Given the race didn’t start until 11am, we were able to have a little lie in before arising and getting ready. I remember recalling how I should remember the feeling of being in a warm bed when waking as it may keep my morale up when I no doubt would have a low moment during the ride. After a hearty breakfast and trying to calm the nerves, my Mum and cousin, Arabella, thought we should have a photoshoot to best capture the moment, Jack nor I were too enthused at the idea given our minds were on the race, but we abided. We were well stocked food-wise going into the race as I had asked Mum if she could make us some sandwiches before the race so that our food supply would be plentiful before setting off. I didn’t think we were breaking any of the self-supported rules of the race, given this was happening before the race started. So Mum fired up the process line and made Jack and me an absolute mound of sandwiches that would definitely keep us going for at least a day. I’d once read about a ultra-endurance cycling that it is essentially an eating competition with some cycling thrown in, and we reckoned we’d be burning approximately 5,000 calories a day, so the sandwiches were well received and, as we would find out later on, would gain some notoriety amongst the race organisers.
We packed up and headed to the start location. There was a live trad’ band playing, and all the other riders were milling around signing on to the race and anxiously waiting to start. After a brief interview on Facebook Live with the race staff, we waited for our wave of riders to set off. The solo riders set off alphabetically, while all the pairs would start in the last wave. Jack and I started eyeing up the competition at that point. While the TAW isn’t necessarily a race, there’s obviously inherent competition amongst the riders. There were nine other pairs in the race, so we fancied our chances, despite being on Bromptons (which were gaining us much respect amongst the other riders). My brother (Simon), his partner (Pamela), and my niece (Ava) also joined us at the start to wish us luck, as did Arabella, who would essentially act as our doctor (which she is) for the race. We would continually message her throughout with questions on drug use and how to fix our ailments on the road. Pamela handed me a little bottle of whiskey to help us through the particularly low moments or for some extra warmth if the going got cold! I packed it away, ready for emergencies.
So it began. After some standing around waiting for your wave to start, we were off! With a last goodbye to my family, we rolled off with Adrian leading our wave off. He peeled off once we hit the main road as he would be meeting us at the first check point in Derry. We were following a route which we had created using Strava and it was 232km to the Peace Bridge in Derry and we settled into it. There was much excitement in the first 30km as there were riders everywhere and good banter between us all and some lighthearted insults being thrown around. Eventually as we progressed, all the riders split off, each taking their own routes to Derry which they had planned. At this point, both Jack and I started getting gear issues, which was far from ideal after only just starting. We both difficulty getting into our middle cassette, so we only had a high or low gear, as our derailleur limiter screws were coming loose. Our gearing system was largely 3D printed given they were prototypes, so we were quite on edge about them and how they’d last. We’d decided before the race that since we needed the wide gear ratios that this new system offered, it was worth the risk to use the prototype gearing. As a precaution, we had packed a spare gearing system, such was our worry. We fidgeted a few times with the gearing system, but after a while, both of them seemed to adjust themselves and worked flawlessly after that.
The ride to Derry was uninspiring for the most part in that it was mostly rolling green fields, I think we were just yearning to get onto the Wild Atlantic Way and see some coastline. We had a tail wind for much of the day and, combined with our freshness, made great time. Part of us knew that maybe we were going too hard too early in the race, and maybe it was inexperience in riding ultra-endurance events, but with hindsight, we should have eased up a bit on the first day. Even when we stopped to buy food in a shop, or grab a sandwich from our bags, we were fretting about time and rushing off. Anything above 5-10 minutes felt like too long to be stopped, and we were being left behind by the other racers, which is ironic as when compared with later on in the race, we would easily stop and waste an hour, and not particularly care. Tiredness is quite affective it seems.
There were two incidents worthy of mention before arriving into Derry. First a driver overtook us and came to a stop in front of us, obviously trying to stop us. We initially thought it was a driver looking for a fight, or who had a hatred for cyclists. It turned out he had found a phone on the road and seeing all the riders on the road, thought it belonged to a rider of the event and if there was anywhere I could hand it into staff. I took it from him and said I’d hand it in at the checkpoint in Derry. I proceeded to forget to hand it in and carried the phone with me all the way to the second checkpoint! The other incident was a when another TAW rider crashed beside us. He had just caught up with us and we were coming down a descent and chatting with him when caught the verge of the road as he kept going straight when the road was turning. He came down hard and we stopped to help him up. He had come down on his knee hard and I thought I could see what cartilage in the cut which isn’t good. With the adrenaline he was able to keep going but looked to be in pain. He told us to go on and that he would reassess with the race staff at the first checkpoint. We carried on and later found out that he went to Derry hospital, got it all cleaned up in A&E, and then proceeded to complete the whole race on it!
We arrived at the Peace bridge at 20:30 where we proceed to get our brevet cards stamped by the race staff, after a brief chat with them, we carried on, looking out for somewhere where we could grab some dinner and supplies and push to the 300km distance marker. We found a shop just outside of Derry and grabbed some sandwiches. As we ate this cold and forlorn dinner outside the shop, a man started chatting with us, asking us what we were doing, why and with some confusion. He then offered us a bed to sleep in for the night, but we kindly declined as we weren’t allowed to accept outside assistance.
We had been told Donegal would be hilly, steep and likely the toughest part of the whole ride (having scuppered many riders’ races in the previous editions of the TAW), and coming out of Derry, it became evident why. After following the first bit of coast outside Derry for 40km (and officially starting the Wild Atlantic Way), we took a left turn and were hit with a brute of a climb that was steep and long. Again, given our freshness, we ground our way up the climb, not thinking about our knees or the rest of the race that we would need to preserve our body for. At this point, the sun was setting, but as it was early June and we were more north than normal, there was exceptionally good light which lasted until we finished up that night. After that first brutal climb, there were a series of steep climbs that we ground our way up, but the problem was that on the descents, which were also very steep, we were constantly on the brakes and watching were you were going, which in itself is tiring, so we didn’t even have an opportunity to recover on the downhills before the next climb announced itself.
Once we reached about 290km, I was feeling the day’s ride and handed in my resignation letter for the day to Jack, saying I was spent. Jack insisted that we push on to at least Malin Head (Ireland’s most northerly point), before calling it quits, which would be a good mental goal, as we would reach a significant geographical marker and get over the 300km barrier, which we had been aiming for every day. He also made the point that we were fresh now and should capitalise on it, that we’d be wrecked later on in the race anyway, so we should make the most of that freshness now. At the time, I was displeased and just wanted to stop, but with hindsight, it was the right call and we pushed on.
When we reached Malin Head (haven ridden 307km), we started looking for a spot to set up our bivvy tents and grab some sleep. At this point it was 00:30, so we were feeling the day’s effort. At Malin Head, there were a number of concrete huts, which I presumed had been used as lookout shelters back in the day, which we scoped out and found a cosy little one that could fit two weary travellers perfectly. What was even better was that it kept us out of the wind and covered if there was any rain during the night. So, we set up and were getting into our bags when a face appeared at one of the huts openings. At first, I thought it was somebody telling us to get off their property (wild camping is illegal in Ireland, and while we planned for the most part to sleep rough were the opportunity presented itself, we knew that it was illegal, but given we would generally be setting up late and setting off early, we didn’t think it would prove an issue), but it was actually a curious local. What he was doing at Malin Head at 00:30 in the evening, I have no idea, but similar to the guy at the shop earlier on in the day, he was curious as to what we were up to. Once we explained, he offered us a bed for the night down the road, which we kindly declined, again, staying in the spirit of the race and not accepting outside assistance. So off he went, and we settled down for the night, only after drinking my pint of whole fat Irish milk to aid recovery, which would be my routine every evening.
Distance (km): 307.49
Elevation (m): 3,206
Moving Time (hh:mm:ss): 11:46:59
Elapsed Time (hh:mm:ss): 13:33:06
Moving Time Percentage: 86.95%
Average Speed (km/h): 26.1
Calories: 7,176
Average Heart Rate (bpm): 135
Strava Link: https://www.strava.com/activities/2431860850
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