Coastal Tour of Ireland - Report

Wednesday, July 11 2007 @ 01:43 PM IST

Alexi, on a tandem, with a nun (I'm assuming Sr. Brid is a nun Alexi?) with people drafting behind him - cycling the first leg of a round Ireland tour. Could this be the greatest "race report" ever written? Read on and find out :)

The 1st of July came and went and the coastal tour kicked of well and truly from Carrick Mc Cross in Co. Monaghan. I had managed somehow to get myself booked into the wrong B&B, which only became apparent when the directions of Sr Brid to the dinning room for breakfast , made me stare into a wall! Anyway an hour an a half later and with the help of the Garda I managed to retrieve my Porsche with was locked in the reception for the night!

Amongst the group were the Carrick cycling club, a few of the blazing saddles, Sr Brid (the infamous) Neil O’Brien from 3D and my self. The first leg was for Carrick to Bangor in NI, estimated 100miles. I would cycle solo on my Porshe till Newry and then take over from Ian in piloting the tandem with Sr Brid till Bangor.

We hit the road at 9ish and had a nice smooth cycle up all the way till Carlingford. Temperature was perfect, with overcast to keep things cool. There was a bit of a head wind, but nothing too major. At least on the solo you don’t really feel much. Had a great chat with Neil on the way but then we were going to slow for him and he needed a bit of a stretch so he flew on ahead!

If anybody hasn’t been to Carlingford before, well you have to go. It’s a fantastic place, really wild landscape, with the Mourne mountrains towering behind and coming right down to the bay and as it was a bit misty things had real spook all around!

Twenty minutes break in Carlingford to refuel and empty the auld bowels! Then up the hill and a good long down hill which pretty well took us in to Newry. The NI reg plates were increasing and at some point we passed a canal lock where in big letters it wrote VICTORIA LOCK. Yep this had to be NI! Big misty hills and mountains all around and beautiful bays intertwining, jaysus I really missed this kind of terrain!

In Newry a few of the gang left us to return back south. One of them was Ian, the tandem pilot. Yes it was changing time. We had done close to 50 miles so far and my Porsche was going to spend the rest of the trip in the back of a land rover!

The changeover was strange but had to adapt fast as I had a twenty minutes cycle with head wind till Waterpoint which was our lunch stop.

After a huge veg salad( portions in NI are mind boggling) we set off for Kilkeel. We got into a good rhythm and although there were so hills with a long gradual incline( the worst) we made it in good time to Kilkeel and satisfied with our pace. Here I have to point out to those who haven’t ridden a tandem before that when you go up a hill you really go into a light gear and it really takes a lot out of you and you get intimidated by all the solos that pass you by no bother. Mind you the cheaters were drafting behind us all the way! On the way down the hill though they barely have the chance to see what passed them as with double the weight you nearly hit the speed of sound, more or less!

In Kilkeel we had a ten minute chat break as the last of the other tandems was heading back. That meant that we were way behind everybody and needed to get stuck into a good pace. The way to Newcastle was amazing coast line views on the left and misty mountains and thick forests on the right. This is where I make my contribution to that forum story way back about songs to cycle with, the title track of “OH BROTHER WHERE ARE THOU”. Great track for the road it is!

Newcastle, oooooooh , very spooky town but nice at the same time. One more pit stop. In this last leg we discovered that on the tandem when you are out for long runs you need to free cycle as often as possible as the undercarriage can get numb and sore!

That was what we did on our next leg to Downpatrick. By now I could feel the mileage but still had the going in me. Just taking it step by step.

Downpatrick, last pit stop, I checked the time and it was now five pm. It looked that it would be tough for me to catch the last enterprise service from Belfast to Dublin at 19:00.

We stuck into it though and focused on what was the last leg of this ….leg!

This I have to say was the worst part. With the tiredness creeping in we gritted our teeth in to a fourty minutes series of up down up down up down……..up down hills, no higher than 10-20 metres which meant that on the way we were in low low gear, snailing up the hill and on the way down it was too short to pick up a descent speed. I nearly cracked but there was no one around to pick up the pieces so it was all go. Imagine been at the top of one hill and looking ahead you can see a series of up to five dips and hills and to confirm all this signs at the side of the road saying” HIDEN DIPS”.

Bless Sr Brid though as at the end of them she gave me a power bar to shape me up for the last miles.

We came to a roundabout with a sign saying Bangor! Yes the end is near. In the distance I can see a big town on the hill side and think, that looks big. It has to be Bangor. Hopes pick up as we approach bust still no sign of the word Bangor on any signs anywhere. At the traffic lights the land rover that was patiently keeping company pulled up next to us. My worst fears materialized. This was not Bangor. This was Newtownards. Bangor was an extra 5-6 miles ahead. To make things worse the road out of this town involved a 500m, steady 25-30 degree incline hill! Even my Duracell were wearing off and was into back up.

These last few miles involved no chit chat between myself and Sr Brid as we were both feeling the day gone by. The toll in the end was not 100 miles as estimated but 120, Just over 190 k!

1,2,3 hop were the long lasting word I dreamt of saying all day as we put our left feet on the ground outside the B&B at around 18:50, 9 hours and 50 minutes later.

The enterprise was long gone but thanks to a great driver in Bus Eireann I arrived back in to my cozy house at 23:30 ……. Shattered but thrilled.ZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzz______

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