The Derry Air

After last week's double entendre, I think I've excelled myself here. (Modest eh?)

My wife's family are all from Derry, so you'll know which side of the divide they are on won't you? This weekend we went over to visit, and since her father has recently died, we plan to visit quite a lot in the next year or so. As I am the proud owner of three road bikes now, what better opportunity could there be to:

1. Get one of them out of an overcrowded shed
2. Get an opportunity to visit family and ride new routes at the same time (well almost, I know that's stretching it a bit, but you get the gist)

So Kona is now living in my brother in law's garage, just outside of Derry in a village called Culmore. He's being well looked after, cleaned, and kept warm. Of course there will be no maintenance programme, but he is nearly five years old so he can't expect more than a bit of Finish Line and Muc-off.

So yesterday I planned to ride the route of a local sportive called the Inishowen "100". It circumnavigates the Inishowen peninsular, including Ireland's most northerly point (Malin Head), which is confusingly in the south of Ireland (keep up), and is 100 miles long. There were two flaws in the plan. First, yesterday was 20th November, which means, despite riding in the south of Ireland, (for all of Inishowen is in the Republic) only 8 hours of daylight because it's as far north as Glasgow (almost). Second, yesterday was 20th November, which means, despite my best intentions (for I had a healthy meal on Thursday night) I'd had a manic week at work, and only arrived at my in-laws late on Friday night.

I consulted the twin oracles of weather (aka Skip and Bunny) who sent the combined perfect clothing advice, and set the alarm for 7AM. On the drive over from Belfast it had been pretty chilly, so despite the alleged daylight at 8AM next morning, fog had encased the village like something out of the Hammer House of horror. Worse was the ice. Given that much of the route would be on back roads, and the unlikelihood of much gritting going on, and the somewhat smooth nature of Kona's tyres, I was in for an interesting morning.

I set off into the fog, along the main road out of Culmore, dropping down to the wonderfully-named town of Muff, crossing the border as I did. I'd love to say that everything changed dramatically, but were it not for the road-signs being in Irish as well as English, and the speed signs being in KPH instead of MPH, you'd never notice you were now in the Eurozone. I'd managed to buy 18 Euros from someone at work, just in case I needed to buy a coffee or lunch etc. But given the state of the Irish finances perhaps I might be able to buy something bigger, like Donegal. There were a lot of houses for sale though. Later my brother in law told me you can get a four-bed detached in a nice part of Inishowen for 86K sterling. You'd probably have to pay 30% VAT and 80% Income tax before too long, but your house would be nice.

Actually, considering the beauty of the place, a nice part of Inishowen must be something special. As I climbed up over col (no idea what the Irish for col is, hang on I'll check, it's um....col) between Scalp and Eskaheen mountains the fog fell away and i was able to see miles and miles of ruggedly gorgeous moorland, with smaller hills poking out of the mist. The road was icey so I did my best to sit down as i climbed the hill, and took it easy on the descent, until I came to a busier road.

All I had for company until I got to Buncrana, were a few sheep, some wind turbines and the odd, as in occasional (no stereotypes in this post, too close to home) farmers. Not a car in sight, it reminded me a bit of the Col du Port, only colder, wetter and with no trees. So nothing like it, just very quiet and peaceful. Down in Buncrana it wasn't much livelier, but it was foggy again. The road rose and dipped for the next few miles as I headed north-west, each time it rose the mist fell away and each time it dipped I could barely see for fog. This was playing havoc with Charlie as he kept losing signal and his gradient readings had gone haywire.

Finally I started to approach the hill I'd really come for-The Mamore Gap. As i was pedalling I could see what I thought was the Gap in the distance. A bit steep but it didn't look too bad. Then I nearly missed the Inishowen signpost directing me to a turning, hit the brakes and although the back wheel wobbled, I came to a safe stop. The hill I thought was the Gap wasn't it. Instead I had a 0.75 mile straight 500 foot pull up a mountain. That works out at an average gradient of 12.6%. With ice on the road. Actually it was a piece of cake because Kona has a triple with a 30x27 as the lowest gear. You can go up the side of a house with that, even an icey house as long as you sit down. And the sheep don't get you.

Going down however was a different story. If I ever pass that way again it will be in the other direction. For while my climb had been straight, the descent was a similar gradient, but with added hairpins. On a north-facing road. I think it could be the first time I have actually cycled down a hill slower than I cycled up it.

Once down it was back to admire the view-time as the road wiggled about around an estuary through small villages as far as the small market town of Carndonagh. By now it was 11 o'clock and I have to say I was getting tired. I'd done about 35 miles, so although I was enjoying the peace and quiet of my own inner monologue, as well as the scenery, I knew it was only going to get harder. A challenge is one thing, but a suffer-fest was not on the agenda so I decided to cut across the peninsular to the coast and head back to Derry.

Even that decision was a good one, for the long slow climb up to the top of the the Carrowmore valley, around 500 feet in a 4-5 miles was also very picturesque. A bit busier, but all the cars gave me plenty of space, and I made good time. From there it was a two-mile drop down to the coast at Quigley's Point. I now realised why it had been hard this morning, I'd had a headwind. But now, with a tailwind, flat road, and the different but equally lovely Loch Foyle to look at, I raced down the main road back to Muff.

I'd already decided to do a loop around the City of Derry to make my distance up to 100K, so went to take the right turn in the centre of the village. By now the fog had gone and I was full of vim and vigour as I peeled off right. "Oh" I thought, "this is a surprise I'm falling off". On previous tumbles I'd seen it coming or knew exactly what caused it. I don't know if it was ice, wet road, smooth tyre, metal or white line, but I hit the deck. I still can't work out what happened but as I turned right, the bike just slid down from under me. I hit the ground hard, knee, hip and elbow. More importantly pedal and rear mech.

It must have looked good too because I stopped the now considerable traffic. They probably don't get too many idiot English falling over in Muff, and landing on their backsides, (get the title now?) and the man in the filling station offered me a chair. I was more concerned about Kona, who despite a scratched pedal and mech, was all in working order. Now adrenaline is a wonderful thing, because I was able to carry on cycling quite happily for another hour, loop round into Derry City (where i found all of Inishowen's cars and a lot more besides) and back to Culmore. a grand total of about 63 miles.

But this morning I felt like I'd been given going over by Audley Harrison. Not too bad really, I have a graze and bruise on my arm and elbow (although all three layers on my arm are completely unscathed- how is that possible?), my hip is bruised and my right lower back is very sore. The worst though is my right shoulder. The same shoulder I dislocated falling off my MTB on an icey night 5 years ago. I think the impact has mucked up all the upper arm and shoulder soft tissues. I know I have to keep moving it or it will stiffen up, but it's hard to raise my arm above my head or lift anything with that arm. Probably shouldn't ride a bike either.

Apart from that minor mishap it was a great day. There is an Inishowen 100 mile sportive in the summer, and if i can I'm going to enter. Fancy it? You'll need a compact or a triple, I managed nearly 4000 feet in my 100km, I know there's a lot more in the real thing. Charlie comes in two episodes today, but check out the new features on the maps, you can see satellite images of the terrain, and zoom in and out. Beautiful no? Ah well, enjoy the craic.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/57517084

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/57517067