Rock stars still on tour, and weekend ride

Glo flew home yesterday, Ken and I are catching a midday flight to France.

Ireland has been great - people, riding, food, scenery. Reasonable costs as well. In fact the quality and price of food was exceptional. B&b's for 30euro including a cooked breakfast and no trouble getting in.
From Liscannor in Clare we rode north through Galway to Connemarra for a couple of days before meeting up with t&t again. The booked accommodation was pretty awful so we all moved to Donegal before heading to Pettigoe which is on the edge of Northern Ireland. Connemarra and Donegal are fairly remote with lots of undulations but nothing too strenuous in terms of riding. We rode to Omagh in Northern Ireland on one day and another day when it didn't stop raining we drove to the top to stand in the rain and look at the devil's causeway. Northern Ireland accents were very hard to understand, and they had a bit of trouble with us as well!

From Petigoe t&t went to Belfast while we headed back to Dublin. I had a choice of two gears at this stage as my right hand shifter had spat the dummy. Had to work a bit harder and judge the hills better to make sure I didn't run out of steam before the top - was interesting a couple of times but generally made the top ok.
We tried to follow the Royal Canal into Dublin for the last few days but the surface varied from bitumen to grass to mud to large sharp stones so we gave up on it and followed the back roads into Dublin.
Had a couple of days to pack bikes and for Glo to recover before going back to work.
All up 1660km or so in a bit over 3 weeks, one puncture and one lever malfunctioning. Ireland drivers are as good as the French, if not better. Didn't see many other touring cyclists but there certainly are a lot of cyclists riding in the rain in Dublin. Dublin has a reasonable network of cycle tracks as well.
All in all an excellent month of touring. Glo might tell you something different when she gets back but she rode really strongly especially on the hills after her spin classes. We were all getting a bit tired by the last few days.

Now for France.

Andy.

Hi all,

A ride is planned from Lancefield tomorrow at 9am. Usual drill.

Steve