Ultracycling

Thank you, very kind! I would add that was 7th finsher in what was a small event with an even smaller pool of people treating it as a race but i’ll take it! So much happened over the 2,400km, far more than a post, but will give a bit of a summary. For anyone who has it on their to do list, I’d highly reccomend it!

Ireland definitely delivered and the west coast certaintly lived up to the ‘Wild Atlantic Way’ name. On the occasions where I could lift my head up without getting battered by wind and rain the scenery was incredible with more variation than I was expecting. Passing through 10 counties you could really see the changes in the coastline, plants and animals as you contiuned further south.

The first two days were a tough start, plenty of punchy climbs, horrednous headwind with sideways rain and a longer gravely/off road section. The headwind was making some 3% climbs feel more like 20% and I walked a few short sections as it felt like a more conservative use of energy while maintaing essentially the same speed. It wasn’t all doom and gloom though, I think almost everyday I would go from wearing almost full winter kit to getting sun burned with the sunny sections standing out way more in my memory now its over. Gap of Dunloe was pretty character building with some truly atroicus weather. I was pretty envious when I saw photos of riders having a great time with no wind and blue skies in the hours either side of when I went through. One plus is the wind helped keep the clouds moving so if you did get stuck in a downpour you knew it wouldn’t last all day.

My plan going into it was keep it fun and get round safe. To try make this happen I wanted to ride all day while allowing enough time to chill a bit at the end of each day and get a minimum of 6 hours sleep. This kept me averaging not far from 300km a day, sometimes less, sometimes a bit more. All going to plan until the 6th day when I crashed in the morning losing my front wheel in a sea of deep potholes and gravel (I was too busy watching a deer in the field next to me). This left me and the bike a bit battered, no more front shifting and a slightly less functional body. Feeling sorry for myself that night I checked into a B&B to have my first night in a proper bed and a bit of a reset. After a longer sleep and a decent breakfast I got the bike working again and was able to continue just at a slightly slower pace.

Overall, I was super happy with my bike set up and packing. Tent and mat in a rubble sack strapped to the top of the rear rack. Then two ortleib fork bags on either side, one for clothes and one for sleeping bag. Felt sooo much less faffy than typical bikepacking bags and think I saved a noticeable amount of time each day not playing tetris to get saddle and bar bags properly packed and secured. Rubble sack and velcro starps is the future! Used the tent a good few nights, audax hotels, a hostel and a B&B.

Oh and the amount of random loops and out and backs down peninsulas was actually less soul destroying than it looks on paper. The detours were mostly worth it and it was a great opportunity to visit dead end car parks with the occasional lighthouse, what a treat.