Day 5 – Sligo to Letterkenny
We set off from Sligo to cycle the 69 miles to Letterkenny a
little later today. The thought of a
shorter day was appreciated by everyone and I think lulled me into a false
sense that the day was going to be an easy one.
Clayton Blackmore joined us for the first 2 hours of the ride up to the
1st rest stop where he was being whisked away to fly back to
Manchester. This proved to be a tad
destructive as after an hour the pace was clipping along at around 18-20mph so
he could reach the stop and be able to get to his flight. This pretty much imploded our usual group of
between 15 and 25 riders and there were also a series of punctures along the
route. I didn’t feel too bad when we
reached the first stop as my training for the week had been at a higher intensity
then the 15mph average we had been maintaining.
We rolled into the rest stop and thanked Clayton for coming with us for
part of the ride. The normal sandwiches
and mars bars where consumed and we rolled off feeling good and with a group of
around ten of us. The wind that had been
stalking us picked up a bit and again we were taking turns on the front so as
not to tire everyone out. I was still
feeling good and was rotating regularly onto the front to take my turn in the
wind. We made good time until going
through a mountain pass with a long drag of around 5% consistently the paced
slowed due to the gradient and the wind.
I had just taken my turn on the front when my body crashed. I felt as though someone had pulled the plug
on my legs and taken all of my energy. I
quickly went from behind the front to going straight out of the back of the
group. Scottish James was also
struggling having sustained injuries in a crash the previous day. This had happened just after the decent from
the Cliffs of Mohen when a wood trailer being towed clipped James and threw him
from his bike. James was lucky to only
sustain superficial cuts and a badly bruised knee and back. He also suffered some whiplash. James finished the full six days and with his
injuries can count it as a massive achievement.
So I found myself out the back of the group with James. Keith came back to us and helped us back into
the group and after some water and food whilst riding around 30 minutes later I
began to feel better. The feeling was
unbelieveable like suddenly having all energy removed from my legs. Something I hope not to repeat again. We battled on through some tough hills which
seemed never ending probably because I was lacking in energy. Unlike previous days I was dropping off on
the climbs and having to catch up on the descents. Descending being something I do well due to
my weight. We finally reached a couple
of miles outside Letterkenny when a rare treat presented itself. A descent into Letterkenny around a mile and a
half long. I hit 37mph coming down it
and I have to say I was tapping the brakes all the way down it was an epic
decent. We went round the corner and
into the hotel. I had been feeling tight
during the day and felt it would be a good point to go and see the physios who
where looking after the group so well.
There was a list already in place when I arrived totalling probably one hours worth of wait. The hotel had
‘kindly’ dragged down to vibrating plate machines for us to use in the
meantime. I had never used one before
and took some brief instructions from Scottish James and Jody. You can see from the video below how it
went!
After the physio and getting showered and changed we made
our way down to the bar. David May was
our guest for the evening and I had a good chat with him about matters
Manchester United related. He was an
interesting guy very straight talking.
He joined us at our table for tea... yet another carvery. The food was not great tonight and Mark,
Bernie and I decided to go into town and find something to subsidise the meal
with. After a long walk we found a
McDonalds and ate some more food.
Another early night for me at the hotel.
I awoke around 00:30 expecting to see Mark in his bed but nno sign of
him. A few thoughts of kidnapping or him
falling asleep in the lounge then back to sleep. Turns out that Mark had been kidnapped in a
way by David May and a fair amount of Guiness and lager had been consumed until
02:30 in the morning. We where awake at
06:15 for Day 6. Poor Mark!
Day 6 – Letterkenny to Derry
Day six was probably the high point emotionally so far. We set off from Letterkenny with Garda
(police) escort for the 83mile trip. Not
sure if this was to make sure we left or make us feel special. David May had joined us and the group was in
high spirits as it was for most of the group their last day in the
saddles. The Irish contingent had only
signed up to Milan Head/Derry and that was to be there last ride of the trip. The group we had was a lovely group and we
had so much fun during the week. I made
some new lifelong friends and hopefully I will meet them again at some point
next year to undertake another charity ride or sportive. Some promises have been made so we will see
what happens. The day was extra special
as we were going to one of the Autistic centres on our way to Miran head (the
Northern most tip of Ireland). The
weather had looked ominous as we set out so we all had our jackets on and wet
gear but in the end it held off and we had another sunny day. We reached the Autism centre after about an
hour and a half and where greeted by all of the children cheering and
clapping. This really did swell the
ego’s and re vitalise the tired legs as we rode in to be high fived by every
single child. Some of the lads wheeled
the kids around on their bikes and we had lots of pictures done for the charity,
which was great. It was also the first
day we had hot drinks at a stop, which were well appreciated as it was coming
in cold.
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| These are the people it was all about. |
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| A group of the nicest cyclists and people you would want to meet |
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| Brendon our guide for the week. Favourite saying "its flat today lads" |
We then waited for everyone and where again escorted by the
Garda from the centre and through the town.
On the way out of the town one of the schools had obviously heard of our
visit and efforts and around two hundred children lined the streets clapping
and cheering. Again it was an emotional
moment we all felt as if we were professional cyclists for thirty seconds and
during the tough times later that day and over the coming days their faces and
positivity towards us was something I used to keep going. We left the town generally buzzing and soon
began to get back into the Irish rhythm of up and down, with more up then down I
have to say. We then climbed into the
moors and our group of twenty riders imploded once again. After we had climbed and split up a little
bit the wind picked up across the moorland and left us nowhere to hide. We managed to cobble together a group of four
then later a group of eight to get to the village of Miran just after the
moorland. The wind was horrid and we were
doing thirty seconds on the front in single file so we had some
protection. At Miran we refuelled and
got ready for some tough climbing out towards Miran Head which was
approximately 17 kilometres away. On the
trip out Richie got his 6th puncture of the week he was very unlucky
to be honest. We stopped and regrouped
for the climbs. They where steep and
reared up over a short distance but we all made it up as a group then motored
on for Miran Head. The signposting to
Miran Head was very comical. Miran Head
9 km cycle on Miran Head 10 km cycle on Miran Head 9 km. I was starting to think we were in a cycling
groundhog day. Believing the hard work
to be done we shifted towards Miran Head at a brisk pace only to see the
objective rear out of the ground up to a big rock in the sky. The climb itself was only 500 metres or so
but it reared up in such a fashion that to stop would have been suicidal. Everyone selected their lowest gears and went
for it getting a hero’s welcome at the top.
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| Triumphant at Malin Head |
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| Mark the Conquerer |
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| Speck in the centre bottom right is me approaching the Malin head climb |
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| View from the top of Malin Head |
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| Tour De France...No Malin Head |
After many pictures we set off again for the village of
Miren a short stop and then on to Derry.
The wind on the way back was utterly horrendous and I spent some time on
the front again shielding the others. We
had gotten about 10 km done when I noticed that Scottish James had slipped off
the back of the group with Keith for company.
I dropped back to help out as the wind was bad and I didn’t want to
leave one of the group stuck. James was
in a large amount of pain still from his crash and was battling on
bravely. Keith and I managed to get
James back to the village or Miran and a well deserved break from the gusting
wind. James spoke about getting the meat
wagon back to Derry but decided to carry on.
We set off again in our group and headed for Derry. The pace was alternating from slow to fast
and we were rattling up the climbs at a fair pace this was cracking James as
his knee was in poor shape. We decided
to split into two groups to allow people to crack on and the second part of the
group to maintain a slower pace to allow us to get James home and complete the
ride. We endured yet more wind and some
more long drags up into the moorland before a steep decent led us down to the
Derry Estuary and along into Derry. I
led out along the estuary and took us through the town of Muff (giggle) and to
the hotel. There was a party organised
for the evening and Norman Whiteside attended giving a speech. We had undertaken the three course carvery,
which by now was making me feel queasy every time I sat down to eat. I decided on the back of the fact the next
day was going to be a 93 mile trawl to Carrickmacross with 12 of us setting out
to get an early night. I could hear the
Elvis impersonator from the hotel room and he wasn’t very good at all. Mark echoed my sentiments. I did however manage to sneak out and get a
pizza which I have to say was pretty damned good after all of the beef and
turkey I had endured the previous 6 nights.
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