Ted and Alice's Tour of Waterford

Tour of Waterford 

From our special all Ireland corespondent (Ted) 

On August 23rd our club was represented at this event by Ted and Alice who travelled across the Irish Sea specially to take part. This event has 3 distances; 50,100 and 150km options available. We opted for the middle ground. 

The forecast was for rain in the afternoon so we were keen to get going, at the start was to be the legendary Sean Kelly himself so we were a bit disappointed that he was late and we were all held for 10 minutes, apparently he had been out with the longer ride group and struggled to get a lift back to give us the big GO.

Once underway we had a great ride out through the town of Dungarvon on closed roads. Over the 3 distances there were 5000 riders plus 1500 on Saturday for he 12k fun ride. The whole of this pretty little town was overwhelmed by cyclists.

Somewhere between 10 and 20 k the rain arrived so obviously no one had told the weather gods the time they were supposed to arrive. That was it then for the rest of the day. Rain on and off, mostly on, high winds and a great course. The hilly sections were not too hard and the training we had done up in the North Cotswolds paid off. 

There was a lunch stop but the queue was epic so rather than get cold we skipped it. Not before, however, Alice hit Sean Kelly with her helmet which she had in her hand and said " we were waiting for you". The man who had won the Giro 3 times apologised profusely and I made a sharp exit before the police we're called to deal with the mad Englishwoman who had assaulted an Irish sporting hero.

The run home included some terrible weather, a couple of hills and a great finish. This was a fantastically well organised event with a friendly atmosphere and some great scenery. Hopefully I will have some Strava segments that George won't already have.

Oh and Alice stayed on all the way round!