Club Spin 2nd June

I would like to declare that no animals were hurt during last Saturday’s spin but that simply wasn’t the case. The advanced group had a good strong bunch of ten hardy riders taking advantage of what turned out to be the best weather we’d see until Monday. An incident ridden spin of rabid animals and tough climbs that I’m sure left everyone feeling a little fragile come Saturday evening.

Leaving Park Vale we nominated Kevin as route-master in what turned out to be a fatal error for us and some of the local wildlife as he led us into the hills before most of us had even woken up. After avoiding a potentially bad incident with a merc that overtook the group as they were turning right we proceeded with a fast climb up Burrow Road towards Johnny Fox’s. This early climb got heart rates and lactic acid raging before heading on the beautiful Ballybrack Road, taking in the landscape before descending Pine Forest Road.

Another incident was narrowly avoided as a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel was let run across the road by a dim witted owner. As I hurtled toward the pooch I the choice of swerving violently, locking up and risking taking down the other 8 riders behind me or just keep going straight for the dog and see what happens. I chose the latter and the dog managed to scurry away terrified. Literally millimetres from my front wheel.

Hoping that would be the last incident we headed up Cruach Road for Kilakee Road then descending into Bohernabreena where an unlucky rat met a gruesome end of decapitation from my back wheel. I assured his family afterwards it was a quick and painless death. On the same descent yet another dog caused Colm and Darragh a bit of a skirmish.

After a quick regroup we headed back up towards Military Road in the longest and by far the most difficult climb of the day with some sections hitting 14% and 16%. As we rolled onto Military Road, broken men, we only had 30kms done and we had been cycling for 90 minutes. It was clear that Kevin’s route was definitely going hurt.
A descent down by Crone Woods and then more climbing was in store as crawled up the Wall and onto Djouce followed by a fast run into Roundwood for light refreshments and some banter.

The weather started to turn as we did a loop from Anamoe to Roundwood and everyone’s legs started to really it feel as we turned big gears into a nasty headwind with more dogs on our tails. The descent to Kilmacanogue was welcomed but Kevin had one last little dig in store for us as we went up again from Fassaroe and over the Scalp.
We all just missed the rain and everyone put in a tough 4+ hours on the bike that will no doubt stand to us in the upcoming Sportives.

To all the dogs that chased us I would like to dedicate this song to you…
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