Jim's Insane Irish Adventure

Jim’s Race review:
A crash over a barbed wire fence in the early hours of Thursday morning, on the descent from Molls Gap, caused damage to my knee. Having cycled on in severe pain for 250 miles, we calculated that our speed wouldn’t have allowed us to reach the finish in the required time and so we’ve declared did not finish (DNF) due to injury.

The team all feel very proud of our achievement (1050 miles in four days is no minor thing!) and a wee glass of red wine, followed by a few weeks rest, will see the knee back to normal.

10 minute rub, coffee and a bowl of porridge before attacking the next 50 miles to Cork. Jim would like to thank everyone for their support and is feeling strong for a timely finish.

No photo this time; the whole crew out for the count. Back on the road in 3 hours for the big push home. Lights out boys.

Got through Kerry and now into Cork; the most southern county of the tour. The (blurry) tunnel in the picture here is at the top of an 8 mile climb, we’re downhill now, then about face and North to the finish!

New strategy seems to be working so far; going for shorter, fast bursts with regular rest. Jim’s Spinning along nicely, slightly above our target speed, and really feeling the benefits of the quick, regular rests. Expecting our average pace to pick up nicely in the next few stages.

No blogging for 24hrs due to some issues with progress. Jim hit the wall a little further on than expected, but hit it hard! A good long rest and some tweaks to the diet have him up and running at full steam ahead; tearing through Kerry’s mountains like a machine. If I ever find a charge for the laptop, you’ll get some videos!

(Don’t forget! You can follow the race in realtime using the blackbox service available at the racearoundireland.com homepage.)

While in the van, took some pics yesterday. No Internet to upload them (sob) so here’s a retrospective.

Over half of Irelands been ridden by your man,
For charity; and to prove that he can,
He’s a way to go there,
So click-in and sponsor,
We’ll beat the pro’s for as far as we can!

(coming into Limerick, Jim still hotly contending for a podium place, looking sharp!)

Just passed the half way mark. The winds have dropped, the sun came out this morning and a good sleep just before dawn have combined to get Jim flying. Got his overall average speed up before bed and is coming up even more this morning. Looking good, feeling good and spinning on to Limerick.

Long shift in lead car over, now off duty in second line gofer van, dropping back to camper tonight for a sleep!