Tell us about your new improved government regulations compliant cycle part II

Out at 07.35 as working at 9.

On mountainbike,loop i do on a regular basis around woodstock estate ,kilkenny.
beautiful morning even thou was still misty in the valley bottom.
15km.

No major mileage covered, just a lovely cycle out to Tramore this morning, sun was shining & the sea was sparkling.
Added bonus on the way home - spotted sloes growing on one of the back roads. Sent hubby out this afternoon to pick some. Going to have a go at making sloe gin

Did the Antrim 300 yesterday. 300km in the mountains with 20 hours to complete the route...

A tough day. Up at 02:50 to get a bus from Dublin. Got to the 06:00 start with 5 min to spare.

Off out the road and within 10 minutes I was climbing. This set the tone for the rest if the day. Weather was colder than recently, chilly descents in dark first thing were a foretaste of the last 100k.

Vicious climbs were followed by equally vicious descents where I had to hang on the brakes. Traffic was a pleasure. Lots of it but everyone hung back until it was safe to pass and left plenty of room.

Amazing scenery all over and so many bays and inlets to route around.

I had made good time to Cushendun, 12:30 though it took 30 minutes to get fed. The next 12km over Torr Head took 90 minutes leaving me behind on time. I had to make pace to make Bushmills at 16:00. Halfway around in exactly 10 hours. At least that was the hillier half... Ha!

Made good time on the loop from Ballycastle to Portstewart and back to Ballycastle at 200k, just 5min ahead of the close of control. Picked up a can of coke for later. Headed off into the evening and the last 100k. Little hints like 'Caution on descent' on the route sheet didn't bode well for making time. Neither did the very pretty but slanty Glendun where the road went ever upwards for what seemed like hours.

As the night came on under clear skies, the stars came out in all their glory though it was difficult to look up with a stiff neck. Temperatures dropped and, despite multiple layers, the descents got very chilly. I was in shorts so my legs got very cold and then had to work again.

In the meantime, my GPS which had given me an eta at belfast of 00:30 at 200k started pushing that outwards so that, by the top of Glendun eta was 01:30. That was most of the heavy climbing done but plenty of rolling 'B' roads yet to cover with the eta creeping up all the time.

Much time was spent in calculation of how fast I needed to descend to make up for 5-10kph ascending. Descents were getting even colder now and I was welcoming the climbs 'cos I'd get to warm up a bit. At one point the eta went to 02:02!

A bit of TT over the last 20k pulled back the time while the traverse of Belfast's pubs out time was 'interesting'.

I got to the finish at 01:58, woke the organiser who was asleep in his car waiting for me, handed in my brevet card and set off to catch my 02:30 bus home. In order to allow for possible issues, I had booked the 06:30 bus 'you can get an earlier bus if there are empty seats'. I got to the bus station to discover a crowd waiting for the bus. Driver looks around, says 'You won't get on, have to wait for the 06:30'. Feck!

Turned out there were spare seats so I got on and back to Dublin at 04:30. Feckin freezing now, shivered for the 30min spin home and into bed by 05:30 for 12 hours sleep.

That's my Four Provinces completed...

Aircoach will take bikes for free subject to having luggage space (which is realistically not a problem. Bus Eireann charge E10 extra each way for bikes (often at the driver's discretion).

So I headed off in search of Glassamucky on the way to Glencree ( I am not a local so geography is a bit sketchy). Oh I found it alright, stunning road but the headwind was very tough. Stopped in Glencree for some sustenance and headed towards Enniskerry with a view to trying to find Glencullen (oh I found it alright and the ramps there are cruel). On into the city via Stepaide. Through town to witness so shocking cycling behaviour (I won't rush back) and home via the quays and Finglas. 105k in all, 1200m up. I had forgotten about the Garmin firmware update and when I went to upload the file, it was empty. Not sure why, it recorded as it went for sure. I had to create a manual entry and also the route to see if it matched. Glad to have located some new cycling territory.

secman wrote: »

You are most welcome to come over to the lovely southside and partake in the riding on our meandering mountain roads, really hope you enjoyed our hospitality and beautiful scenery.

Can you do anything about the wind?? :-)

Kevin King memorial spin ,nice relaxed coastal spin organised by Drogheda wheelers 55km in total for me, probably should have done another 50 but garden chores need to be done.