KILDORRERY CYCLING CLUB MEMBER TAKES ON CONNAUGHT 600 AUDAX
Kildorrery Cycling Club member, Vincent Guerin took on the Connaught 600 Audax earlier this month – a challenging long-distance cycling not for the faint-hearted. Part of his qualification for Paris-Brest-Paris, he spent just under 38 hours in the saddle and recounts his journey for readers here.
‘In the lead up to last weekend, all eyes in Ballina were on the Joe show. For anyone taking on the 600km cycle around the 5 counties of Connaught which was starting in Ballina, the big show we had our eyes on was the weather forecast.
Strong winds and heavy rain were forecast for the days ahead and unlike Joe’s visit, it showed up right on queue. Not that it dampened enthusiasm for the 6am start outside Ballina’s Muredach Cathedral. We received our Brevet Cards from chief organiser and Dotwatcher Seamus with the control points we’d have to pass through on our route around the province.
The route went north first towards Sligo as we made our way clockwise from town to town. We’d also been told to consider scheduling a rest stop between Louisburgh and Newport as there wouldn’t be a shop open after that through the night. The first food stop (and let’s be fair, there’s a bit of fuelling involved in cycling 600km) was at Ballisodare. To say the unfortunate staff member behind the deli was overwhelmed by 33 ravenous cyclists arriving in a hurry would be an understatement.
Jumbo breakfast rolls were turned into empty wrappers pronto and the scramble to keep moving started. My riding companion John, whom I’d met for the first time in the BnB the night before, suggested it was good everyone else was putting on their jackets as it would keep the rain away. The debate about when to don ours didn’t last very long though. Pretty soon we were being pelted by the first of about 6 or 7 hailstone showers we were to suffer over the course of the two days.
Roscommon town was reached after 206km and was the scene of more super eating in Supermacs. They should have loyalty cards for Audax riders. Between Roscommon and Tuam we got hit square in the face by hailstones so bad the small bell on my handlebars was being rung. If I was at home I wouldn’t go out for the post, let alone cycle in it, but on we went in ones, twos and threes. Riders falling off faster paced riders before pairing up with others to share the hardship and misery. Mrs Doyle would have loved it. Thankfully by Tuam the rain eased as the climbing increased on our trek westward towards Cong. We passed the statue to the stars of the Quiet Man, I didn’t stop for a selfie.
I also didn’t get to see Lennaun or its lovely lakes as I headed north but the sound of the waves crashing against a shore I couldn’t see, was eerie. Having met Angelo earlier in the day and again at Maam Bridge, I was delighted with the company and the jellies he shared as we crested the latest climb. While I was on the lookout for my BnB outside Louisburgh for the few hours I’d be stopped, Anglio ploughed on for Newport where he’d be getting a few hours shuteye before we all tackled the second leg.
NO HOT WHISKEY
In fairness to my own host, and despite the 1am arrival, she couldn’t do enough for me. She even made sandwiches for the morning. I turned down the hot whiskey but if I’d known what the day had in store, I probably wouldn’t have. Showered, rested and with a full belly of the best Ban on Ti ham and cheese sandwiches, I headed off again at 6am for the remaining 275kms.
Seamus was waiting for everyone as we pasted through Westport including the lone Velomobile rider. Its like a horizontal bullet that you pedal lying down - slow on the uphill’s but a rocket on the downhills. On the rolling roads to Newport the distances between us and another rider Caroline, ebbed and flowed, but eventually as the roads continued to rise towards Bangor it was myself and Caroline who forged on into the increasing wind.
A mention of Ceide Fields to anyone who was on the cycle will evoke memories for a long time I’d say. Pictures from the WhatsApp group set up to keep a safe and watchful eye on us through the day, revealed tired eyes peeping out of weather-beaten faces. The wind and rain were trying to drive us, bikes and all, into the sea. Some hit this stretch without stopping. Others had slept in bivy bags, BnB’s, hostels and hotels. It didn’t matter. We were all worse for wear.
The wind eased but the rain didn’t as we headed south for Crossmolina. It was somewhere outside the village that my chain broke. I had heard ‘a’ noise from the bike but had been ignoring/wishing it would go away. When the noise did stop I really wished it hadn’t. I knelt down beside the bike and set about fixing the chain as the rain hopped off my back only to discover the quick link I’d brought with me for the job wouldn’t work. After 20 minutes of effort a camper pulled up beside me. The German driver asked was I ok? I replied I was if he had a new chain, thinking no chance. To my absolute surprise he said he had, and after parking and opening a perfectly packed boot he took out a box with not just a new chain but all the tools needed to fit the chain, as well as a ‘span new’ quick link to join my chain back again. Although it wasn’t the exact one needed it worked and I was off again within ten minutes of meeting my German saviour. A €4 part could have halted my 600km qualifying event at kilometre 512. I gave him the 20 euro I carried in case of emergencies and boy, was this one. He literally saved my Audax.
Caroline had waited in Crossmolina initially unaware of what had happened and after a cuppa we shivered our way back out into the rain as another rider, Billy, who’d had his own problems during the day, rolled in. On we climbed towards Kennagh and the second last checkpoint before heading north for home. We missed the crossroads marker, my fault, and had to retrace the few kilometres back but once done and as well as the rain, we now had another companion as we reached Castlebar. A tailwind.
HOMEWARD BOUND
We were on the home stretch and the gentle hand on the back that the tailwind provided helped to ease those last 35 kilometres, both physically and mentally. Reaching Ballina the stage riggers were hard at work getting everything in place for Friday night outside the Cathedral. As helicopters warmed their engines up in the carpark nearby, we had to go round the back to get to our cars from where we’d left them the morning before. Any longer and they might have been moved for us, ASAP.
37hrs and 49mins after I started my bike computer, I hit save on it. That was the longest leg of cycling I had to complete as part of qualifying for Paris-Brest-Paris and it was some relief to get it done. There is no doubt I will remember this one but having gotten through it, I thought I’d seen the worst the Mayo weather could throw at me. Until that is, I came back to Ballina on Saturday for the handier 400km Audax….’