Alan: “Hello… how bout that ride in? I guess thats why they call it Sin City Carlow.

You guys might not know this but I consider myself a bit of a loner. I tend to think of myself as a one man wolf pack. But when my sister brought Doug home I met Olivier on the Virginia 300, I knew he was one of my own. And my wolf pack, it grew by one. So there… there was two of us in the wolf pack. I was alone first in the pack and Doug Dave joined in later. And six months ago, when Doug  Olivier introduced me to you guys HelenI thought “wait a second, could it be?” And now I know for sure, I just added two more guys to my wolf pack. Four of us wolves, running around the desert together in Las Vegas Ireland, looking for strippers Mullingar and cocaine.” – The Hangover

 

This was my first Fleche and, thanks to great weather and company, I really enjoyed it.  Possibly my most enjoyable middle distance ride.

Olivier and Helen were great company and the team worked really well.

 

Planning

I Spoke to Dave (B), Aiden(C)and Marc (K) during or after the Angel of Mons about forming a Fleche team as I have ridden through the night with each of them and knew we could get along.

Other interested parties were suggested and I was happy to expand the team to allow the possibility of people being forced to drop out.

At one point I had seven people but eventually it whittled down to four and in the last couple of weeks Dave’s shift pattern changed and we were down to me, Olivier and Helen.

Olivier had been doing lots of miles and I had struggled to keep up with him on the Virginia 300 and Helen is in a different pace league altogether.  But it was a team event so I figured they’d have to wait for me whatever.

We had all agreed on a route Dave planned and I spent some time checking it the week before and also creating a route sheet.

The distances on a Fleche are measured as shortest riding distance between the controls.  This meant that I had to add in a lot of controls to give us 360km.  The walking route on Google maps.

Olivier created some alternate “direct” routes (Plan B) that we could use to cut down our actual ride distance if needed, whilst still passing through our original controls.  This, as you’ll read, was a good idea.

There was a fair discussion about start times.  Those who had previously done and evening start said this was better than morning as your legs were fresh in the night.

We eventually settled on 3pm.

The start

Phoenix park – a great asset for Dublin.

We agreed to meet at the start @3:10 – I moved it back 10 minutes to suit the Enterprise (train, not space ship) time table.

Train down was grand for me, bike went up front in the guard van.

We had not actually arranged where in the park to meet.  I remembered the start was at a Phoenix statue but obviously had no idea where that might be and doubted the other two knew it was the start.  So I sat at the base of the “monument” and called and texted the other two.

Ready to go.

Friday evening

We made our way up to the real start as, rest clocks, g.p.s. etc. and weaved through the dissipating barriers from an earlier run.

Olivier had forgotten some water tablets he liked, but Helen knew of s bike shop we would be passing where they were indeed found.

Soon Dublin was behind us.  After a couple of hours we came to our first control.  Olivier changed a tube that was going soft whilst Helen and I caught some rays and ate some meagre supplies from the rather meagre shop.

The next stop was Maganey, where I’d hoped to eat @ 7pm.  Unfortunately to trip down to the “Three counties” was fruitless. 

We pushed on to Tullow, at one point coming within a few km of Carlow, which was another 70km for us.  I struggled to keep up with Olivier and had to ask him to slow the pace a bit while I sat at the back. 

Even tough it was early on, this did not worry me.  I’ve found low points can come and go at any time and I just have to accept them, keep turning the pedals, until they pass.

In Tullow we found a sit down Café.  We had two courses.  This helped a lot.  But I was anxious about control time.  We kitted up for the night.

Between Clonegall and Bagenalstown we did some hard miles.  Climbs with poor roads on the descent in the dark.  At one point on the gratuitous side road we were on (probably a ride with GPS short cut that I should have straightened out) the road had been washed away completely.

New York – Paris – Carlow – Ballyragget – Roscrea

We finally arrived at Carlow around midnight.  I had Googled a garage but it was not where I had expected. I had not asked Dave for its location – which was probably the only planning mistake I made.  I flagged down a car and he gave me directions.  We found the Maxol – and what an establishment. 

Tabled seating on the forecourt, local boy racers, 5* through the hatch service.  We drank coffee and T, put on all the clothes we had and I filled my flask for the night.

We did lose a lot of time – but if life’s too short for Carlow then it’s too short indeed!

Quick control a Ballyragget and some coffée from the flask and we were on into the witching hour.

It was cold and misty but I think we all had plenty on. 

As dawn rose around 6:30 Olivier was struggling to stay awake.  I injected him with more caffeine and we spoke of great subjects such as Captain America and the impact of Apocalypse Now Redux edition in surround sound on my dog and before you know it we were at Roscrea searching for the Golden Arches.

McBreakfast, McSleep, McToilet

Bacon and egg McMuffins all round.  Some followed this up with porridge, some just had more of the same.

I then announced I was taking my nights sleep.

I set a 15 minute timer and leant against the glass and nodded off.

10 minutes later I awoke.

I find this a great trick – especially first thing in the morning as somehow when you get up in the morning your body thinks you’ve had a nights sleep.  (WARNING – It’s a bit like the hair of the dog, eventually it catches up on you worse).

Onwards to Kinnitty

I fitted my camera as I was expecting some great scenery as we skirted the Slieve Bloom’s.  This was, without a doubt, the best bit of riding I’d done this year. Everything just felt great.

Straightening it out.

At Tullamore we realised we were getting tight for time.  I rang John and got clarification on if the start time was our planned one or our actual.  It was our actual, which gave us 20 minutes or so extra.

However, our planned route was very twisty, so we reverted to “Plan B” for a couple of sections which took us the straight and main roads between our controls.

This had us in Edgworthstown at 1:30 on the dot – perfect for our last hour of at least 25km (shortest) in last two hours.

In fact we had 30km to do to avoid the N4.

The last 15km or so ground on me – as it always does – with climb after climb and seemingly no descent.  But, as always, we reached the end.

Found the finishers café where I had a quick soup before slipping off to catch my train for a weekend out west.

Lessons

Good planning really paid off on this one.  I guess the only “mistake” I made was not finding the exact location of Carlow’s night spots which cost us some time.  But really, it couldn’t have gone better!

Evening start wins for me too.