M2M 2016 - Day 4 - Brendan's Blog, Donie's Diary

Body

To the Hills of Donegal...

Brendan’s Blog

 

In the Villa Rose Hotel Ballybofey, the nicest accommodation to date. Wedding and band in full swing downstairs heard from the room and enjoying it. Luckily Liam has a box of earplugs they will be going in soon. This place will rock ‘til late and good luck to them.


Just played Johnny Cash "I Walked the Line".


it reminds me of how our Team 3 has walked the line this week with regimental rules on group cycling. Switch here, spin it, close the gap, car up, pothole, my head will be full of it for days and weeks to come. Well it is great also to not always obey the rules and break out of the group with some free abandon. Barry O'Gorman and Kevin Foley are the main culprits, put my hand up too. Great sometimes living on the edge. Now we may not be invited back but apologies in advance.
Fab trip today thanks to Kevin Power for his welcome in his bar in Sligo. Around the stunning sight of Benbulben and onward to Bundoran. Never been there before what a busy resort in the glistening sun.  Then over some other Gap and into Ballybofey eventually.


And now they’re playing "don't stop believing" but we won't go there now........
The world of these cyclists is a challenging place, cat’s eyes, potholes, ramps, ditches and drivers. For sure cyclists are not drivers’ best friends some crazy experiences this week. That said so many hooting and cheering in support.

As for ditches poor Kevin cartwheeled into one this evening. It came at a time when bodies were tiring and some light humour was needed. It is not a funny matter and all those in hysterics including you Joan have since been identified and spoken with.

And Barry our tear away had just broken his chain for the second time today. Taken off in a van to Donegal in the hope of repair with no success Barry taken disgruntled 30km to the hotel. Barry decides on our arrival to take a loan of a bike cycle back on his own 30km to the point where his bike broke, turn around and complete the journey (in the dark and alone). Make of that what you wish, the benefit of him cycling ahead of the group all week I am sure was good practice and will have stood to him. I am sure there are other types of vans that he could or should be taken off in.

Many other stops were needed some having to continuously apply their cream.

So Thank God a final 97km tomorrow and we will be allowed sign the form and be free again. Bring it on.

No time for ear plugs, this music is great. Good night!!!!

Brendan

 

Donie’s Diary

Morning, Everyone slept well last night after the mammoth efforts yesterday.....well, all but one,....Kevin came into the dining room and threw the unused earplugs at Anthony, then he sat at a table on his own. The circle was now gone and he must have tried to shave off the remaining porridge judging by the blood stained tissues on his nose. He glared over at Mark.

Today we were heading to Ballybofey.157km, again the groups set out at intervals, with plans for coffee in my brother in laws pub in Sligo. We took a small detour down to Enniscrone to see the boing 727 that has been transported there as part of a camping site, now referred to as glamping. It was mad seeing this giant aeroplane standing in the middle of a field. We headed on through Easky and into Sligo; most of the gang were just leaving as we arrived, many thanks to my brother in law and former Crokes player Brendan Power for his hospitality and also for sponsoring the coffee stop. From here we all headed to Bundoran for lunch. Again we took a little detour via Mullachmore which looked spectacular in the beautiful sunshine. We met up with everyone for lunch and it was interesting to see how tired everybody was, normally the further you go the stronger you get but not this time. I can only assume that it's the exceptionally good weather that's responsible.

After lunch we had a 57km spin to Ballybofey where we're staying tonight before the final 110km to Malin head tomorrow. We had dinner together this evening and you can see the excitement building for the big finale tomorrow. We were joined by Professor Arnie Hill, from Breast Cancer Ireland, who is going to complete the final leg with us as a gesture for all the money that we've raised for breast cancer research to date. The lads will need to tone down the instructions on the road!!

There were a lot of incidents today, Mick Durkin is thinking of writing a book so I don't want to spoil too much. Just to say, the club chairman ended up in a bush, someone fed an energy bar to a donkey and nearly poisoned him, Louis got his sixth puncture, Niall Hayes got stranded in a country pub with no phone service or wifi, Niall Muldoon joined us for his first 150km cycle ever and best of all Barry o Gorman's bike broke badly with 19km to the finish and he had to take a lift in the van but when he got to Ballybofey he borrowed Liam o Carroll's bike, cycled back out to the place where it happened and then cycled all the way back again so that tomorrow evening he can say "I did it all”, and last but not least, Mark Cregg admitted that maybe, just maybe he does snore a little bit and as a compromise loaned Kevin his old light blue pyjamas with the little red bikes on them and told him he could sleep in the bath in the en-suite if he wanted....what a gent!!

Time for bed now, couple of snorts from Patrick, hope I’m not going to put him in the bath tomorrow!!

Donie

 

Days 1, 2 and 3

Previously on Donie's Diary and Brendan's Blog.... for more click here

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