Stephen Roche led the massive field of some 4000 riders out of Belfast from the front. Setting a strong tempo he strung the field out well, given the rider numbers this helped with the safety of the start.
It was pretty sociable with people changing up at the front and just before the first major climb at Slieve Croob. I mentioned to Dave Hamilton the descent was pretty quick and I was gonna push on to go down it in a smaller group Xeno Young set the pace up it with myself Dave and Mark Kane going over the top with him. We were joined after the descent by a larger group of around 20 and it was pretty sociable and easy to spelga.
I fancied a good hard blast up the spelga climb more for training than anything, Mark Kane followed with Dave Hamilton, Glenn Kinning and Gareth Murray not far behind. On the last climb back up Slieve Croob for the return leg we were all running on empty few attacks over the top meant we didn’t take the detour for the final food stop for any supplies. I had used up my last bottle an hour ago and there was 30 more miles to go haha. It started to tell its tale in the last 25km when Dave and Mark attacked, Glenn/Gareth were empty and I wasn’t much better. I tried to ride back over but after holding the gap at around 20-30 seconds for 7 miles the cramp and dehydration set in and I couldn’t put much effort to the pedals, the power went way down.
For the final 5 miles I had my own motorbike police escort into Belfast as I was on my own. Fully closed roads, loads of people out standing cheering it was pretty awesome.
It was beer and wine after in the massive exhibition hall people were rolling in some 4 hours after we had finished and I spoke to a number of them and they had a buzz about them like they had climbed Everest, it was great to see.
Definitely one of the best days on a bike I have had. We were never really racing very seriously until the last. When you throw a finish line in there your going to get a bit of a sprint for the line, and that was the same for the first two guys right down to people rolling in with a few mates hours later looking for bragging rights to needle each other over a few beers that would soon follow. The reality out on the course was very much a fun day out, with a few blasts up the major climbs for training.
As expected a number of "racers" were quick to point out on various social media "it's not a race" etc etc, point is the day was whatever you wanted it to be. I can imagine some of the stronger regular sportive/fondo riders were enjoying trying to follow a few of the regular racers antics at times, and we probably made the day more interesting to those folks also. As for me, I got way more out of the day than I expected and I will definitely be back.
There was a massive amount of volunteers on the route and the PSNI did a great job it must also be said. Thanks to all that helped make the day what it was.
Some stats from the ride:
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| Hard day in the saddle... |
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| Starting from Titanic Belfast |
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| Stephen Roche just in front of me (Winner of the Giro d'Italia 1987) |
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| A super light Giant TCR road bike made the climbs much easier thanks Caldwell Cycles Omagh |
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| Stephen Roche leading 4000 riders out of Belfast |
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| Sonia, Wendy and Cayman |
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| Sonia at Spelga |
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| Myself, Mark Kane and David Hamilton |
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| Add caption |
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| Ride done and off to enjoy the post event drinks and food with past team mates/friends |
