Cork to Skibereen June 1 2016

The blue skies continued to day with not a bit of white anywhere.   So after a wonderful ham and cheese omelet at the Garnish Hotel in Cork we jumped on our bikes and headed off.  The day was slightly shorter than the previous days at only 77.8 kms and 850 meters of climbing.  The climbs of the day were broken into 2 larger climbs with a lot of smaller ups and downs. 

We were on the road by 8:45 and the morning traffic was coming in so the road wasn’t too bad for cars getting out of Cork.  We were also headed out to the SW and taking a lot of smaller back roads to avoid the main routes.   There wasn’t a lot of places to eat along the way so we went off course and rode in to Ballincollig and when in and got a sandwich to go. 

The first big hill was about 200 meters of climb over about 4 kms.  The first section was in the 14 -15% however is was relatively short but it was enough to knock Ken, Jos and Patrick off their bikes.  However I jumped up and ground up the hill.  There was a little false summit and then a second section of 2 kms with grades to 15%.   Needless to say I was able to hand out lots of guff to the others who thought they were going to take the King of the Mountain jersey away.  Terry your bike is a climber!

 

At the 50 km mark we found the Ballynacarrigan castle ruins.   It was an absolutely beautiful spot so we spotted to eat our sandwiches.  The castle was a 17^th century building.   The temperatures was 21 C  so it was just gorgeous.  You could not have picked a nicer spot.

The second big hill came up right almost right after lunch.  It was about 5 kms long and with a climb of about 200 meters. We crossed a road so we started up the hill from a dead stop.  The road was a little rough and really steep right away. They didn’t have a chance.

There was only 18 kms to get to Skibereen and an easy downhill roll.  So we stopped for a bottle of water at a store.  I was out of water and it was really hot.   Even so we beat Agnes and Sally to the hotel by 20 minutes. 

On another front the bikes we rented are from Cycle Bikes in Dublin but the broker who organizes rental bikes is BimBim Bikes.  They are kind of the Expedia of the bike world. They asked me to provide an article on our tour so I did.  Here is a link to the article. BimBim Bikes Article   Check it out.   I think it is pretty cool. 

Terry