[B]The Wicklow 200 2011, an exercise in suffering[/B]

Woke 10mins before the alarm at 5.20am and started getting myself sorted, breakfast of Porridge and a nice cuppa. Hit the road at 5.50am and made for Greystones, weather was looking decent enough, though as I passed 3 rock I could see the cloud coming in over the Wicklow mountains, any hope the forecasters had got it wrong was fading.

I arrived at Shoreside about 6.25am, got the bike off the car and started to get myself together. Mounted the bike and headed down to clock in. Clocked in at 6.40am or so, realised I had left my shades on the roof of the car, so a quick spin back to pick them up and I set off up the N11 with the rest. Forgot to start the gps for a couple of mins but nothing major.

I had come up with a rudimentary plan for keeping my effort consistent with the 200km nature of the challenge, and had decided to try and stay in HR Zone 3 as much as possible on the flat so as not to burn myself out, as it turned out Zone 4 was required just to stay warm at times!

Headed up the N11 and towards the first climb of the day at Sally Gap, no groups forming, but I did have a nice chat with a chap who was pondering whether to do the 100 or 200, he chose wisely and we parted company at the split.

The Climb up to Sally Gap was easy enough, passed plenty of folks on the long and not so steep portion before the left turn, and more on the final section to the top. At this point the rain was very light and although the wind was getting up conditions weren't too bad and spirits were good. Descended quite fast hitting @70kph on the way down, didn't clock the bridge at all and nearly ended up requiring the ambulance. As I spotted the bridge I slammed on the brakes and the back wheel got out of shape on me, my brain was looking for the best place to bail out, but I got it back together and made it round the corner, thankfully no cars coming the other way so I had enough road to play with. Given the day that was in it they should have had a marshall waving people to slow down up the hill from the bridge, as they did at the earlier hairpin before the Sally Gap climb.

From Sally Gap to Donard it was mainly rolling stuff and some extended drags. I was going ok, but the rain and wind had really started to get up and it was gusting hard and mostly into your face or savage crosswind. I was motoring along happily enough on my own and passed Gog somewhere alongside the reservoir, we had a quick chat for a few minutes and then parted company. Shortly after I bumped into a Veteran cyclist and we had a chat for a few minutes, he was a yachtsman and a keen meteorologist, when I made a passing comment about what a fine day it was, he cheerfully informed me that the wind and rain hadn't even started properly yet, and it would be a howling gale and a deluge into our faces when we reached SM and SE, and he was right!

It was pretty uneventful until Donard and a sitdown with a quick cuppa, chicken and stuffing sandwich and rice krispie bar had me back on the road in 10-15mins. The legs felt refreshed and I made good time for a while, but that quickly faded and it was about this time I started to notice that the constant rolling nature of the ride was taking its toll on my legs and whilst the mind and heart were willing, the legs were starting to flag a little.

I had read about on boards, and seen on ridewithgps, the small climb before SM that the WW200 noobs often mistook for SM itself, but I guess I was clutching at straws when I asked a fella as we hit the bottom of SM, "Is this Shay Elliot?", he helpfully replied "No its SM and it gets steeper yet!"

I ground away in the Granny Gear and managed to keep things moving at an average of about 8kph. I had to stop to have a lash about half way up, which was an interesting experience in that wind. Got safely over SM, grabbed some Powerbar sweeties at the energy station, and knew SE was going to greet me as soon as I was done with the descent.

The misery had well and truly sunk in now, it was blowing a gale and raining sideways, I was soaked through and descending was making me very cold and was potentially dangerous. My left hand was now numb, and on the descent I couldn't feel my left brake lever, I also had an intense ice cream headache as the rain pouring down my forehead was being chilled by the howling wind and airflow from my rapid descent.

As soon as the descent was done it was no time until SE kicked off, the 3km KOH sign at the bottom gave me some heart, at least it was short eh? I didn't find SE as hard as SM I can spin away as long as a climb doesn't kick up too steep, and SE seemed to stay in my green zone for the most part. I was still suffering away mind, but SM had been an exercise in pain. The horns and cheering from the invisible mist shrouded peak inspired me to greater efforts as I knew they were not too far off and must signify the summit. The pink 410's stencilled on the road also lifted my heart and as I summited SE I felt a burst of exhilaration, the cheers and shouts, and knowing that there may be 70km to go, and it was going to be damn hard, but the back of the WW200 was broken and I was going to get there.

After SE it seemed like a long coast downhill to Rathdrum, some more rice krispie bars, a couple of cups of tea, and another tasty chicken and stuffing sandwich....the brown bread one is better than the white btw......

Thereafter it was all downhill into Avoca, and then there was alot of unexpected uphill from then on, by this stage my legs were shredded and any sort of incline involved resorting to the granny gear and spinning away. To be fair there was alot of unexpected climbing between Avoca and Kilmacurra and some of it kicked up quite steep for short sections, I remember one left turn that kicked into a few 100m at 10% plus and was beginning to think the Marquis de Sade had been involved in the route plotting tasked with finding every dig between Rathdrum and Greystones!

Once we crossed the N11, myself and an American I had been chatting to kicked for home, and managed to set a better pace for the last 15-20km, spurred on by the thought of a hot drink and some dry clothes.

The food at the end was the most underwhelming aspect of the whole thing, having done a variety of events this last month, this was by far the mankiest fare offered to weary bodies.

My GPS, Cadence and Speed all crapped out like others have mentioned so I had to turn on corrections to fix the bogus SM and SE climb data the GPS had flattened out.

[url]http://ridewithgps.com/trips/279828[/url]

Official time: 9hrs8mins
GPS rolling time: 8hrs26mins
AVG rolling speed : 22.4kph

I am pretty chuffed to have knocked out what I would consider a decent enough time for the WW200, I have come a long way since I started last August and then again in March. In the last 4 weekends I have done the Ras Legends Royal Meath Challenge 120km, the 100km Viking ride in Waterford, a Gold medal in the Tour of Louth 100km and now the WW200.

I may give the Maracycle a whirl in a couple of weeks, and then keep things ticking over until the years main target, the SKT 160km Comeragh Challenge in late August.