Wheelers Lap the Lough!

 

 

 

The Pleasure Team were up bright and early on Saturday 21^st April when 9 members of the Island Wheelers met up at 7.30am to undertake their first 80 mile trip of the year with a cycle around Lough Neagh. Unfortunately Martin T who had driven all the way from Maghera to join us, became an enthusiastic non-starter when he got a phone call from work. Disappointed he had to pack up and leave, but as he said “duty calls”.

B.Mac arrived at the start about 10 minutes behind schedule, looking a bit flustered and somewhat dishevelled. The alarm  had wakened him at 6.30am, but he made the simple mistake of rolling over for ‘just 1 more minute’. Next thing he knew it was 7.20am – Panic! Not the ideal start for a big run, but still he was there, keen and raring to go.

At 7.45am we left the Mill and headed down through the low country, Ardboe, Ballyronan and on towards Toome. For most of this stretch of the journey we were accompanied by a constant drizzle. The rain however, in no way dampened the high spirits of the group, which at this stage was operating like a well oiled machine and the miles were flying by.

In Toome we stopped for a short break. Here much to the delight of the rest of the group the Master made a ‘faux pas’. Dismounting his bicycle he headed straight into the Ladies toilets. The whoops and calls of the rest of the group alerted him (and most of Toome) to his mistake and he hastily re-emerged looking more than a little embarrassed.

10 minutes later we were on the road again, passing through Randalstown and Antrim. We arrived in Crumlin exactly 3 hours after leaving the Mill and by now we had good appetites. We went into Bushes bakery/café, where we are now quite well known as it has been a regular ‘feeding stop’ for us on this route for over 12 years.

Well rested and well fed we began the next stage of our journey, which took us through Aghalee, Aghagallon and Lurgan. The breeze was in our faces so we had to work a little harder. The stronger riders worked selflessly for the team and everyone contributed where and when they could to ensure that we remained a tight unit.

When we reached Portadown we were all on empty, and so were only too glad to pull in for a 10 minute ‘sugar fix’. Even with the sugar fix we knew that we would have to dig deep for the final stretch as the journey was now really starting to bite. The first few miles out from Portadown were suffered in relative silence; however, as the miles started to count down the spirits started to rise again. By the time we reached Tamnamore the banter and slagging was back in full swing: with Alan G , Damien B and D.Mac cutting everyone down to size with their wit and humour.

By the time we reached our destination we all knew that we had been pushed to our limits, but we also knew that we had worked well together as a team and that this run would stand to us as we build towards a tough 100 mile run in a few weeks time.

Gerard Scott