CHARITY CYCLE: DUBLIN TO GALWAY - A FLAT IN THE CITY
Today was a toughie - cycling 36km on B roads, cars whizzing by at 100kmph, rain, a burn, and our first puncture!
We were barely out of Athlone, taking a short cut through a country lane, when Dom yelled "Uh oh!". The tiniest shard of sharp gravel had cut through his fancy tire. I am not one for I-told-you-so's but I have been singing the praises of gator skin tires for a long time now. I had them put on my own bike 6 years ago before cycling 100 miles around Lake Tahoe for a Lymphoma charity. Simply because I have no skills, interest or time to entertain punctures. Before this trip I took Roisin's bike to our local shop and had the gators installed. I had advised Dom to follow suit, but he doesn't believe in 'gimmicks', hhmm.
Roisin and I watched Dom's frustration grow as he F'd and Jeff'd at his bike, pulling out a ripped tube, searching for allen keys and tire levers. He decided we were to persevere and he would follow once he had figured things out.
We became a two woman unit, Ro had to take the lead so I could follow closely at her back wheel protecting her from traffic. Although we did share the road with cars and the speed limit was 3 digits in places, Dom and I had scouted out Athlone to Galway a few weeks ago on our bikes to make sure the roads were safe for Roisin. They are.
We use B roads, the number of cars is minimal, there is also a nice wide hard shoulder that doubles as a big wide cycle lane. With me in front and Dom at the back Roisin is essentially cycling in a cage (which is also how I intend to raise her in her teenage years).
That said, Ro is not a timid individual, she cycles with confidence (deserved or otherwise) so it's not for every 11 year old out there.
With Dom out of action, I was the lone protector and could feel my muscle taut with the intensity of it all. However, it wasn't long before we were in a rhythm and I was back singing us along. Thank God, after about 10km we heard a "Hello" from behind, Dom had fixed his puncture and was back in the Foley formation.
To add to the drama it started to rain, thankfully it was light drizzle that acted more like a nice spritzing. Feeling refreshed the sun came out and we stopped for ice cream. We were lucky we spotted an ice cream place as there is a lot of blank spaces in rural Ireland. When we did fly by the odd house there was usually a homeowner in their garden cutting something or other, every single one of them called out a greeting, we felt immensely popular.
I am into the felicitations, I'm throwing out "Good Morning's" to farmers like there's no tomorrow. I also have nailed the cycling hand signals, as the self appointed leader of our little group I am single-handedly steering us left, right, slowing-down and my favourite, a sudden military fist in the air, which I believe means stop (they do it in movies, which is good enough for me). I am basically voguing my way across the countryside.
We made it to Ballinasloe, ditched the bikes and headed out for some fun. We ended up in Wildlands Activity Centre for some zip-lining and escape rooms. The escape rooms were a series of challenges based on Irish myths that I thought we would ace, but they were really quite difficult. I had to sit out the zip-lining as I have a defibrillator implanted in my chest (I can't be near clipping magnets). Dom and Roisin had a ball flying high without me, alas, on one scramble across the high tops Roisin slid through some ropes and ended up with rope burn on her hand - ouch!
We took a walk through Ballinasloe town and it shot to top of my favourite Irish towns. We had a surprisingly fantastic Italian meal in Venezia restaurant. Then found a shop that sells milking equipment, religious statues, school bags, TVs, and more, it was just too much, I loved it. Dom fell in love with an closed down abandoned bar called 'The Usual'. We didn't even get to check out the other 3 streets. Gotta leave something to come back for!
Tomorrow we are on our second last cycling day - Ballinasloe to Athenry.
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