Notes 24/04/2022

Lakeside Wheelers attend Donegal Bay Cycling Club Sportive on 23/04/2022.

Seven Lakeside Wheelers travelled to Donegal to take part in 2022 version of the Donegal Bay Cycling Club Sportive. Six of the lads took on the longer 140 kms route while yours truly tackled the slightly less arduous 100 kms. To the Westmeath men the distances themselves were not the issue but the climbing was spectacular through the glorious hills of west Donegal. The weather was gorgeous. The ride out from Donegal town through Carrick , in the west of the county, via the coast roads with fabulous views over Donegal Bay was achieved at good pace with a following wind. The fun started when we turned north east straight into the strong wind to tackle the long 8 kilometre drag uphill to Glengesh. From there we descended into Adara where we turned south east to head over the highlands back towards Donegal Town. There was a sting in the tail for those of us on the 140 kms route with a loop around Tullynagnan mountain before the finish in Donegal Town. This was an excellently run sportive and we all offer many thanks to Donegal Bay Cycling Club for this.

A Group Notes

Cycling like most sports can be heavily influenced or affected by weather conditions. Really poor weather conditions two weekends ago meant that only six hardy cyclists turned up for the weekends club spin. Last Sunday conditions were much improved with bright sunny albeit windy conditions prevailing. No surprise therefore to see big numbers of Lakeside Wheelers meet in plenty of time for the 9 o’clock rollout. With Club man Ian Lambden designing this week's route – a nod to the famous Paris - Roubaix Spring classic. Ian’s route might also be described as a bit of a classic as it had many of us going down side roads especially on the Meath portion that we never cycle on before. There was a nice mix of road types thrown in and I recognised cycling on a portion of the Mullingar half marathon route before heading into Killucan, Ballivor and into Kinnegad to have a break at the Plaza. There we met bikers of all types. There were cyclists from Team 905 in Edenderry and a bunch from the Esker club based in Kilbeggan. And a large group of motorcyclists including the impressive looking three wheeled machines were pulling out as we were pulling in. I offered to swap ‘bikes’ with one of these lads but he wasn’t having it! 30 km to go at this point with the wind on our back and we are covering ground nicely into Milltownpass. A few more side roads that we ducked and dived down before eventually popping back out on the N52 just below Belvedere. But the wind dear reader, the wind at this point was directly into our faces and it was the hardest 5K effort of the whole day to get back into Mullingar. 93 Km done with a 31 Kph average.