#rsgyc – Dun Laoghaire's Royal St. George Yacht Club second cycling and sailing event got off to a promising start on Saturday with the Wicklow cycle stage of the event but lack of wind today meant prizes were awarded based on the cycling event alone.
The format for the Cycle Superstore Masters Sail / Cycle Challenge was a 70 km cycle on the Saturday followed by 3 Laser races this morning.
It was a beautiful day on Saturday with sunny blue skies and little wind. 39 cyclists gathered in the RSGYC for a 13:00 start.
The route went on the Vico Road to Shankill, past Dun Laoghaire golf club to Enniskerry. Things were going well with only one cyclist thinking better of the plan to get to Enniskerry. The team regrouped and set off up and down the hills towards the waterfall. The sun still shone, the roads were quite and there was a hint of Autumn in the air as the first leaves turned to yellow. The steep hill out of the waterfall gave people a foretaste of the pain that lay ahead of them. The steepness of the hill declined and cyclists were again able to breath and talk at the same time!
Glencree was reached, and after a short rest the cycle continued on up the steep winding road past Lough Bray. Paul Keane, Neil O'Toole, Rory Fiztpatrick lead a break away group towards the gate to the entrance of Kippure. An altitude of 522 m had been reached at this point, but there was a further 223m of steep climbing ahead. The mast at the top of Kippure looked deceptively close in the late afternoon sun. The final ascent got steeper and steeper, pushing hard in first gear, standing up on the pedals, lungs bursting to reach the summit of 725 m. Out of a group of 39, 17 reached the summit of Kippure (Troy Hopkins, David Cahill, Ger Owens, Rory Fitzpatrick, Colin Galavan, Chris Arrowsmith, Phillip Lee, Aubrey Shaw, David Sommerville, Paul Keane, Cian Guilfoyle, Helena Barret, Neil O'Toole, Rory Mc Stay, Michael Raymond, Theo Lyttle and Hilary Williams).
The descent was back past Glencree to Enniskerry and to RSGYC for some well earned refreshments. In all 73 km and 990 of altitude gain.
The next morning dawned a beautiful sunny but calm day! Not what was required for the sailing. The Race Officer, David Williams, waited for the wind to fill in but to no avail. The sailing was cancelled. The masters prizes were awarded on the cycling alone.
The Cycle Superstore Masters Sail / Cycle Challenge Results:
First Paul Keane
Second David Cahill
Third Colin Galavan