your most memorable spin

Shay Elliot 2018. Made the main break in the big race which was my main early season goal. Over the top of Glenmalure getting a can of coke and an ice cold bottle as one of the leaders (although only just behind) on the road was a really proud moment. Died a death in Moneystown in the last 10/15 miles of the race but it was nice to be part of a big race steeped in history which I had watched from afar for years. really made me fall back in love with the sport i'd left behind for 20 years.

My most memorable ride is for all the wrong reasons. It was in September 2014 in The Alps and I'm not sure if I was having an off day but I seemed to bonk several times on the Col de L'Iseran.

I thought the torture would never end. The 1km marker signs in the last few kms to the summit seemed to be 5kms apart. To add insult to injury, I thought our hotel was at the bottom of the long descent only to discover it was 12kms up another mountain.

I was crying inside and came very close to fcuking the bike over a cliff. Finally reached the hotel in a very sorry state (way behind the rest of the group) and had to be carried into the bar for refreshments.

https://www.strava.com/activities/187496887

Has to be my first "long" cycle... Dublin to Rosslare back in the 80’s. We were well prepared...wearing jeans, tee shirt, and runners. I was riding my 5 speed, steel framed “Elswick Whirlwind” bike, complete with full length mudguards and “carrier” (aka a “Rack”). In my bag I had a change of clothes, sandwiches and probably a flask of coffee!

We planned to do the trip in two days. First day was Dublin to the hostel in Aghavannagh.

We left early and headed along the coast towards Bray. At Kilmacanogue, we turned right and headed for Laragh. This was the 80’s, so no phones or strava to guide us, so we were following the road signs. At Laragh we arrived at the right turn at the start of the Shay Elliott climb and the sign read “Aghavannagh 1” (back then that was 1 mile) so off we went. It was warm and sunny and when we arrived at the summit I tore down the other side. If you know this descent you’ll know there’s a humpback bridge just before the crossroads at Glenmalure. I didn’t at the time and I shot over that bridge and with the weight of the bag over the back wheel, the bike pitched upwards and only my for the rear mudguard catching something on the road, I also came off the bike!

We stopped at the bottom and we figured the sign was clearly incorrect and Aghavannagh must be just a little bit further along the road. So off went and started climbing Slieve mann! About 2/3’s of the way up we decided the sign must have been wrong, so we turned around and cycled back towards Laragh. When we got to the bottom of the Shay Elliott climd, we had another look at the road sign. Back then the road signs were white with black lettering and on closer inspection we noticed some little fecker had painted the zero white, so the sign should have read “Aghavannagh 10”! So we had to back over shay Elliott and Slieve Mann again. By the time I got to the summit of Slieve Mann I was shattered and I’ll never forget how happy I was to see that hostel !

We spent the night in Aghavannagh and the next morning cycled to Arklow, then onto Gorey , Wexford and finally Rosslare. Compared to the first day, the second days cycle was uneventful.

To this day, every time I take that right turn to start the Shay Elliott climb I watch out for that road sign, but it’s no longer there. Great memories!

Memorably Bad:
27th July 2011 from Bourg d'Oisin to Guillestre on the Hospice Geneva to Nice Cycle. It started ok with a steady ascent of Lauteret in overcast conditions but deteriorated rapidly on the descent when the rain and cold arrived. 28km of shivering and shaking later I arrived into Briancon with blue lips and mild hypothermia. I had seriously considered turning around and climbing back up the mountain in order to warm up but was put off by the thought of having to come down again. Most of us decided to skip Izoard in the afternoon and opted for a relatively low-level cycle to Guillestre instead.

Memorably Good:
The following day climbing the Col de Vars before lunch, and the Cime de Bonnette after, in perfect conditions. Highlights included marmott spotting, amazing scenery and dunking our heads in mountain streams to cool down. Beating the approaching rain back to the hotel in Auron was an added bonus although others weren't as fortunate.

A few weeks ago when I thought I had won a Vets race only to discover the finish line had been moved up the road. That’s going to take years of expensive therapy to forget.

2001 won my first club race, 50km handicapped. Had a 3 minute or so head start. Went out in 2nd group. Me and 1 other dropped the group and went for it after about 2km. He wasn't doing any work so on the last climb I put max effort in and dropped him all the while the fast group were in the distance. Time trialled it in to the finish and won by about 20m. Was thrilled, all the last group couldn't t believe I held out as they pushed hard in the last 5k to bridge the gap.

Edit I was with a girl from Dublin who came up to donegal to meet the parents, maybe it was the fact I left her to go racing made me that bit faster!

I'll go for the most memorable part of a spin :
Doing the Mizen to Malin solo and nearly falling asleep on a small back road, the rain was coming into my face 24 hrs in.
I noticed I was taking longer to blink so relized I was falling asleep, turning over the options of using the black bags I carried for a sleeping bag with the possibility of a farmer finding me and shooting me /a rat eating my face I pushed on through the rain.
I turned my LED flashing joggers strap on my arm so it flashed into my face and eventually came onto a road with a decent clearance to the side , the sun coming up and the rain stopped.
I was brand new.

Other notible exception was taking energy gels and ibuprofen in sequence to finish Dublin - Galway - Dublin so I would finish in the same day, rather than it ticking over to the next.
I still think of it as my "What would Lance do moment"

Doing Tourmalet, Soulor and Aubisque in one day, on Touring bikes, with panniers. Did this route, 100Km took us about 14 hours in total with stops for food, photos etc.
This is the route: https://www.google.ie/maps/dir/42.9836438,0.2278953/Col+du+Tourmalet,+France/Col+d'Aubisque,+64440+B%C3%A9ost,+France/Laruns/@43.0185951,-0.2429663,10z/data=!4m21!4m20!1m0!1m5!1m1!1s0x12a8232c2337291f:0xa8f743ee7c738c44!2m2!1d0.1862736!2d42.9148946!1m5!1m1!1s0xd57b9010a53b9bb:0xc74075001146b056!2m2!1d-0.3396728!2d42.9765697!1m5!1m1!1s0xd57bae8383e76eb:0x154c1047e50732fa!2m2!1d-0.426274!2d42.987644!3e0

Here's a video of the descent from Soulor, turn the volume down and the volume up on the 2nd video to get an idea of the exhilaration of descending it.