Wicklow 200
Carn
Wheelers at the Wicklow200 in 2014
The word Wicklow comes from the Viking language and means
Viking Meadow, so after our Roman adventure in Inishowen last year, we decided
that we should go Viking in Wicklow.
(viking -- biking, get it, eh, eh).
In the old language, the county name is Chill Mhantáin, which means the church of Mantan,
who was a disciple of Saint Patrick
-- it’s nice to visit other
places that have an association with our great saint (i.e. this author’s own people are also linked
to a disciple of Patrick).
Actually it was George Mimnagh that started the whole thing
off, telling us we would just have to do the Wicklow 200 this year. It was therefore really unfortunate that
George could not actually do the run himself.
He had to pull out at the very last minute, having suffered a hamstring
blow while out waltzing and quickstepping his bike around Torr Head. (Here’s wishing George a speedy recovery.)
I always thought that Wicklow was just a wee county south of
Dublin, until I discovered that the Wicklow Mountains range is the largest
continuous upland region in Ireland, and on Sunday we got to see most of that
upland close up.
We had trained hard for this event, with lots of long and
hilly outings, done mostly in the rain.
As it turned out, those wet days were the ideal preparation for the
meteorological conditions we faced in Wicklow.
In Viking mythology, Ragnarök
is the story of a great battle held up in the mountains and ended up with the
world being submerged totally in water. I
closely monitored the 5 day forecast from Wednesday onwards, and it predicted
that there could indeed be a damp Ragnarok in store for us on Sunday. In a way I was glad because we had not put in
much practice in sunny weather and I was afeared we might not be able to cope
with a build up of sweat and sunburn.
But, as it turned out, we did indeed have to battle with great hills and
had our feet (and other parts) drownded in water.
But enough about Wicklow history and geography and onto the cycling.
With an early start required in order to complete the
grueling 125 mile, 9300 foot cycle, we decided to travel down the night before,
staying in Bray. We were all that
excited that none of us got much sleep on the Friday night. On the Saturday morning before we left
Maghera, it turns out we were all suffering from excitedness – pacing
up&down, cleaning the bike, pacing up&down, shining the bike, pacing
up&down, taking the baby wipes out to the bike again. The excitement continued and our Saturday
night in Bray offered little more meaningful kip for most of us, apart from
Adrian, who slept like a baby. My old
mother used to say that there is no pillow as soft as a clear conscience, and
so it is, I believe, the fact that Adrian knew he had all his training done
that he could rest easy, turn up on the day and just do it.
Off to the starting point in Greystones at 6:15am. The huge crowds (3000 entries) meant a slight
delay for us getting parked, and checked in, but we were ready for the off at about
twenty five past seven.
I must say, we looked an absolute beautiful spectacle as we
stood for the pre-cycle photo, with our Carn Wheeler kit on, and our gleaming
bikes. We even had a supply of wee paper
Carn Wheeler flags which we mounted onto the back of our saddle bags and
helmets. With great joy and collective
excitement, we hit the road.
About 500 yards up the road and we had our first
downpour. Our bikes became dirty with
road grit and brake pad debris, and our wee flags disintegrated.
Throughout the day we had, I would reckon, half a dozen
really good downpours in between the showers, but I must say, at no stage did I
hear anyone muttering that they wished they were anywhere else.
Our support vehicle (Tony’s van, driven by Fiona and
co-piloted by Sinead) was an invaluable asset to us. As an example, when we reached Baltinglass,
there was an official food-stop. But we
were able to cycle past the long queue, right up to where the van was parked,
and immediately get tucked into our own sandwiches, tea, etc. Brilliant.
I do remember it actually NOT raining in Baltinglass, and I
do remember our of the lads saying that surely that was the rain over for the
day, and that he would put on a dry pair
of cycling socks. The rest of the squad
joked at him but really they were inwardly jealous, and him gloating with his
dry toes. Well anyway, off we set and
before we had hit the 30 out of the town the rain was on again and his feet
were soon as wet as anybody elses.
Here is a list of just some of the hills we encountered:
·
Glen of the Downs
·
Kilmacanage
·
Wicklow Gap
·
Slieve Corragh
·
Carricknamweel
·
Slieve Maan
·
Glenmalure
·
Avoca Glen
·
Ballindarrig and Ballinacor
Some great wee drags in there, e.g. Wicklow Gap at near 5
miles, Slieve Maan about 4 miles and Shea Elliot Glenmalure Assent being 2
miles at 10%.
I think I’d have to give the Polka Dot jersey to Tony. He flew up them hills like that famous
Wicklow speedster, Eddie Jordan.
I would swear that Jim got stronger as the hills kept
coming. He was telling me he wants to
loose a wee bit of weight to help his cycling, but today, he was definitely
punching above his weight, like that famous Wicklow warrior, Katie Taylor.
(I know a few other famous Wicklow people but I just can’t be
weaving them all into this story).
Down into Avoca and Barney had to get the whole crew halted
while he got his photo taken outside Fitzgeralds – the Ballykissangel pub. He was saying that the whole inside of the
pub had changed since the days that Assumpta used to pull one for Father
Clifford.
I think the smell of the stout coming wafting out of
Fitzgerald’s door was enough to give Vinney the wee iron boast he needed at the
time. On Saturday evening, he had very
successfully negotiated the fine line between consuming too little Guinness
(and not getting the full benefit of its strength and iron absorption) and
consuming too much Guinness (and ending up being drained of all iron and
anything else you might have inside you).
That couple of lung fills, and Vinney was ready to take us out of the
Avoca Glen and on towards the finish line.
The rest of us just sucked on one of George’s gels.
Now, even though I had not mentioned the Viking theme to
anyone during the cycle run, I know that at least some of the others were
thinking along the same lines.
With 100 miles done Anthony roared "I,
am Thor, sitting on this bike!”. I was
thinking that, even though doing a century is always a big milestone and cause
for a celebratory outburst, it was a wee bit pompous of Anthony to be comparing
himself to the mighty Thor sitting on a big white steed.
I did not quite get Ciaran’s comment "More shammy cream, perhaps?”.
Over the last climb and the heavens were eventually empty, and with no more rain we engaged the famous Carn
Wheeler tight, two line, up&over formation and we had a pleasant and
triumphant 20 mile run back to the finish line and that was us.
Into the leisure center to clock-off and pick up our
certificates and medals. The medals are
said to be made of pure gold, with just a thin veneer of stainless steel for
durability purposes. As I watched the
lovely assistant place the medal around his neck, I knew Decky had just got
himself another great sporting award to proudly rest along with his two All-Irelands
for Tyrone.
Not all participants this year were as determined as our
lads – see the below report from the Irish Times where quite a few cyclists
seem to have cut short their 200KM trip:
Well done to Adrian, Anthony, Barney, Ciaran, Decky, Jim,
Tony and Vincent on completing this challenging pedal. A huge thanks to the support team, Fiona and
Sinead, who shadowed our route and were on hand with food and water, and to
Clare and wee Dáithí who were there with us to make
this a really great and enjoyable weekend.
Well done to all.
PS, I would highly recommend the Martello Hotel (http://www.themartello.ie) to anyone
wanting to stay the night in Bray. The
rooms have everything you would need, the food is both delicious and reasonably
priced, and the staff and extremely friendly and helpful. Bray itself is a lovely place, but if you should wish to travel further
afield, the hotel is only a short walk away from the train station, so very
handy for taking the Dart into Dublin.
