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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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