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Tell us about your new improved government regulations compliant cycle part II
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We had a cracking second half of the day here in Buncrana yesterday - sun splitting stones, not too windy etc. Ideal conditions for the bike! I wasn't planning on riding far, but I didn't want to waste the opportunity so set out to explore around Buncrana - picked an easy target - the windmills I can see from the house.
Headed out in the general direction keeping windmills right ahead - Out of Buncrana taking Cockhill road, left at St Marys Church, another left at the next petrol station and then it was all uphill until you see the service road for the windmill farm on your right. This service road was just all stones and boulders - the CX part of the bike was put to excellent use yesterday for the very first time.
At around 300 meters elevation is the Drumlough windmill farm, 15 MW, powering approximately 7400 houses! Windmills gently spinning making that relaxing swishing sound, dozens of red/blue painted sheep grazing peacefully, it was as if you are in that PS3 game "flow". If this is how we are going to reduce our dependency on MiddleEast's Dino juice and Wahhabism, what's not to like?
I have to say I loved riding thru the trails that's only fit for mountain bikes / quad bikes or 4x4. It wasn't all about speed, it was about staying up, negotiating the channels cut by streams, tyre marks all the while startling sheep that they take off and crash into each other. All the while taking in the majestic landscape around you all the way to Lough Swilly on one side and some other valley and mountains on the other side. In comparison, cycling on road is ridiculously monotonous and boring, not to mention negotiating traffic and pollution. I would highly recommend everyone get grab a CX or mountain bike and to ride away from the roads, at least once!
The other side of the wind farm turned out to be my new enemy - le Mamore Gap!
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You can't see it and not climb it, so I went for it again. And for the second time in a week, it had my a*se kicked and had me do the walk of shame.
Once on top of the gap, I met a older gentleman who was walking up from the north-side - his words were "I need the wind behind me to walk up the gap these days". Turns out he used to cycle up here often years ago. He also told me about the little water source (holy well / stream), perfectly drinkable water (peat filtered, like scotch whiskey
).
I decided to go down the north side - which is a loong way down - and headed out towards Clonmany without particular plan in mind. Ended up with a quick side tour to Glenevin waterfall outside Clonmany. Another hidden gem, and absolutely delightfully beautiful km long walk to it over the many small bridges, and at the end perfect postcard perfect waterfall. It's like the most amazing screensaver in real-life.
After quick refuel at Clonmany, made a poor decision to head back up Mamore Gap. Getting there was again fantastic - could be mistaken for some other part of the world.
Going up Mamore Gap North to South though - is unmistakably painful. F*CK! I ended up walking most of it. Savage. There were three club riders making their way up inch by inch - fair play to them - serious commitment!! Made my way back to Buncrana eventually, once again, delighted to be able to experience the amazing beauty of this land, and equally humbled by the challenge that is Mamore Gap and by the grit of those guys who conquer it.0 -
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Great post Positron! Looks like an exceptional spin!
At 8am this morning on my way out along Clontarf and into Howth I met a man wearing a red Gabba top on a BMC SLR who was clearly extremely late for his group ride. He put the boot down (!!) and we did some up-and-overs until we got into Howth where my legs were on fire and he disappeared. Needless to say the hill wasn't that fun the first time around. Then I did 3 more times around, out to Malahide and into Fairview. 90km 0 -
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mugsymugsy wrote: »Fair play to you for sticking it out. You planning on cycling back
Guess what I did yesterday?
Left Buncrana at around 0830 hours, took the same route (Derry, Strabane, Sion Mills, Omagh, nice big lunch at Kellys, Monahan etc and N2. Couple of rains early on, but weather improved by mid day. Got tired of the monotony of N2, and tried Google navigation that looked good in paper/phone, but the darn thing took me over sh1ttiest country lanes that are only fit for 4x4s, up and down many hills and sharp turns, and eventually lead me straight to a dead-end. There was an gap in the hedge with nothing but overgrown field on the other side and that's road according to Google. I was in a very dark place emotionally at this time, even thought of expletives I would send to Sunder Pichai (in Tamil) when I get home. I was struggling hard, out of water, and this detour added 10k to total distance! Finally I got back to N2 and turns out I was still 19k away from Ardee and that would be the first opportunity to get some water!! Barely made it to Ardee, crawled into Spar and bought a nice Yazoo drink, banana and water, and went into the nearby church and made their centuries old scripture stone thingee my make shift table and camped there for 20 mins. The hills between Ardee and Collon is something else - especially with the state that I was in. Eventually made it to Drogheda without any punctures like the last time - except the chain came off a couple of times, minor annoyance. By the end, I was so eager to get off the bike I even scored a PR in one of the last segments near home!
Unfortunately for me, phone keeps killing Strava app, so it didn't capture the first 25 kms from Buncrana to Derry. Anyway, it's somewhere around 10 hours of moving time, 12 hours door to door, approximately 235 kms covered, 1556m climbed.
Relive.cc Video: https://video.relive.cc/9913922211_strava_1502141677485.mp4
Although last couple of weeks of biking has been really amazing, this is the end of the cycling adventures for me for a while. Cycling was supposed to be the cross training for Dublin City Marathon in October (another first), and over last couple of weeks it has completely taken over and I haven't been out running. Bike is back in the shed now, except for an odd Drogheda-Dundrum commute etc. Until next time...!0 -
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Amazing bit of stamina to complete a trip like that!!Fair play to you!mugsymugsy wrote: »Fair play to you for sticking it out. You planning on cycling back
Guess what I did yesterday?
Left Buncrana at around 0830 hours, took the same route (Derry, Strabane, Sion Mills, Omagh, nice big lunch at Kellys, Monahan etc and N2. Couple of rains early on, but weather improved by mid day. Got tired of the monotony of N2, and tried Google navigation that looked good in paper/phone, but the darn thing took me over sh1ttiest country lanes that are only fit for 4x4s, up and down many hills and sharp turns, and eventually lead me straight to a dead-end. There was an gap in the hedge with nothing but overgrown field on the other side and that's road according to Google. I was in a very dark place emotionally at this time, even thought of expletives I would send to Sunder Pichai (in Tamil) when I get home. I was struggling hard, out of water, and this detour added 10k to total distance! Finally I got back to N2 and turns out I was still 19k away from Ardee and that would be the first opportunity to get some water!! Barely made it to Ardee, crawled into Spar and bought a nice Yazoo drink, banana and water, and went into the nearby church and made their centuries old scripture stone thingee my make shift table and camped there for 20 mins. The hills between Ardee and Collon is something else - especially with the state that I was in. Eventually made it to Drogheda without any punctures like the last time - except the chain came off a couple of times, minor annoyance. By the end, I was so eager to get off the bike I even scored a PR in one of the last segments near home!
Unfortunately for me, phone keeps killing Strava app, so it didn't capture the first 25 kms from Buncrana to Derry. Anyway, it's somewhere around 10 hours of moving time, 12 hours door to door, approximately 235 kms covered, 1556m climbed.
Relive.cc Video: https://video.relive.cc/9913922211_strava_1502141677485.mp4
Although last couple of weeks of biking has been really amazing, this is the end of the cycling adventures for me for a while. Cycling was supposed to be the cross training for Dublin City Marathon in October (another first), and over last couple of weeks it has completely taken over and I haven't been out running. Bike is back in the shed now, except for an odd Drogheda-Dundrum commute etc. Until next time...!0 -
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Club spin this morning. Done of the lads are doing a mizen2malin next week, so it was to be a handy one, did 75km @ ~27kmph
Legs like jelly for the first 30km after a 5km obstacle course thing I did yesterday. Stepped it up for the next 30km and drove the group on and the racing group passed us with about 15km to home so I jumped onto them managed to hang on for about 10k where they were averaging about 40kmph. Much more enjoyable than last week 0
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