemed a wind deafening eternity we reached Nutts corner. We finally arrived at Temple Patrick and I thought ok now the work really begins ! So we start the short climb up to Parkgate, 8mph. Reached Parkgate and took a left to Kells. After about a minute of over excitement we settled down into an ~9-10mph climb which goes on and on.
The Climb up to Tardee seemed to take an age, but that view of Slemish at the top (IMHO only topped by the view from Colin Mountain) is just fantastic. It took our mind off the wind for a few seconds. Bit of freewheeling into Kells, and then we headed up to Moorfield, where we stopped for a refill (ORG: Note first Feed Station will be at Battery INN) . 3 hours 10 mins in and we had done 45 miles and the effort level while not threshold was definitely quite above comfortable. Still, I was feeling pretty good, but was a bit gob smacked at the time. So onto Church road again and the marvelous climb up Shanes Hill, now with the wind behind us ! It was fantastic. Over the top of Colins hill and I was looking forward to the descent big style. But now the wind was side on and I had 35mm deep rims on the road bike and while I'm not a size zero I'm not exactly a heffer either. Anyway, I thought I was going to die. Ended up crawling down Shanes hill with 100% of my focus on not being blown into the on coming traffic on my right or the nice stone walls on my left.
Down onto the Larne line and into Glynn avoiding Larne. Along the Shore road to Islandmagee was fantastic, the wind was right behind us and we were doing 25mph for 180w, nothing really. It was bliss. But I knew what was coming as not only did we have to turn around and head north on islandmagee, it was going to be up hills and totally exposed ! Needless to say the lads, who were spending more and more time behind me, were not too enthralled with the prospect.
Onto Islandmagee and we turned left straight back into the wind tunnel, and back came the 8mph climbing. This was pretty tough and the merriment of the ride was subsiding somewhat. After we had got a bit of height we took a left and dropped back down to sea level. Once of the lads started throwing some toys about at the point we had some height there. And so we started the slow, seemingly 20% (with the wind) up to Browns bay. If you don't know that hill, its not massive, or steep, but with the wind and the fact it's one of the false summit ones it tested our patience somewhat. One of the lads was flagging a bit now, thank god, so we had to slow a little for him to keep up. Over the top of the hill and into what seemed like a hurricane! I had to peddle quite hard to get done what is normally a 30mph+ descent! So we turned right and oh my god, I'm sure I was cycling at a vertical angle of 45 degrees leaning into the wind. Still at least I though it can't get much worse at least it's not into our face. But then we cycled by the bay and got hit with water from the sea and, just for good measure, sand blasted too boot! Out the other side an up the hill to MullaghBoy, were we stopped to refuel. Text to my wife says it all 80miles in, not so chipper now!
Given it was now 2:15 and we needed to be back for 4:30 and we were averaging 15 and a bit MPH it didn't take the brain of Britain to realize that we were not going to complete the entire course.
Anyway off we went, south down IslandMagee and it was marvelous, wind behind, lots of speed for now effort and glorious views. One of the lads commented that it didn't feel right going so fast for no effort and jokingly suggested we stop and turbo at the side of the road and wait for the wind to turn around.. yeah right :-)
Anyway, we got off IslandMagee, now feeling pretty tired and headed up to Glenoe. The first bit of that climb off the shore road certainly gets the blood flowing! Then we headed up the steady incline to Glenoe, which was north again, which meant, just for a change, straight into the wind! I knew what was coming into Gleneo and felt obliged to tell the lads too, but there are no two ways about it, after 90 odd miles stopping dead and then going straight up a 1 in 5 is no fun! There was a fair amount of verbal diarrhea thrown around at the top. (Org: The 2nd Tea stop will be in Glenoe village at the top of the climb).
We started the steady climb up to Straid and then up Irish road onto the nice straight bit into Mossley. As you come down into Mossely you get a lovely view of Carnmoney hill, Cavehill, and Divis. I told the fellas that the plan was to go over all those hills (taking an easier route round the first). I can't type the response, but needless to say, we didn't end up going over Divis. So we went up the Manse road and up the high town road. Note, there is a foot bridge there now instead of a full bridge! We went up Hightown, which to be honest was wasn't as challenging as I'd expected due to the 40mph tail wind :-) Once at the top we dropped down to Ballysillan and headed home. My HRM was working well enough to tell me that I'd burnt around 6k cals but nothing on totallclimbing, but my legs were telling me it was a lot :-)
(Org the guys missed out the last couple of significant climbs Ligoniel and Divis, but can't fault cause the weather was not good.)
Roll on Sunday 18th May, but 20mph ? LOL !
(Org: There will be a Gold award for 18MPH+ , Silver 17mph + and Bronze will be 15mph+. The 60 mile event route will be announced in the coming weeks but due to the severity of some of the climbs we want to change it so that it is as close to 60 miles as possible )
