TransAtlantic Way Cycle Race Day 8

The Force was definitely with us this day. Hmm, but so was the Dark Side.

Day 8 was an almost perfect day. It was certainly packed with adventure and 'happenings'. Sure enough, however, amongst the many highs there were a few lows too. 

We were largely covered in midge bites by now (and Jamie mosquito bites too). My head was aching bad and acted a long time before it eased. Maybe it was the Guinness and a bit of dehydration?! My head-space was fine though, my senses were buzzing with the beauty of Ireland.

Early on in our cycle today we had an absolutely delightful climb. It looked harder on paper than it actually was. This was a long, slow, steady climb up Connor Pass. Great climbing, great weather (real hot and sunny), great company and great adventure!

Didn't stop to take any pictures until I had reached the summit. The summit was awesome and blew my mind again. We chatted to a whole bunch of folk at the top and shared a number of cycling related stories.

 Then we zoomed down like crazy. Whoosh! Super fast descent. Living the dream.

Once at the bottom, we were hungry. This was soon fixed as we spotted an Aldi store. One should never shop when hungry - we purchased so much food. We ate so much food too! Ha! We were becoming great at picnic planning.

After our picnic we continued cycling and headed for the beautiful Ring of Kerry. This was a lovely loop which I believe everyone described as awesome or beautiful. One person commented it offered the best views in the whole of Ireland. I'm sure my buddy Mike Creighton would agree.

The good...

...or the evil.

Which path will you choose?

Star Wars was such a big thing in Ireland. It came as no surprise, Ireland really was far out. The Yoda and Darth Vader figures we saw were actually made from tyres - how cool is that?!

So many beautiful sights we just had to keep stopping and taking pics. No surprises why'd folk would want to make movies in Ireland. Good job we weren't racing in this race.

Have always loved the coast. Right now, I was in love with the Irish coast. Have long loved cycling too. So, cycling the Irish coast was like a dream come true.

The many shades of green and blue we saw was un-true. It always appeared ever changing too. Ireland was very different from one moment till the next.

Some of the walled coastal rides reminded me of cycling the Torino-Nice rally as it looked and felt quite similar. Good job the heavy wind had now passed. This was clearly some of the best cycling I have done to date.

Selfie time

After a loop of Kerry's ring, we stopped at ate the most delicious ice cream and carrot cake. What could possibly go wrong? You got it - another broken spoke. Arghh! This was becoming the norm, even so, it induced a little anxiety and frustration. What could we do but cycle on.

As we cycled on we continued to see some lovely scenery. The skies darkened and looked angry. And then, wow, we saw a most amazing rainbow. Hard to believe so much adventure was had and happening all the while.

Day 8 (180k)

We stopped at a pub where a local band was playing which seemed to draw bus loads of folk in from near and far. It was interesting having conversations with folk who just couldn't comprehend that we had no firm plans (in fact no idea) where we cycle to tonight and where we would stop and sleep. All seemed pretty amazed that our route was heading for some big hills too.

Climbing the big hills was great. Very quiet on the whole, picturesque mountains and lakes and roads with lots of switch-backs. The only negativity was my broken wheel.

Once it had turned dark, cycling became a little more difficult. Neither of us wanted to stop as we wanted to make up some distance. However, we were now cycling a lot of single-track with sharp climbs and steep descents on gravel type tracks. Harder (and slower) to navigate in the dark. Still, we continued and looked for a place to wild camp. In the dark, I was seeing all sort of strange illusions caused by our lighting. We spotted a barn which turned out to be a 'poo shed', we used this as a (kinda) convenient place to snack. Then we headed back into the dark and descended some scary track. I think both Jamie and I had near misses with crashing into the hedge.

Then, before we could say 'jolly hockey sticks' we were back on smooth tarmac roads and better yet we were next to a church. All churches the far had been locked at night. Figured I'd try the handle away and bonus! Boom, the church door opened. Better yet, the inner doors opened too. So pleased we both were. Our bikes were taken inside and it didn't take long for me to set up a place to sleep between the pews.

Jamie slept in the centre isle. This was just perfect. It was warm and dry and we didn't even have to use our bivvy's. I hung all my clothing out as the church appeared a great place to air all my gear.

Only a life size poster of the pope waving at me from the right hand side of the wall freaked me out. Otherwise we had a perfect wild camp spot, probably the best of this whole adventure. Ok, so my mattress deflated again but otherwise thumbs up big time!

TransAtlantic Way Cycle Race Day 7

Ooh, last night had been a cold and windy one. I had awoke to a de-flated mattress. Jamie had woken to slug trails over his gear. The morning looked more promising.

The day turned out just wonderful. Our adventure was just what one could have wanted. A tale of warriors, castles, sun, sea and sand and...

Timmy junior

 ... dogs! Today we found out that I possessed the skills of a dog whisperer. After dog chases just the previous day, it came as no real surprise that another dog would chase. This dog, however, was different. He was not chasing so much, but running alongside me and ran and ran for k after k. This dog, dubbed 'Timmy Junior' by Jamie appeared to be fascinated by me and it was as though he believed I was his owner. He would completely disregard Jamie but run as I cycled and stop when I stopped. He would not go back and enjoyed any attention I gave him. We presumed he'd soon get fed up and return home but he didn't. After several k and several minutes I was starting to worry. Timmy would not stop running with us and I had to slow down each time a car passed to prevent him getting squished. My brakes were applied a few times as he ran in front of my front wheel too. What to do? Well, after about 3k we encountered a steep descent and figured we'd lose him here. I flew down the hill, looked behind and could not see Jamie or Timmy for a few moments. Jamie was coming down the hill at about 35 kph when Timmy ran straight past him (topping out at about 40kph) and caught me up. Oh no! We stopped at bottom of hill and Timmy would sit at my command, enjoy a stroke but was prepared to run further as we cycled. Poor thing appeared exhausted but there was no stopping him. Suggested Jamie give him some cake but cake was too precious a commodity that Jamie would not part with same. My final solution was to lead Timmy into a false sense of trust. I escorted him across the road to a nearby pub and tied him to a stake using rope that had cordoned off a parking area. Poor Timmy, we did hope he'd be found soon. He whimpered as we cycled away but at least he wasn't going to get squished by a motor car or be ran over by us guys. What an adventure for us all.

Oh Timmy, hope you are safe and well

As we continued our cycle, I thought about another 'Timmy', back at home. Indeed, Timmy the tortoise was used over here to promote Guinness. I still had not, as yet, tried a Guinness but sure was a tad tired. I sure hoped (and trusted) my tortoise was being well looked after by my dear wife.

At one of our tea/coffee stops at a local garage forecourt, I was lucky and they were not. I had their last cup of tea. They had a flood of boiling hot water. So much menace throughout this adventure!

The tracker attached to my seat pack

Today was very wet and windy with winds of 50mph plus. Thankfully, my 'lobster' jacket kept me perfectly dry. No extreme of weather appeared to affect my tracker.

The rain and wind didn't last for ever and we had brighter spells throughout the day. This was as bad as the weather got. Sights and views remained as wonderful as ever and our senses of sight, smell, sound were continually buzzing. I love an old ruin.

The water towers in Ireland were ace. We had seen one that looked like an AT-AT from Star Wars and now we were viewing one that looked like a tripod from War of the Worlds. Far out!

Day 7 (176k)

At some juncture we had a short ferry crossing. This was cool and broke up our day a little. We were able to have a quick chat with some other TAW cyclists prior to and on the crossing as we crossed. Aces!

Once off the ferry we cycled on and on, as was our plan. As well as cycle lots, we would chat nonsense lots too and often break into song. Constantly our views would change and strangely it was just great viewing black angry clouds.

It wasn't only the clouds that were black and angry. Jamie's chain would slip from time to time and worse yet, he punctured. This was the only puncture during the entirety of our adventure. Parts of my rear mudguard had gone AWOL by now too. I remain kinda pleased with my road-side repair of said mud-guard. As Jamie and I were fixing, a kind woman pulled up in her car and made several offers for us to put our bikes in her car and said she would drive us to wherever. We declined, of course, but again the kindness of strangers is just amazing.

Race notes (thoughts of family)

Once fixed we cycled on and on which was nice. We continued to chat nonsense at regular times and when we didn't chat nonsense my head was filled with so many wonderful thoughts and thinky things. I would often think about my wife and kids (and tortoise) and to be fair, must have thought about every family member that I have. I saw some random pottery/art work at one time that really made me think of my kids. I saw a moon and stars (which made me think of Lunar) and a little flower (that made me think of Melody). Such a strong thought was this that I even drew a picture of that I saw in my race notes. How cool was that?! Today was also special because I had spoken to SJ, Lunar, Melody and my parents on the phone too.

Guinness!

Our stop this night was a hostel in Tralee. Jamie managed to secure a room just for the two of us which was great. How nice it was to shower after so many days on the road. We ventured out to a nearby pub and Jamie completed his set mission whilst I had a 'green eggs and ham moment'. Yup indeed, I had a pint of Guinness and I enjoyed it so. When in Rome and all that, ha! This adventure saw me broaden my horizons and eat/drink what I would normally consider filth. As well as drinking Guinness, I ate black and white pudding, mushrooms, ham, ginger and fruit cake. Is amazing what the body can tolerate when stressed. That's my excuse anyway!

TransAtlantic Way Cycle Race Day 6

How nice to awake and find out my mattress hadn't de-flated. We were of course at checkpoint 2 which meant we had a 'free' hostel stay. Had washed my shorts the night before but sadly they hadn't dried, they were wringing wet. Thankfully Ireland was hot (it's hottest summer since 1995) and was able to dry my shorts by placing them on my handlebar harness as I cycled along.

Was kinda strange being at this checkpoint as we saw a lot of TAW cyclists. Some were already sleeping in the dorm when we arrived, others were eating and now folk were just arriving as we settled down to breakfast (cereals and toast). Folk were still arriving as we departed.

Much like other days, the fantastic weather was on our side. We were continually spoilt with stunning coastal and mountain views. The roads were great too and not littered with menace pot holes. My word, even the motorists (few and far between) were friendly also.

A peat bog farmer, farming.

Peat stacks

At often times we would see peat cut out in little bricks and stacked in a pyramid shape to presumably dry out. After witnessing this sort of sight a thousand times or more, figured a picture was warranted. This might explain why there was so much land space and so few animals grazing.

 'Burn fat, not oil'! Have no idea what we were both burning. We ate like kings and am sure we returned home weighing a good few pounds more! We liked the principle. Oh, and talking about food, we had the most amazing panini and nacho's at around the 100k mark. Delicious. I even instructed the 'cafe boy' to scrub my water bottle clean and he obliged. Ha! Living the dream.

Sights are a wonderful thing and we saw lots of them. So many castles, ruins, standing stones, follies etc were passed and spotted that it was impossible to stop and inspect them all. Am surprised the Irish haven't monopolised on this (the English and Scottish certainly seem to do) and made these sites of historic interest or whatever.

Outside looking in

Some places just had to be stopped at though. One such place was this 'drinking water stop' which had instructions to 'please keep clean'. I think folk mis-read 'keep clean' for 'latrine'. Maybe it was the smell of this place that caused Jamie to fall from his bike and mash up his rear mech a little?!

Inside looking out 

Adventures such as this are a test. A test of character, ability and mental state. One has to battle with highs and lows and even demons perhaps. Jamie and I both had ups and downs and they would occur at different times for each of us. In a way, it was a splendid idea that we were riding as a pair because we could both help one another with the changes in our perceptions and mood as we went along. At my most emotional, I found (thankfully) that I was not low in mood or depressed but rather found everything incredibly funny and would laugh spontaneously at nothing in particular and in a rather un-controllable manner. This was kinda fine but every now and then I thought I was going (or had gone) mad and this made my thinking of a paranoid nature.

Day 6 (233k)

We met a whole host of 'weird and wonderful' folk on our adventure. Each and every cyclist had a story of their own. One guy was participating in this event on a Bromptom (fold up bike) - big respect to him. Some folk were cycling donated bikes courtesy of sponsors. It didn't seem fair that I had to shell out big bucks to pay for this ride plus my gear when others were 'given' steeds and stuff for free. (Don't shoot me, I know 'life isn't fair'). Most nights I paid zero euro's to rough it, whilst some sponsored folk had a nice hotel, breakfast and spa to look forward to. One guy commented he had to pay 105 euro's for his room, I wish I had 105 euro's to part with!

A chat with some of the sponsored was interesting. One stated they were sponsored not because they were a particularly good athlete but because they could tell a good story. Surely the story of a guy roughing it on a second hand or cheap bike beats the story of a person cycling a top end bike with hotel stops each night? Another's popularity appeared to help with sponsors and those that were 'plat based' or 'vegan' athletes appeared to have a cult following. Jamie and I tried to be vegan and plant based for an hour at a time. Fair play to those that are - it's real hard work!

The strangest of folk appeared in Galway however. These folks were among the regular mix of folk. Up until now, Ireland appeared to be a very rural quiet place. Galway was the opposite, it appeared that everyone lived here. It was noisy, dirty and chaotic. The most noisy, dirty and chaotic character in the whole of Galway approached me and spoke to me directly face to face with maybe just a whisker between us. He was largely unintelligible and asked numerous questions one after the other. He would ask questions, often repeating earlier questions asked, before answers were given. Amongst the questions that I could make sense of were 'Where you from, where's your tent, where are you gonna sleep (spit), where's your tent'. Thankfully his final question was aimed at some guy coming out of a shop with cans of alcohol 'where's my change' and he disappeared from sight, just like that. I doubt he'll recall any of our interaction, however, Jamie and I will remember this fella for a while to come.

We were pleased to leave Galway and cycled until it was dark. We passed another cyclist who was looking for somewhere to stay despite carrying a light-weight tent with him. Why not camp?!

Tonight's sleep stop for us was another wild camp. We camped out under the stars in a church yard. This church, like virtually all others, was locked up at night. This was a cold and windy night and as per usual my air mattress kept de-flating. The anti-abortion poster made a good alternative mat for my sleeping bag though.

TransAtlantic Way Cycle Race Day 5

What a day, day 5 turned out to be! After a relatively good sleep (despite my air mat deflating time after time) we were up about 6 a.m. Initial plan for the day was to find a bike shop - a common theme for this adventure. Intelligence from Kay suggested there was a bike shop off-route but not so far away (relatively speaking). What else could we do, than venture out. There was a tiny amount of rain in the air this morning but not the 'wet stuff' we were warned about.

Is that an AT-AT or a water tower?

Star Wars was another theme for this adventure. We passed various sites where episodes were filmed.  We also spotted AT-AT's in the distance...

Day 5 (226k)

We developed a kinda un-written rule today and that was to stop for a stretch/feed/relax after every 25k. This pattern seemed to work out ok and helped the k's tick by as we cycled in a sort of time trial fashion to find the bike shop. Of course to find the bike shop we went off the official route. Those watching our 'dots' on the tracker system thought we had taken a wrong turn and various texts, emails and phone calls were made to us in an attempt to put us back on track. Thanks folks for that support, however, we had intentionally gone off route. Finding the bike shop was difficult - we went forward and back and up and around all near the Irish sea. We asked a few locals too and eventually found both the house where the bike shop guy lived and his bike shop too. Sadly, bike shop guy was not at home and his shop was closed. Oh well, the scenery was nice. Hmmm. Further intelligence from Kay indicated that there was another bike shop, namely 'Troy Cycle Service' some distance away in Newport. Nothing for it but to cycle speedy style again and head for Newport.

Time was an issue and we had added additional k's already. We took the decision to 'skip out' a little loop section (way less than 100k) and recover lost time to enable us to get to Troy's. We were aware that 'short sections could be missed, however, time penalties would be imposed'. We had never planned to win this race anyway and decided we were touring. The pace we were cycling at felt like race pace mind...

We reached Newport just fine - I think the dog that chased us both earlier in the day had helped us speed up. (I thought dogs were only a danger on the TransContinental race?!) Newport got me thinking about 'divide' all other again. This was down to the green post box I saw. Northern Ireland have red boxes.

A phone call was made to Troy, who was actually 'Chris' (Troy being his surname). He was super friendly on the phone and appeared to be multi-tasking with lots going on. Essentially he informed (something like) he had to go and pick his daughter up from school, do this, do that and then he'd happily come over to me and take a look at my wheel and would be here in about 1/2 hour. Jamie and I had tea and coffee and fodder in a nearby supermarket and sure to his word, Chris rocked up a short while later. Chris had a bag with him containing spokes and tools and looked at my wheel and assured he'd be able to fix it, no bother. He was in charge of taking care of his family and being full-time dad while his wife was away. He said (something like) he'd go and collect his daughter, do this, do that, come back and pick me up, take me to his home (some 4 miles away in the middle of no-where), fix my bike and drop me back. Wow.

Sure enough, Chris came back for me, with his daughter and took me to his wonderful home in rural Ireland. He learned a lot about me and the TAW cycle race and I learned a lot about him. Super clear was that he was an awesome helpful fella! Chris was also a super cyclist who had competed in no end of races and raced many parts of Ireland and England too. Chris had raced on road and the velodrome. Chris has raced at championship levels. No doubt about it - a real champ!

Chris Troy fixing my wheel

Chris had my wheel fixed in no time at all and provided me with 4 spare spokes should disaster strike again before the race was complete. It was so cool to see where he worked/lived and hear his stories and meet additional members of his family. Chris took me back to Newport with a fully functional bike (after his busy schedule of dropping his son off to play sport). Thank you Chris, top man!

Skeleton famine boat

Can't describe how happy both Jamie and I were after this meeting with Chris Troy. We spent the next section of our race cycling the 'Greenway' as advised by Chris and staying off the main road. Jamie must have spent at least the next hour listening to me sharing stories about Chris. Amongst all our joy and happiness though, there was a reminder that Ireland had experienced some sad times. We passed a 'skeleton famine boat'. Ireland had many memorials or similar to remind about the famine. I was quite ignorant to 'the famine' but remember hearing stories about potato's. Our visit to Ireland, enlightened me somewhat. History is important and I felt it only right that I paste some information I read on Wikipedia as follows: The Great Famine (Irish: an Gorta Mór, [anˠ ˈgɔɾˠt̪ˠa mˠoːɾˠ]) or the Great Hunger was a period of mass starvation, disease, and emigration in Ireland between 1845 and 1849.^[1] It is sometimes referred to, mostly outside Ireland, as the Irish Potato Famine, because about two-fifths of the population was solely reliant on this cheap crop for a number of historical reasons.^[2][3] During the famine, about one million people died and a million more emigrated from Ireland,^[4] causing the island's population to fall by between 20% and 25%.^[5]

The proximate cause of famine was potato blight,^[6] which ravaged potato crops throughout Europe during the 1840s. However, the impact in Ireland was disproportionate, as one third of the population was dependent on the potato for a range of ethnic, religious, political, social, and economic reasons, such as land acquisition, absentee landlords, and the Corn Laws, which all contributed to the disaster to varying degrees and remain the subject of intense historical debate.

The famine was a watershed in the history of Ireland,^[1] which was then part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. The famine and its effects permanently changed the island's demographic, political, and cultural landscape. For both the native Irish and those in the resulting diaspora, the famine entered folk memory^{[fn 1]} and became a rallying point for Irish nationalist movements. The already strained relations between many Irish and the British Crown soured further, heightening ethnic and sectarian tensions, and boosting Irish nationalism and republicanism in Ireland and among Irish emigrants in the United States and elsewhere.

This was definitely a truly awesome adventurous day. We cycled some amazing roads and had views that blew our minds. The kindness of strangers was humbling and greatly appreciated. The chasing of dogs was not so great and we were chased by dogs twice on this day. Another phenomenon we noted was that the big hills appeared to suck the clouds from the sky to cover their tops. Beautiful, stunning and kinda mysterious!

This stretch of our adventure was the most stunning scenery wise. Is hard to believe I took so few pictures as the whole entry into Connemara was stunning. Mind blowing, amazing, awesome. The mountains, the colours, the lakes, the textures - my words (or pictures) would never describe or show the true beauty of this place.

This day of cycling ended at checkpoint 2, a hostel in Leenane Connemara. Our brevet cards were stamped and we had a real bed (a bunk) to sleep in (in a dorm with about another 8 snoring and farting TAW cyclists). The midges here were a real menace but this mattered little as we were able to shower here. My shorts were so stinky that I showered wearing them too and gave them as good a clean as I could. All the folk in the dorm were sleeping with the lights on. I turned the lights off and tuned out. What a great day this was!

TransAtlantic Way Cycle Race Day 4

Day 4 (191k)

Day 4 was a difficult day. Difficult to remember the exact sequence of events. Difficult to make decisions when feeling an air of despair. Still pretty awesome mind and I came 10th overall on Acres descent! Just saying...

The day started well, although we were very tired. We went to bed past midnight last night and had awoken at 5:30 today. First plan was to cycle and find something to eat. Breakfast happened at a Spar store where we indulged on scrumptious scones and washed this down with hot beverages. At our breakfast stop we saw other riders come and go and one asked if we had done 'the loop'. Of course we hadn't, that was still some distance away.

See the bat cave?

The loop, like the name suggested, was an almost complete circular track that was very undulating in nature and very beautiful. The roads were clear and the views stunning. A bat cave could be seen cut out in the rock wall.

The weather was still great and it had not rained as yet. Chris Hodge et al had remarked 'why cycle Ireland it's all the same and you'll be very wet, need thermals and waterproofs' (paraphrased). Truth is, the scenery was ever changing - coastal one moment, mountainous the next, tarmac one minute, gravel the next and sun tan lotion was what we required not thermals and waterproofs. So there ;) !

Once the loop was complete we continued past an awesome looking rock face with a great crack or ridge cut through the middle. Jamie remarked it didn't look dissimilar to the crevice that could be seen through my Assos shorts. Both were windy!

Finding food proved to be a little more difficult today. Jamie convinced me that the Coolera House did food. We went inside and had a liquid diet and chat with the locals. (Of course we found lunch later and ate much salami, cheese, tuna, crisps, etc).

We had started to experience sore bottoms by this point in the adventure but found 'bum creme' worked wonders in keeping us on our saddles. Badger rub or rather Tiger Balm worked wonders on our sore muscles and better yet, it smelt awesome. We sniffed the stuff until we got high.

Our high didn't last forever. Oh no. Menace came in the form of not one, but 2 broken spokes for me. I think a little bit of panic and angst set in. I truly believe this was probably the lowest point of our adventure (short lived as it was). Making decisions became difficult and blurry. However, we agreed that 'sleeping on it' was probably a good idea and like 'that', boom, a suitable wild camp spot was spotted.

A perfect sheep barn, complete with palettes and straw/hey was found. A cosy, warm shelter. Just perfect for one (well two) to sleep and think up a master plan. What an awesome adventure this was!