TOI - Mount Leinster KOM

King Kelly

I was on a damp, misty and bloody cold Mount Leinster this lunchtime and got some pictures of the TOI.

If any of you did the Mount Leinster Challenge in May, it was the second ascent up the mountain from Bunclody that the Tour went up, not the more difficult Corrabutt Gap side. There was a good scatering of people over the last 2/3kms with about 100 people at the summit of the Nine Stones.

There was about a dozen local cyclists on the mountain and a pair of Welsh cyclists who had come over from Wales on the ferry on a day trip. They had planned on a days cycling to Mount Leinster and then back to the Rosslare ferry not knowing they would be spectators for the TOI and get to hear David Duffield in the advance media cars!

The break of 4 riders had about 2 1/2 minutes lead on the bunch. I notice in the results the guy second over the mountain finished the day third last and 24min 50 secs down! The bunch was lead over by what looked like the whole Columbia team. That well know climber Mark Cavandish was second in the bunch. I see in the pictures one of my heros the evergreen Malcolm Elliott (45 years old?) came over in about 5th or 6th in the bunch.

For those of you had ridden over the disaster area on the descent over the past few weeks you'll be glad to know Carlow Co Co have laid some lovely smooth tarmac on the worst areas and the descent is realtively collerbone friendly!

I took a burst of images as they crossed the summit but the light was terrible. The pictures will be uploaded here in the next hour or so - http://pix.ie/liamr/album/325870

Planet X

Good pics. Well done.