Post by Stevo on Jun 24, 2013 10:09:08 GMT
In typical irish style the morning of the sperrin MTB started wet, windy and cold, a theme to continue for the whole duration of the ride. Meeting at Moneymore 109 nutters including Bigfoot, Cormac and a friend Brian with myself headed into the driving rain, laughed at by my wife and children.
bit of a road warmup before the climb of 1000 foot up slieve Gallion by the rocky track. where I punctured, Niall and I repaired it quickly and set off again, up to near the top before turning left at the water stop for a even more damp sojourn over landscape 10% moss 90% water, picture the scene cycle , swear, shriek and fall off, this pattern continued for myself al too often including a fall into a 2foot deep pond when my cleats would not release, so waterproof coat and water repellent shorts or not, submersion in water causes wetness and so I paddled my way onward dragging more and more weeds along with me in the spokes and deraillieurs. Eventually we reached the road with Niall having no - offs and cormac and Brian minimal ones.
up over the road and onto the steepest climb of the day over to the forest above lough fea, only one fall for me this time, then past the quarry. by this time I was cold damp and really peed off with the cleats, also our brakes seemed to find the volume of water a problem and stopping was impacted a bit. Eventually we reached Davagh, where my pedals were adjusted a bit and we took to the trails - quite reminicent of Castlewellan but rougher, so our arms and wrists took a bit of a pounding. after a couple more falls we escaped davagh and headed down to Lissan house where I completed the 7th fall of the day, much to bigfoots amusement.
and on the last 2 miles the sun came out and steam started to rise from us all.
Back safely at base a great meal of cajun chicken burger, chips salad and coffee I felt as good as new.
Really well marked course this year and good organisation.
feeling a few bruises today, but after 7 falls not as bad as I expected - thanks to the sperrins softness.
55Km done on blue route (one lap of Davagh) so a good tough days riding.
bit of a road warmup before the climb of 1000 foot up slieve Gallion by the rocky track. where I punctured, Niall and I repaired it quickly and set off again, up to near the top before turning left at the water stop for a even more damp sojourn over landscape 10% moss 90% water, picture the scene cycle , swear, shriek and fall off, this pattern continued for myself al too often including a fall into a 2foot deep pond when my cleats would not release, so waterproof coat and water repellent shorts or not, submersion in water causes wetness and so I paddled my way onward dragging more and more weeds along with me in the spokes and deraillieurs. Eventually we reached the road with Niall having no - offs and cormac and Brian minimal ones.
up over the road and onto the steepest climb of the day over to the forest above lough fea, only one fall for me this time, then past the quarry. by this time I was cold damp and really peed off with the cleats, also our brakes seemed to find the volume of water a problem and stopping was impacted a bit. Eventually we reached Davagh, where my pedals were adjusted a bit and we took to the trails - quite reminicent of Castlewellan but rougher, so our arms and wrists took a bit of a pounding. after a couple more falls we escaped davagh and headed down to Lissan house where I completed the 7th fall of the day, much to bigfoots amusement.
and on the last 2 miles the sun came out and steam started to rise from us all.
Back safely at base a great meal of cajun chicken burger, chips salad and coffee I felt as good as new.
Really well marked course this year and good organisation.
feeling a few bruises today, but after 7 falls not as bad as I expected - thanks to the sperrins softness.
55Km done on blue route (one lap of Davagh) so a good tough days riding.
to all the MTB gang who took part in the Sperrin MTB Sportive. It looks like you all had a very hard day under harsh weather conditions. Did Niall's bike stay in one piece and was it the same course as last year?
