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Dublin was rainy and grey when we arrived, and the race meeting point, Trinity
College, was easy to find. The
accommodation was great and I met more
riders while checking in to my room.
We wandered over to the race briefing,
where a few tricky sections of the course
were discussed, and we were given our
trackers and brevet cards.
Race ready!? In the photo: Paul, me,
Angie, Jesko & Jason. Thanks for taking
the photo Eamonn.
The 10am start allowed me to fuel up well for breakfast and get everything
ready in loads of time. Bernd Paul and I were the last ones to leave the
accommodation and managed to get
a little lost on our way to the start.
The route I chose to get from Dublin
to Derry was pretty horrible. It was
along a busy A road. I was glad that
we were allowed to draft for the first
bit of the trip, otherwise the A road
Aye, race ready!!! Photo credit: would have been quite dangerous at
Jesko von Werthern the start, with all of us cyclists cycling in close
proximity but spread out enough for drivers
having to overtake us one by one. Soon enough I felt we were all well spread
out on that road, going at our own paces. About 50km before Derry I met
Jack. We were riding side by side chatting, and BANG my back tyre burst!
The side wall was ripped and I was glad to have a wee tyre boot with me
(thanks, Jason, for giving me your spare one before the race!), but was
annoyed that I had left my spare tyre at home! I fixed it, but then realised
my Lezine pump unscrewed the bloody valve of my Continental inner tubes!!!
What the hell!? Thankfully, I also had some cheap inner tubes with me without
an unscrew-able valve.
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