Saturday, 11th February, 2017.
Weather: severe cold with strong north-east wind.
Our February long spin headed towards Kilkenny on a cold windy morning. Tom, Declan and I were accompanied by Tony on his maiden Audax 180k. Fortunately we also had the company of Ray, Johnny and Benny for the initial 40k to Waterford. This turned into a 50k spin because Declan broke a pedal (right pedal to be precise) and after a few kilometres of pedal-in pedal-out, he decided to divert home for a replacement. The rest of the group cycled on to Griffin’s Garage and turned right to meet with him again just at Five Cross Roads. The three lads doing the shorter spin were very good to us, staying on the front for the entire journey to Waterford while we sat protected from the wind, avoiding exposure as much as possible
As they turned for home, we realised how much work they had done and how much work lay ahead of us. In fact, having negotiated our way through the city, we faced an even stronger headwind for a full 50k to Ballyhale, Stoneyford and Kilkenny. For this section we decided to ride single-file so that three would be able to shelter behind the leader, and we rotated every few minutes. Anyone who has cycled this road will know that it is very slightly uphill for the first 20k, but there is a lovely slight descent most of the way to Kilkenny after that.
Tired and cold, we sat in for a beautiful lunch at an Italian restaurant just beside the Nore bridge in the city centre. How lovely to be served good fresh food rather than pre-cooked fare. Each of us had soup followed by lasagna, and departed for the return journey in good spirits. The fantastic tailwind blew us on towards Callan and Carrick, and as soon as we reached the top of the climb at Crehana we knew it was plain sailing from there. On the final leg we ramped up the pace a bit to Durrow and once we viewed the sea at Ballyvoile we pushed on harder still to the finish.
Distance 190km in approx 7h 30m.
Be safe out there,
Páraig
About: – Páraig is the author of BurkesBiking. He has completed many 200k events, and is hoping to try Audax Ireland long-distance cycling up to 600k. If there’s any time to spare, Paraig also has a gardening blog at Petals by Paraig.
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