Return leg, part one
Con over! Of course, ending up clinging on rather forlornly at the end, half toying with getting in a late-breaking game to offset my rather miserable performance on that front, mainly saying bye (and in some cases, hi first) to people as they drifted off.Rather overdid that, I guess. A certain amount of anxiety about the cycle back a factor, too. But eventually ran out of ways to procrastinate, and off down the road. Pretty steady progress for the first hour, neglecting breaks, that I don't really have any tally of; I think those only really started on the climb, though, aside from one minor nav error, and a "natural" break. The weather wasn't as bad as originally forecast, but I got pretty damp in an initial "shower" that I kept hoping would be brief; I didn't really want to stop that early to fiddle for raingear, and once I was somewhat moist, didn't want to "seal it in", either. Fortunately it eventually eased off, and there was even a bit of sunshine. In fact, at one point there was bright sunshine from the low sun, clear blue sky above me... and rain falling on me, evidently from a long way behind me, via a tailwind. Then The Hill. It was indeed a struggle, but not as bad as I'd feared. Very slow, though, maybe hovering either side of 10kph, with quite a few breather stops. Much rejoicing at the top. Top actually fairly flat -- could have fooled me when I was going the other way! -- but I certainly was still able to pick up a lot of speed, even though it didn't feel like natural freewheeling territory. Did plummet significantly a bit after that, though. Border to Ballyvourney in 15m! Slight anticlimax again, with some way to go at that point, and it took me a while to get back into having to work somewhat for forward velocity, especially when it got a little bumpy and twisty again after BV. Late on in the day as it was getting, I couldn't resist stopping to snap the little donkey in a field someplace around that area. A little alarming to look back at the road there, though. Very narrow, twisty, hilly, and with no shoulder whatsoever. The bliss of ignorance when one is looking forwards in the middle of this. Then my muddled thinking about the turn for Prince August came back to haunt me -- went right past the correct turn, looking in vain for the junction that was never there. Oops. Another reverse... Slightly anxious about the twisty route off the main road, which is also a fair bit uphill. Very glad to reach the VDK household, albeit embarrassingly late! Lovely home, of which I was given the grand tour by child #3. Dinner, which I'd just about sabotaged with my arrival time, a couple of drinks, couple of rounds of 6 Nimmt! Most pleasant.
48k, 20.3kph, max of 49.9.