14/07/2022 – PCR Day 5

Despite being in a room full of other riders heading off and leaving during the night, I actually slept pretty well.

Downstairs something wasn’t doing so well, I had a puncture on my back wheel. There was also some tread coming apart from the tyre which was slightly concerning but not the end of the world.

The tubeless wouldn’t seal it properly so decided to use the inner tube that I brought.

Thankfully I was in the hostel with people around to keep me entertained as I replaced it but this meant that I spent way too long doing it all.

As I pushed off to start the day round the loop my rear wheel started to rub against the brake calliper which was strange, somehow it had come out of alignment.

Closer inspection showed that a spoke had come loose and the wheel was out of true.

Back at the hostel, Rufus who was part of the amazing volunteer race team helped out with truing up the wheel, something that I’d never done before and was sure to have gotten wrong.

It wasn’t until 6:40 that I eventually left, well over an hour after I had planned to and the route around Dunmore Head was really something.

The views out over the ocean were stunning and I would highly recommend going to not only this part of Ireland but everywhere that the route has been thus far.

The 50km zipped along in no time and I was back at the Hostel at CP2.

I popped to Aldi and then back to the Hostel where in hindsight, I was stopped for an hour and a half so at least wasted an hour of riding. Perhaps it was the atmosphere of being at the checkpoint or just really tired from the last few days but by the time I set off again I was behind schedule.

Ahead of me lay an interesting day, one really big climb called Connor Pass, a big descent back down to sea level, a long flat section to a ferry crossing that only had certain number of crossings per day, then more flat riding around the coast.

When I say flat, it is all in comparison to the previous days, it is certainly not like riding on the Newport Flats back home but it is more like small lumpy riding but nothing too extreme.

I set off with another rider and we made our way up the climb.

On the way up we saw Taylor walking down the hill with her bike by her side heading to the bike shop that was going to be opening soon back in town.

She had a strange issue with her tyres and needed some proper kit to sort everything out.

The climb was good fun and the descent even more so.

It was a breath of fresh air to finally have some flat riding where with a tasty tailwind, I was able to crack up to a nice speed.

In the town of Tralee 100km into the day, I came upon what my gut had been pleading me for, a Domino’s. I desperately needed a top up in calories but to my dismay, it didn’t open for another hour or so. Yet again, hampered by Dominos opening times in Ireland.

I found some bike shops in Tralee to get a new inner tube, double check the truing of my back wheel and also get a spare tyre, just in case the rear one wouldn’t hold up.

They didn’t open for another hour so stopped somewhere for a burger and chips.

Having successfully bought the bike items that I needed and with another hour and a half used up (now 3 hours of stoppage over 100km plus the hour or so delay in the start), I headed off for the ferry.

I had plenty of time but had a particular ferry I wanted to get. The ferry was 87km away and I had read that they left every hour on the half hour so if I didn’t get the one that I could just about make, that would be another hour lost on an already disappointing day for efficiency.

Wanting to make the most of the flat days and up the mileage, I hit the road hard in the afternoon heat keeping a good enough speed to make the ferry in time.

Whilst going through some back lanes there was a funky 400m stretch of sand which was good fun to ride on but perhaps wasn’t the best for my drivetrain.

I caught up with another rider and started having a chat. He said that the ferries stopped allowing things onto the ferry 20 minutes before the leaving time.

This ate into any buffer that I had so started to push harder for the next hour or so.

I was eating the miles up but at a cost to my water supply and my energy but it would all be worth it if I saved an hour on the ferry.

I shot into town and out to the terminal and there was another rider there and thankfully the ferry was just coming into view.

As I waited in the shade on the ferry it started to hit me that the effort had really taken it out of me.

They didn’t have any snacks that I could have but I saw that not too long after the ferry landed, there was a big Tesco just outside of the next town.

A quick run around the minimal Vegan section and I was sat out the front of the store trying to regain some energy.

The next stretch was going out on a peninsular down some country lanes which was really pretty as the sun was setting.

I was starting to flag as the evening wore on and started to look for places to camp when suddenly 3 women came out running to me with their arms in the air.

Given how the day had gone I wasn’t sure if I was seeing things or not but suddenly started saying “Do you want some cake and a drink?” so pulled over straight away as this was exactly what I needed.

As I got closer they shouted “It’s you, from the boat!”

It turns out that on the ferry over, they had gotten chatting to one of the riders and found out that the ride went straight past the Airbnb that they had rented for the week! Whilst queuing up for a drink on the ferry they were behind me and started asking questions about how I was feeling the race so had actually met them before.

They climbed back in through the window and conscious of how I might smell, I perched myself on the windowsill and tucked into the Fig Rolls, filled up my water and got chatting to them.

The three of them were a really good laugh and it turns out that 2 of them grew up in Reading and went to the girls school just a few miles down the road from my school. It was such a mental boost and whilst I couldn’t have any of their homemade cakes that they’d given to other riders, the Fig Rolls were more than enough to sustain me for a little longer.

After a while I decided that I should probably head out and whilst I was tempted to ask to camp in the garden of the Airbnb, I wasn’t sure about whether this was in the rules so thought that I would make the most of the boosted mood and get some more miles under my bib shorts.

The route went out to a point and then back east. The turn was at a point where I could see that a lighthouse was at the end of this lane.

It was probably 2km to it so a 4km detour but in the grand scheme of 2,600km, it wasn’t (hopefully) make or break my race.

Sadly I couldn’t get right up to the lighthouse but it was still a nice view.

As I rode back to the route my girlfriend rang so we had a nice chat as I made my way back east and the time ticked by.

I was really starting to flag though so was on the lookout for a place to sleep.

Eventually an opening to a field that had recently been cut with a hedge to block the view from the onlooking farmhouse appeared.

It would certainly be up there with the first night as one of the riskier places I’d camped so far but I really needed a rest.