Day 2 (continued)

Photo 11: Roadside lunch prepared by one of the teams.

Photo 12: Team visit to the Cliffs of Moher.

Photo 13: Rich pedalling hard towards the end of the day.

We came off the ferry and Paul went out first. There was driving wind and rain which made it hard work and doubly hard for the Chrome Domes with their strange looking bike. Jason was out next then Rich and the weather was beginning to brighten up so they had some fun rides. I was out next and I'd only been on the bike for a couple of minutes when I saw a group by the side of the road waving us in for an impromptu lunch stop. The lunch was laid on by one of the teams and they had plenty of bread, different cheeses, ham and wine.

We took a quick team break and then headed off again. The stop had taken us out of the main pack of cyclists and the road was surprisingly quiet. The van passed me twice and then it went completely quiet - no cyclists, no vans and when I came to the T junction in the town no signs either! I assumed I'd taken a wrong turn and stopped in the town and rang Jason's cellphone. They weren't sure where I was so assuming I'd missed a sign we got Paul out onto the road as the next cyclist. I got Jason to switch on Latitude on his phone so we could see each others GPS location and I then headed down the road to find them. The heavens opened again so I stopped a little way out of town and gave them another call to check where they were. I couldn't get through to Jason but a couple of minutes later Paul passed me on the road so we realised they were behind me and they soon drove and caught me up.

The skies were beginning to clear now and the sun was out as we passed the half way mark of the challenge. We were all having some great rides and enjoying the change in the weather although the cross-wind was still quite strong in places. As we came towards the end of Jason's ride we saw the signposts for the Cliffs of Moher so we decided to have a team break and take a look. The Cliffs were spectacular and we had a good walk along the top and then headed back to the van and Rich set off for the next leg. After Rich finished we had one last round of rides each and some more spectacular coastal roads. On my last ride I came round one corner to find a bull in the middle of the road and I wasn't sure if he was going to let me past! Rich did the last push into Galway and we then parked up at the hotel and headed into town to find some food.