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I knew I would bump into him again, so I just pushed on, cycling towards Achill
Island. Soon enough I stopped to sort out my gears. I couldn’t really change
them anymore because everything had gotten so dirty and seized up from
the rainy day before. I cleaned my drive chain and oiled pretty much everything
and tightened those gear cables a little. Yay! What a differences it all made!
Back on the bike, I saw George coming up behind me. We rode together for a
while, talking about when we last had dry feet and how our bikes were starting
to fall apart, his more than mine. His front mech had broken and he could
only ride in the big ring! What a champ! TrackLeaders wasn’t working on my
phone so George updated me on where people were. I knew a lot of people
would have overtaken me that morning. Stephen was one of them, so I
thought: Yay! I have a goal, I’ll try and see if I can catch Stephen today.
George was taking it easy, so I took off. The Achill island loop was ace! The
wind had died down, or maybe we even had tail wind.
The roads were quiet and the views were breathtaking!
At the start of the loop I met Adrian. He had just
finished it, and was very supportive in his words!
Thanks, Adrian.

On one of the lovely climbs I caught up with Stephen.
We took pictures of each other (see pic below) and
cycled along side each other. It felt like being on an
amazing cycling holiday- a reoccurring feeling.

Wee photo session on Achill island- Thanks Stephen!

As I was trying to pull away from him, a bunch of cycling
dudes shouted at me: “PAULAAA!? ARE YOU PAULA?” The guys were from
the Wild Atlantic Way Audax support crew. They had heard from Adrian (big
thanks!!!) I needed a tyre and gave me a spare one they had. They were really
nice and offered food, which I declined at first, but they didn’t take no for an
answer and so I gave in and had THEEEE BEST meal ever!!! The chicken pasta,
coleslaw and potato salad was unreal!!! Thank you so much for the food and
the tyre!!!:) The meal fuelled me through the rest of the day. As I pushed on
I saw a lot of Audax riders going the opposite way. I loved giving them a wee

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