Angel of Mons

by Stuart 25. January 2014 08:03

A nice interesting route.  I was glad to have carried a spare set of clothes with me.  RRTY month one complete.

The ride down!

Actually I didn't ride down - in a change of tactic I decided to get the Air Coach to Dublin Airport.

In a classic start to the day I rode down to the Coach stop @5am – stood around for a while and then, noticing there was no one else, realised I was on the wrong street.

Moved to the right street, coach arrived and I put my bike in the hold.  As you can see from the track, I forgot to reset my gps – but it was paused so the totals are correct.

Within ten minutes or so I was asleep.

To the start

Arrived Dublin T2.  Journey to Whitehall church was simple enough and I managed not to get lost.  Arrived @ start with plenty of time and not as tired as usual, which was good.

I was surprised to see 40 or so other riders – I thought there would be ten at most!

To Skerries

There was a quick tour of Dublin.  The fools let me navigate for a while but it was good to get a stint at the front with fresh legs and the stop start of Dublin ensuring nothing was too fast.

When we turned around the back of the airport (2’nd visit of the day) towards St. Margarets we felt the full blast of the winds gusting to 35mph.

Luckily it was fairly sheltered from there on and I hung on to the front group, using my usual tactic of sticking with the pack to the first control.

I stopped for a call of nature just short of Skerries.  When I got in and got my coffee and bun, the pack was about to leave.  I knew I wasn’t fit to continue at their pace so I let them go. 

To Drogheda

Marc K and Aidan C were around so we set off together.

Shortly after the heavens opened and the wind was cutting us it to.  We elected to stop and shelter but saw nowhere suitable so drove on.

The shower was brief as the clouds were moving rapidly in the string winds that were now alternately buffeting us from the side or slapping us in the face.

We lost Marc somewhere along the way.  When we got to Drogheda, I suggested a McDonalds which would be quick and dry.  It was very busy bit we were in and out in half an hour or so.

To Slane

We continued up the coast.  I found this hard going as the wind was really annoying and the stretch to Castlebellingham was the low point for me.

However, when we got there we spotted Marc in a cosy looking café by a log fire.  We joined him and were soon joined by others.

A quick coffee and some warmth cheered us and we set off with four or five in the group for Slane.  We had turned so the wind was, if not with us, not completely against us.

The road became a bit lumpy too – which I prefer.

At about 3pm the heavens opened.  I made the call to “cape up”, and it was a good one.  Rain, hail and sleet followed.

In Slane’s chippy we feasted and I changed into dry clothes.  I think I could have got a couple of hundred Euros for my dry gloves.

On to Dublin

We faffed a while before leaving.  We had one GPS between 4.  Turned out that was out of charge so we went off route a bit.  I hadn’t bothered to put batteries in my head torch.  Marc decided to drive into a hole while pressing buttons on his GPS and punctured

I connected up my battery pack and Marc rebooted his and we were back in business.

I’d forgotten how nice a night ride could be and, with a tailwind, we made good progress back to Dublin.  Probably the nicest section of the day.

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