Cycle Sportives

Tour of Ireland Cycle Challenge Report

Since I started cycling, I have always been looking for a challenge that pushes me that little bit harder; a challenge that forces me to train that little bit more and that, if I finish, provides me with a warm glow of satisfaction. Last year it was the Paris-Roubaix. Until I was within 20 miles of the end, I was uncertain as to whether I could finish. That was a challenge. This year it was the Tour of Ireland Cycle Challenge and it was an even greater challenge.

I had seen adverts for the 2008 ToICC on the cycling weekly website and when discussing 2009 events over dinner during the 2008 Tour of Wessex, some people on the next table overheard mention of the ToICC. They enthused about it. They had just completed it and praised the organisation and the route. I was sold.

For 2009, the time and the distance was increased to five days and 600 miles. The price also rose to 800 euros from 500 euros, which, when coupled with the devaluation of the pound, made it an expensive option for a number of those who had previously been interested. Family and work commitments whittled the numbers down further and, when it came to the event, only two people who I knew were still up for it. One was hippy and the other Ed Quinn.

Ed Quinn is an American of Irish extraction, living on Long Island New York. A little older than me, he is generally fit and has kick boxing classes once a week and goes to the gym. When he heard me talking about the event last autumn, he decided to come along to the “old country” and to bring his girl friend to drive the route in a hired car. He went out and bought a bike and, I am reliably informed rode it once or twice. A month before the event he called me to ask what it was with cleats and why did he keep falling over when he stopped. While worried for Ed, I was happy to know that I would not be the worst.

I had arranged for my wife Irene to join the tour as a helper on the feed stations. She was meant to study massage before we left but contrived to find reasons for not having done so.

I trained over the winter and through the spring. But not enough. I didn’t lose the weight that I had aimed to lose and then a month before the off I came off my bike and missed my training schedule for the long Easter weekend and hurried off on a calorific marketing trip to the US. My state was not ideal.

Packing was a challenge. How much of what did one need for five consecutive days on a bike? Assos cream was a must as was embrocation. Sadly my carefully left out chamois crème was “put away safely” and is still missing. Luckily Savlon was to hand.

We met hippy at Heathrow very early in the morning and also bumped into Pete from the Paris-Roubaix who was on a later flight. Irene’s bag was missing on disembarkation and only caught up with us on day 3 in Galway after a multitude of calls to Belfast, Heathrow and India. Cab into Belfast and we found the hotel ready for us. A walk around Belfast showed an industrial city with many red brick Victorian Mills. A fairly gloomy place surrounded by spectacular hills. A mountain looked ominously over the town. A search for Assos cream uncovered a run on the commodity and no joy. We met Ed at the hotel and went with him to pick up his bike which had been a little mangled on the flight. It was sorted.

A cab took us and our bikes to Lisburn where we registered, set us our bikes and ate and then back to the hotel in Belfast where we had some drinks. As we sat there, the bus with riders from Dublin arrived and at that moment, I knew there was something wrong. I have never seen such a collection of scrawny sunken cheeked men in one place at one time. This was hard core.