Day 0 - The road to Ireland!

Photo 1: Chrome Domes Team on the road to catch the ferry.

Well we're finally off! Paul went to pick the van up this morning and was told it had a mechanical fault, so we had a slight delay as we swapped vehicles. Fortunately we were hiring from Abacus who had a team in the ride as well, so they gave us the mini-bus their owner was going to use and switched him to a camper van. It meant the mini-bus was already prepared with the seats out ready for Paul's home made bike rack, so we quickly put the bikes and equipment on board and headed down the M4 in the rain.

Looking ahead at the route for the next 3 days it looks like we should have a lot of fun. Day 1 we arrive on the ferry into Cork and head to Blarney Castle to kiss the Blarney Stone. We then head through lots of towns with names I can't pronounce before joining the Ring of Kerry after 73 miles. After another 30 miles we head over Coomakista Pass and day 1 finishes at Killarney after 163 miles. Day 2 we have to take a ferry across the River Shannon. The ferry runs just once an hour and has a capacity of 55 vehicles. If rider and van get separated the rider can be out on the bike for a while so timing is going to be vey important at this stage. With 70+ vehicles in our event plus the usual local traffic we're likely to be keeping the ferries full for a few hours!. Once across the river we cycle another 40 miles until we get to the Cliffs of Moher where we head for the coastal road. Day 2 finishes in Galway after just 141 miles so its a relatively short day and we're staying near the city centre that night so its a chance to explore the town. Day 3 is the long day at 190 miles and finishes at Russborough House in Dublin, which is considered to be one of the finest stately homes in Ireland. The evening in Dublin is at the Guiness Storehouse where we have a guided tour, dinner and hopefully a drink to celebrate .....

All in all should be a good three days cycling and there are a lot of familiar names on the team sheet again this year including the Chrome Domes and Rear View so hopefully a chance to meet some old friends again and also a chance to make some new ones. With that I'll sign off for this first blog post....we're now approaching the ferry terminal in Swansea and the sun is shining and we have blue skies! Fingers crossed for a smooth crossing tonight.