Epic Night Ride 1

Description By Jack McGeown

"I'm not sure this is such a great idea."

It was only when I heard these words that I began to have doubts myself. It wasn't the words themselves that disturbed me but the fact that they had just come out of Kevin's mouth. When a man with such a resume of lunatic adventures expresses doubt then you know you are into something truly dangerous.

The ride from Ballinastoe to Powerscourt via the Wicklow Way is an epic by day, by night its a proper adventure. The conditions were typical, violent cross winds pushing the bike off the narrow sleepers, low cloud sweeping over the land and long drops into the bog awaiting a lapse in concentration. The darkness added no little challenge, the high beams lit up the mist as it tore by reducing visibility even more and there appeared to be a chasm on either side of the trail where the light didn't fall. The infinte darkness swallowed up the normally intense Ayup beams, only the eyes of sheep and deer glowing green in the moorland gave any indication that there was anything out there in the void. At the high point of the trail we gathered to savour the view over Arklow and Bray, the mist blowing erratically and catching our beams, momentarily lighting up the whole sky.

In the lee of the mountain we had the first of the night's mechanicals, Dave snapping a chain on the Wicklow Way traverse. As quickly as it was repaired Dave was off down the mountain. Despite being the only man left on "old school" halogen technology Dave descended at insane speeds, arriving at Powerscourt with enough time to turn and view the remaining four sets of lights careering down the mountainside, "like Orion's Belt coming toward you out of the sky." It turned out that Dave was just oblivious to the obstacles, while the rest of us could see the rocks and stumps in high definition, he was wondering what we were jumping over and dodging around, just plowing on regardless. A pinch flat repair later, we were into the woods, where Alan had the most bizarre of mechanicals. Its known as a "Burp", when your tubeless tire is peeled off rim momentarily allowing some air to escape. Another few strokes of the pump and we were off again, tearing into the night through the various singletracks of Powerscourt. 3 repairs already made, we thought we were home and dry, but there was to be a sting in the tail, Kev sustaining a triple puncture over about 300m of trail. This left only Damien repair free so we plowed on, fully expecting the Scott Genius to give up the ghost. When the roar of "MECHANICAL!" came from the darkness, we were to be proven wrong. Dave was losing his crank and the time had slipped away, leaving only retreat by the road as an option.

Category:

Sports

Tags:

• dstaffx
• mountain
• bike
• ireland
• wicklow way
• night
• mtb
• burp
• soggy bottom
• ballinastoe
• djouce
• sleepers
• ayup
• lights
• epic