Visiting Cork from USA

bhayden

I'll be flying in Saturday August 5th and staying two weeks based near Cork. I'm bringing my bike (Ritchey BreakAway) and plan to do as much cycling as possible. To date I've had basicly no luck making contact with any groups that might be doing rides. Any suggestions/links to clubs in the South West or suggestions for routes would be greatly appreciated. I'm not adverse to doing 50-100 miles and will have a car and other people to drop me at various places for one way trips.

If there are any local races (which don't require a UCI license) that would be fun too.

Bernie Hayden
Seattle, Washginton USA

ferdi

contact: info@cyclingireland.ie

some really beautiful routes down cork/kerry area, enjoy.

Victor

A few things to note.

Most of the hills are east-west, you either get an easy ride or a rather rough one.

Main roads tend to vary in quality - a lot. Main rural roads tend to be two wide lanes and shoulders only to drop to two average lanes a little further on. minor roads can mean meeting a tractor coming the other way one a steep climb on a one lane road, only wide enouggh for the tractor.

Urban and suburban roads can vary from decent to outright dangerous.

You have to try St. Patricks Hill in the city centre. Not particularly big, but 1:6 and the steepest part is towards the top. Just make sure your brakes work on the way down.

Lots of scenery all along the coast.

PS many people don't know how to drive with any sense or courtesy.

cargrouch

Had to google the ritchey breakaway - very clever bike!
Can't help you on groups that may be doing rides, but a route that took in Kinsale and Clonakilty, maybe on down to Rosscarbery would combine holiday sightseeing and a good cycle. Basically heading west from Cork and sticking close by the coast should give you some good rides (in terms of scenery at least). If you want hills you could cycle the Vee. Haven't cycled it myself but it's a scenic drive between Lismore in County Waterford (next county east of Cork) and Carrickonsuir(?) in Tipperary (next county north of cork).

Another route that might suit would be the Ring of Kerry, starting and ending at Killarney. Killarney is about an hour to an hour and a half from Cork by car, but there are train and bus services also. This is 110 miles. (although there is one point where you have an option to go a different way which I think would shorten this)

Ok, just read your post again - you're from seattle so (from what I've heard about Seattle) you should be well prepared for Irish drizzle;) We've had a lot of good weather recently but you can never predict the weather here, you could get 3 seasons in one day!

bhayden

I sent an email off to info@cyclingireland.ie although I wasn't sure if that was the poster's email or just a suggestion for generic info. I've tried other club contacts and none seem to be up to date.

If anyone is affiliated with Fermoy Cycling Club or knows if they're still active I'd love to hear from you:
http://www.fermoycc.com/training.htm
This sort of group training ride would be great to hook up with but information such as leaves from "the park" at 10am doesn't give me much to go on.

Limerick is probably too far away? But the club League sounds like fun:
http://www.limerickcc.com/
Got to love a race that starts at the graveyard; much better than finishing there

Foyle Cycling Club also has club rides Saturday & Sunday but probably too far away:
http://www.foylecycling.net/

St. Finbarr's Triton Ventilux C.C. sounds like a good possibility but I can't tell if they're still active:
http://www.iol.ie/~daher/cclub/index.html

cargrouch

Ya, I presume St. Finbarrs are still going strong in Cork. Don't have a contact for them I'm afraid.

aodhu

Check out www.corktri.com, it's a triathlon site rather then a cycling site but it's an active one with plenty of cycling.
There's a 52 mile cycle in kenmare on the 6th but I suspect Jet lag may prevent that!
There's short time trial stuff every Tuesday.
Aidan