mizen-malin.org
2002 REPORT, Day 1
Wednesday 7 August 2002
Mizen Head to Limerick
At Mizen Head, L-R Manny, Joe, Erwin, Kieran, Philip, Robert and Ewart, calm before the storm? Ready to start!
After breakfast the minibus was loaded up and the short drive made to Mizen Head for the start, slightly behind scheduled time.
This
was the first day of our cycle for 2002; I was not sure what would happen on the
days ahead. We started of our day with a very good breakfast which was just what
the doctor ordered, we then proceeded on to Mizen Head. We started of the day with
some of the guy’s having punctures I think 4 in total before we got a few miles
down the road. We went down to the Head, for a photo at the suspension
bridge, and walked/cycled up to the information centre for or start.
Bang puncture one, Bang puncture two, and Bang 3 it was now well behind schedule
and we were not out of the car park at Mizen Head. It was cold at the start but we soon warmed up this was going to
be the worst day because of the miles 133 miles in total.
We
left the Head, passed through Goleen, on our way to Durrus, the minibus and cars
got left behind for a while. The council were doing up the road, we
managed to get by on the bikes, some how with all the stone chips we remained
puncture free. We
had agreed that because we were over an hour behind schedule, to stop early, we
went around 35 miles and stop at a little picnic area between Dirmoleague
and Dunmanway, for our first main/planned stop. (We had hoped to have gone on to
about 40 miles, for our first stop, but this did not happen.) We stopped for about an hour, by this
time we were able to see how well the training had been going for everybody before this week.
We
then headed on for another lot of miles from Kilmchael, then another puncture
was had by Ewart, he
was none too pleased at all, he suffered 4 punctures by this time. Robert
and the car remained behind to assist, as the minibus and the rest of us headed
towards Macroom.
We headed on next Coachford, this was quite a rough road by this time we got some down hills they were not to bad but after every down hill there is an up hill some looked very steep. Robert and Ewart and the car finally caught up with us, they had averaged around 22mph to reach us. We stopped for a short stop to take on water (and get rid of some), a short breather and of again towards Mallow (we were about half way). We then planned to have our second main stop in Mallow. We stopped at a filling station for some more refreshments, for about an hour again.
By this time I was getting a little anxious about
the time we had been cycling for because we had still around 40 miles to go before
Limerick the time was about 16:00, pain was starting for some of the guy’s,
tightening up and a few saddle sores.
As we started on the next and last part of the day for Limerick City (I hoped) the weather was blowing a head wind in the direction we were travelling. By now we were starting to work as a team which was needed to keep every ones sprit up, this was not to be by the time we got to Charlieville. We had 2 of our fellow cyclist and the car missing. They had been out of radio range a while back, but a shout on the phone that they were on their way. We waited and were then to find out that Manny got an leg injury which we were told to be very painful, and could hardly move his leg. We stopped for a while to see if Manny leg would ease.
After all was said and done we headed on to Limerick the wind was still blowing the wrong way the last 20 miles, nearly all of us was getting tired, we tried to keep tucked up because of the wind. but we struggled on, it was about 2100 by the time we got into Limerick
We loaded all into the minibus and car and went to the B&B.
We had to many stops and were over 2 hours behind plan, but most of the lads who had not cycled that distance before had a sense of achievement along with the aches and pains.
Yes the next
thing was to get cleaned up and somewhere to get a good meal.
THE NEXT MORNING WOULD TELL ITS TAIL
(saddle sore’s)